Sphinx Search

[Deriel]

Just do reinforce something said early, I am really interested in a detailed and organized solution for Sphinx/vB 3.7. I could do some donation (not a very large sum - our currency here in Brazil isn't much strong: 1 US Dollar = 1,8 Brazilian Real)

[wtrk]

im using memcached with vbulletin, if i add sphinx will it take advantage of memcached configured with vbulletin or does it have to be separately configured to use memcache?

[mlx]

Originally Posted by wtrk

im using memcached with vbulletin, if i add sphinx will it take advantage of memcached configured with vbulletin or does it have to be separately configured to use memcache?

No offense but why should Sphinx use or support memcached? It's fast enough the way it is, isn't it?

AFAIK vBulletin only stores the datastore cache in memcached. I don't think that Sphinx needs any of that data, so there's nothing to take advantage of here.

I'm quite sure that all search results will be written to vBulletin's database no matter if memcached is enabled or not. So if you want to cache those results in memcached custom coding would be required at that point anyway - no matter if you use Sphinx or not.

[wtrk]

Originally Posted by mlx

No offense but why should Sphinx use or support memcached? It's fast enough the way it is, isn't it?

I wasnt sure if it was needed or not. I didnt think it was needed, but I just wanted to be sure. Thanks.

[Deriel]

Just to confirm one thing:

If I upgrade my 3.6.9 vB to 3.7.0 I will be able to use the info prom this thread to use Sphinx with it?

Really important question

[mlx]

Originally Posted by Deriel

Just to confirm one thing:

If I upgrade my 3.6.9 vB to 3.7.0 I will be able to use the info prom this thread to use Sphinx with it?

Really important question

Hasn't this been answered already?

Originally Posted by Kevlar

I am using it on vB 3.7 RC1 without problems.

I didn't have time to look at 3.7.0 gold yet, but I'm not aware of any apparent problems in any of the RCs.

However if it's that important ... nobody stops you from setting up a 3.7.0 test forum and give it a shot yourself ... or look at the search.php source which hasn't changed much anyway.

Just my 2 cents.

[kontrabass]

I guess I'll give it a test in the next few weeks and see if it works with 3.7. Only report so far that I found, is that it works "with some tweaks" with 3.7 RC1.

Is it me, or are other large board admins pretty concerned about the fact that their entire VBulletin managed web business is dependent on this hack (with instructions buried somewhere around page 26, and peppered throughout) for basic search functionality? And equally concerned that this thread seems to be losing its home and support. Heh. I've used VBulletin for the past 8 years, it's sad that such a ceiling is reached at about 7 mil posts, that the forum search 'breaks', leaving you with the two options of throwing thousands of dollars in hardware, or depending on 3rd party users to port Sphinx over as a hack bandage.

[amcd]

Originally Posted by kontrabass

I guess I'll give it a test in the next few weeks and see if it works with 3.7. Only report so far that I found, is that it works "with some tweaks" with 3.7 RC1.

Is it me, or are other large board admins pretty concerned about the fact that their entire VBulletin managed web business is dependent on this hack (with instructions buried somewhere around page 26, and peppered throughout) for basic search functionality? And equally concerned that this thread seems to be losing its home and support. Heh. I've used VBulletin for the past 8 years, it's sad that such a ceiling is reached at about 7 mil posts, that the forum search 'breaks', leaving you with the two options of throwing thousands of dollars in hardware, or depending on 3rd party users to port Sphinx over as a hack bandage.

Very true.

I am surprised no one has come forward and released a commercial solution. There are so many enterprises selling add-ons to VB, and some of the developers are really experts, but none have deemed this to be a feasible project.

[NickCat]

Originally Posted by kontrabass

I guess I'll give it a test in the next few weeks and see if it works with 3.7. Only report so far that I found, is that it works "with some tweaks" with 3.7 RC1.

Is it me, or are other large board admins pretty concerned about the fact that their entire VBulletin managed web business is dependent on this hack (with instructions buried somewhere around page 26, and peppered throughout) for basic search functionality? And equally concerned that this thread seems to be losing its home and support. Heh. I've used VBulletin for the past 8 years, it's sad that such a ceiling is reached at about 7 mil posts, that the forum search 'breaks', leaving you with the two options of throwing thousands of dollars in hardware, or depending on 3rd party users to port Sphinx over as a hack bandage.

Originally Posted by amcd

Very true.

I am surprised no one has come forward and released a commercial solution. There are so many enterprises selling add-ons to VB, and some of the developers are really experts, but none have deemed this to be a feasible project.

You guys have to remember... we aren't the majority, we are sadly the very small minority of their install base, and frankly we are their target audience any longer. We've already bought the software, we pay a measly $30 a year for upgrades, so that puts us in the category of don't fix it.

It is really sad though. We are pushing 21.2 millions posts, and without this hack the site would have eaten itself. As it was, people would have to wait an average of 15-60 seconds when someone would post a really nasty search. Towards the ends I had literally hundreds is disallowed common, but still very useful, words on the search just to limp by.

Being probably just 1%, or less, of their customer base puts us at a real disadvantage when it comes to solving issues like this.

It seems as though the development team over there is resistant to change these days. The smallest and silliest example I saw the other day was an argument on .com about the feasibility of adding a gtalk IM to user profiles. The still don't believe enough people use it to add it in. Maybe that's changed on 3.7.0, but I'm still on the 3.6 branch while I wait for the rest of our hacks we use to be ported.

I know this thread isn't for solicitation, but I know Teck's posts were removed as he was deemed to be "vending." I personally would be very interested in his packaged commercial solution if he actually develops it.

Sphinx saved my butt, and I'd like to ensure that I have the option for many years to come.

[Spinball]

I echo what you guys say. Sphinx saved our board without getting at least one more server - maybe two. Disappointing that integrating it isn't high on the vB team's priority list.