Vanilla advanced search

steam

Hi,

I have started to seek information to extend the default vanilla search to get more search options (title, author, tags ...) like other open source forums.
I found two plugins:
https://vanillaforums.org/addon/find-plugin (I think is outdated and unfinished)
https://vanillaforums.org/addon/searchcategory-plugin (it works with errors vanilla 2.2)

I have found that plugin used here called "advanced search" is only available on vanilla cloud hosting ...

I know that this kind of search is limited by mysql but for little community it can be essential.
When the forum will grow SphinxSearch needed to integrate on it and change the host plan... (maybe vanilla cloud) Not all shared hosting let you install Sphinx.

I know that vanilla gains on other things but on basic advanced search wins any other open source forum.
I do not think that is so exclusive functionality to be hidden for vanilla cloud and I think the advanced search MySQL should be integrated into vanilla core.

But it's just my opinion, otherwise many thanks to vanilla team for what we have.

Well, I have to look as improve the way vanilla basic search ...

Sorry for my bad English.
Thanks.

phreak

Hi @steam,

True dat. I struggle with the same problem, even though i run a big community on a managed server and i tried everything to get Sphinx Installed... it didn't work. I also asked Vanilla developers ti help me in the process and they were not really able to figure this issue out. I would usually have to pay my host and a developer several hours to look into it without knowing the outcome AND a solution that helps only me and not many other Vanilla users that looking for solution as well.

Integrating Google Search is a ethical no go for me. And while that my community keeps me bugging because of the weak search. Hosted is due to my complicated setup and need of high access of the file structure not possible for me either.

I 'd rather invest into a better search plugin or enhancements by a developer here with others together than only create a solution for myself.

@Link: Will the "Advanced Search" ever be open sourced? If yes, are you able to give us a forecast? Thanx

steam

Reviewing the questions in vanilla community more people missing in vanilla advanced search ...

I think it has implemented all won.

hgtonight

Sphinx can be run on a relatively low powered VPS (~$5 a month) until your traffic puts it out of commission. I am working on using Sphinx remotely for the first time now, I will let you know how it works out.

steam

@hgtonight dijo:
Sphinx can be run on a relatively low powered VPS (~$5 a month) until your traffic puts it out of commission. I am working on using Sphinx remotely for the first time now, I will let you know how it works out.

Sphinx is good like advanced scalable search option but I don't understand why not make basic advanced mysql search on vanilla forum by default.

It's not so complicated to develop, will give good start for forum and good image for vanilla.

hgtonight

@steam said:

It's not so complicated to develop, will give good start for forum and good image for vanilla.

If a great search plugin was not complicated to develop across many platforms, it would already exist.

Also, AdvancedSearch runs Sphinx as its indexer if I recall correctly.

Search is hard. This is why a search company that got it "right" basically runs the internet.

steam

@hgtonight dijo:

@steam said:

It's not so complicated to develop, will give good start for forum and good image for vanilla.

If a great search plugin was not complicated to develop across many platforms, it would already exist.

Also, AdvancedSearch runs Sphinx as its indexer if I recall correctly.

Search is hard. This is why a search company that got it "right" basically runs the internet.

I'm not talking about the indexed searches like Lucene solr, Sphinx, Elasticsearch ...

I'm a Java programmer and did many forms with filters to search and pagination results by simple joining data base tables.

I meant it's easy to add the simple search by mysql ... advanced search by form on MySQL, what are using other open source forums.

hgtonight

@steam said:

I'm not talking about the indexed searches like Lucene solr, Sphinx, Elasticsearch ...

I'm a Java programmer and did many forms with filters to search and pagination results by simple joining data base tables.

I meant it's easy to add the simple search by mysql ... advanced search by form on MySQL, what are using other open source forums.

Feel free to implement any search form you would like. Many people do not like MySQL fulltext search on a quality basis. I assumed that is the direction you were taking this discussion.

I welcome any addons that enhance the Vanilla ecosystem.

steam

Feel free to implement any search form you would like. Many people do not like MySQL fulltext search on a quality basis. I assumed that is the direction you were taking this discussion.

I welcome any addons that enhance the Vanilla ecosystem.

Yes, I know that I can implement any search by me like a plugin.

I thought it would be good to have it implemented by default in vanilla core.

Thanks for responding @hgtonight. Cheers

mcu_hq

@steam Vanilla docs have a good tidbit as to why its hard to make a good out of the box solution. It basically comes down to the fact that MySQL sucks when using the %LIKE% operator and takes super long. Any optimizations put into your Vanilla database are ignored while MySQL does full table scans to match your text. If your forum is not going to grow too big, then you can probably implement the default search to use this operator along with some other conditions such as words in title. I read years ago someone doing this, but it doesn't look like they uploaded it to the add-ons directory.

steam

@mcu_hq dijo:
@steam Vanilla docs have a good tidbit as to why its hard to make a good out of the box solution. It basically comes down to the fact that MySQL sucks when using the %LIKE% operator and takes super long. Any optimizations put into your Vanilla database are ignored while MySQL does full table scans to match your text. If your forum is not going to grow too big, then you can probably implement the default search to use this operator along with some other conditions such as words in title. I read years ago someone doing this, but it doesn't look like they uploaded it to the add-ons directory.

I know that "%like%" is slow,
You can add search by category and article id (not slow if it index)
You can add search by exact Autor without "%like%"
You can add search by exact Tag without "%like%"
You can add date range
And maybe some other filter... joining data base tables

You cannot expect big performance but it may be the solution for small and medium community.
I understand what I can do.

Thanks all.

Linc

The default search is a sore point. As a company, we kinda gave up on MySQL search and went to Sphinx. You can add more filters to the default if you like, sure. For us, a feature that doesn't scale isn't a feature, so I wouldn't expect to see investment from the core team on this.

steam

@Linc dijo:
The default search is a sore point. As a company, we kinda gave up on MySQL search and went to Sphinx. You can add more filters to the default if you like, sure. For us, a feature that doesn't scale isn't a feature, so I wouldn't expect to see investment from the core team on this.

I gladly would rather search by Sphinx but I think it is impossible to implement on shared hosting that why on the start forum until it grow I have raised the MySQL solution.

But what you're telling is good future

Thanks for response.

whu606

@steam

There are VPS solutions as cheap or cheaper than shared hosting.

I moved to a VPS and it costs me less than hosted, and the site is miles faster.

I don't use Sphinx, but at least I could if I thought we needed to.