Mysql 4 Search hack

MySQL 4 Search hack for Vbulletin 2.x.x - version 1.2 beta
Author: PineappleClock (pineappleclock@clockcrew.cc) aim: Janitor61
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Overview
The MySQL 4 search hack modifies the search functionality in Vbulletin to take advantage of the new SQL functions available in MySQL 4.

Synopsis
This hack allows MySQL to index the posts and threads in your BBS instead of requiring vbulletin to do it.
This hack, when installed, will change the BBS in the following ways:

• Vbulletin will not require the 'word' or 'searchindex' tables anymore - saving lots of space - instead it will use the 'post' table as an index.
• Vbulletin will not catalog, reference and index every word of every post upon insertion into the database - saving tons of processing.
• No need to regenerate the search index ever.
• The 'post' table will increase in size by about 35%
• Searches will be considerably faster, and posting will be somewhat faster.
• Search strings will be able to contain phrases, like "lets share a soda", which can include small words that would of been blocked in vbulletin 2.x searches.
• Advanced searches, containing included words, optional words, excluded words and exact phrases.

File Listing
install.txt -- the installation howto
simplesearch.txt -- a block of code that replaces a block of code in search.php
searchtemplate.txt -- a vbulletin template used for drawing the search form.

Requirements
MySQL 4.0.1 or newer - required
vbulletin 2.x.x - required (i've only tested it on 2.3.0 though)

How to check your MySQL version:
execute the following query:

SELECT @@global.version

Notes
The installation instructions assumes that you have access to database management software, like phpMyAdmin. If you can't edit your database directly, I can make a php script that will modify your database if there's enough demand.

The Vbulletin team aren't going to put in support for MySQL 4 until version 3.1 - so this hack should be obsolete by then.
If you'd like to see the modified search engine, go here:

http://www.clockcrew.cc/bbs/search.php

I was originally going to distribute the whole modified search.php file, but after reading the rules, im only distributing the modified part. Please let me know if you spot any bugs, etc. I've tested this, but there still are probably bugs i need to work out.

update [Apr 17]: added instructions on uninstalling

good luck!

[Erwin]

Good work making the highlight work.

[Boofo]

Thank you, sir. It was a blast figuring it out.

[gmarik]

It is the best hack ever.
I was looking for it for half a year.
I even started a thread here about this on vb.com

[Da`Nacho]

06-04-03 at 06:30 PM Boofo said this in Post #72
Thank you, sir. It was a blast figuring it out.

Care to provide instructions in this thread?

[traekwon]

Sorry i haven't been around lately, been trying to learn the whole .NET thing and clockcrew.cc is sort of a ghost town now :\

I believe that taking out the LIMITs on the search query would slow it down, but i haven't done any benchmarking.

here's what I did to fix the highlighting problem:

on line 626 (approx) of search.php you will find:

if ($search[querystring]!="") {
    $search[querystring]=urlencode($search[querystring]);
    $highlightwords="&highlight=$search[querystring]";
  } else {
    $highlightwords="";
  }

replace it with:

  if ($search[querystring]!="") {
    $search[querystring]=preg_replace("/ \-(.*) /"," ",$search[querystring]);
    $search[querystring]=preg_replace("/ \-(.*)$/","",$search[querystring]);
    $search[querystring]=str_replace("+","",$search[querystring]);
    $search[querystring]=str_replace('"',"",$search[querystring]);
    $search[querystring]=urlencode($search[querystring]);
    $highlightwords="&highlight=$search[querystring]";
  } else {
    $highlightwords="";
  }

i believe that would work, but the highlighting engine can't highlight phrases - I will get to work on fixing that, thats part of the underlying system not the search.php AFAIK


thanks for the kind words guys oh and gmarik, wheres the thread you started on vbulletin.com?

[Boofo]

That seems to work good except for any words that have a period after it (i.e. charm.)

[gmarik]

A good idea would be optimizing "session" and "adminlog", maybe auto prune after some time, lets say month?


Can anbybody tell me what to do in these lines? A full jibberish ...

6. click on 'fulltext' in the 'pagetext' row to create a fulltext index of 'pagetext' - this might take a very long while.
7. click on 'fulltext' in the 'title' row to create a fulltext index of 'title'
8. once the operation has completed, click on the 'operations' tab and optimize the table. - this might take a while.

[gmarik]

search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=714&sort by=lastpost&sortorder=descending

It shows this and a blank screen when I make a search. Windows

[ImportPassion]

what is the status on this? Eeveryone got it working ok?
I have a huge boad, almost at 1 million posts and would love to be able to do this hack, but kind of leary with the few problems ppl are having.

D

[mute]

working great here, we're almost to the 2 million post mark..