Has search been re-written? Sphinx?

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • xlguy
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2002
    • 148

    Has search been re-written? Sphinx?

    Hi,

    Large forum owners are crying out for a decent search solution for vBulletin. At the moment we (like others) use a 3rd party supported Sphinx plugin. Looking at the vb5 beta, I wonder whether the search has been completely rewritten and/or whether the final version will come with Sphinx support?

    Thanks
    xlguy
  • Wayne Luke
    vBulletin Technical Support Lead
    • Aug 2000
    • 73981

    #2
    Search has been rewritten. We're looking at a Sphinx integration but it won't be available at release.
    Translations provided by Google.

    Wayne Luke
    The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
    vBulletin 5 API

    Comment

    • xlguy
      Senior Member
      • Jan 2002
      • 148

      #3
      Thanks for the prompt response Wayne.

      Was the re-write of the current search script aimed at addressing the speed/load of searching large numbers (millions) of posts?
      xlguy

      Comment

      • Sushubh
        Senior Member
        • Apr 2007
        • 194
        • 5.0.0

        #4
        Right. I currently rely mostly on a Google Custom Search. It is not elegant but it usually works in 95% of cases. Users of course prefer an integration option. More useful search would be very helpful.

        Comment

        • Wayne Luke
          vBulletin Technical Support Lead
          • Aug 2000
          • 73981

          #5
          Originally posted by xlguy
          Was the re-write of the current search script aimed at addressing the speed/load of searching large numbers (millions) of posts?
          Speed and Accuracy. I personally haven't tested it on a large volume site though.
          Translations provided by Google.

          Wayne Luke
          The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
          vBulletin 5 API

          Comment

          • warlord0
            Member
            • Apr 2012
            • 53
            • 4.1.x

            #6
            My members would kill me if Search was downgraded to as useless as it was before installing Sphinx!

            Life after Sphinx is just awesome. None of our competition have search facilities as good as ours. So it needs to be as good as or better... or allow me to use Sphinx still.

            Comment

            • Zachery
              Former vBulletin Support
              • Jul 2002
              • 59097

              #7
              Unfortunately, no matter how awesome we make our search, our hands are still pretty tied to what we have to work with. Sphinx is an amazing product that was designed to do one thing INSANELY well, and that is search. Its hard to compete with that when you've got to work with what you have (MySQL and php).

              The new searching systems in vB5 do seem considerably better than what vB4 had to offer as a whole.

              I'm sure regardless of our plans, someone will also come up with their own sphinx solution at some point.

              Comment

              • warlord0
                Member
                • Apr 2012
                • 53
                • 4.1.x

                #8
                Thanks for that. Not ideally what I wanted to hear, but at least I know I have to deal with it.

                Comment

                • janslu
                  Member
                  • May 2006
                  • 33

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Zachery
                  Unfortunately, no matter how awesome we make our search, our hands are still pretty tied to what we have to work with. Sphinx is an amazing product that was designed to do one thing INSANELY well, and that is search. Its hard to compete with that when you've got to work with what you have (MySQL and php).
                  Why treat it as a competition??? Sphinx is fairly easy to implement on a linux server and AFAIK it's advantages are unmatched by any mysql/php solution. Correct me if I'm wrong but it is the only affordable solution for a big board. It must be offered as an option for sites that cross a certain threshold.

                  Originally posted by Zachery
                  I'm sure regardless of our plans, someone will also come up with their own sphinx solution at some point.
                  That is a little scary. We might have a chicken and egg problem here. The fact is that the only solution available to large sites is a paid (but affordable!) extension from digitalpoint. If it wasn't for his work (done out of neccessity I think) I wouldn't have a working search on my site (8.5million posts) with a dedicated db server. But if digitalpoint decides that he skips the vb5 overall than I CANNOT upgrade and I think there's at least few of us in the same situation. Seems like you really count on his upgrade...

                  Comment

                  • Sushubh
                    Senior Member
                    • Apr 2007
                    • 194
                    • 5.0.0

                    #10
                    righto. a collaboration with the developers of that product? would probably be more helpful than partnership with ad services and mobile forum app developers. most users running a vB powered forum are probably smart enough to implement these third party solutions themselves.

                    Comment

                    • xlguy
                      Senior Member
                      • Jan 2002
                      • 148

                      #11
                      +1 to the above, although you have to remember that collaboration with ad services helps make some additional money for IB, whereas spending money on official Sphinx support costs money in terms of developer's time #cynical
                      xlguy

                      Comment

                      • Lizard King
                        Banned
                        • Mar 2004
                        • 1891
                        • 3.6.x

                        #12
                        Originally posted by janslu
                        That is a little scary. We might have a chicken and egg problem here. The fact is that the only solution available to large sites is a paid (but affordable!) extension from digitalpoint. If it wasn't for his work (done out of neccessity I think) I wouldn't have a working search on my site (8.5million posts) with a dedicated db server. But if digitalpoint decides that he skips the vb5 overall than I CANNOT upgrade and I think there's at least few of us in the same situation. Seems like you really count on his upgrade...
                        Just a FYI , Shawn already stated that he has no intension of upgrading his solution to vBulletin 5 and he seem to be another big board that will switch to a competitor soon.

                        Comment

                        • Sushubh
                          Senior Member
                          • Apr 2007
                          • 194
                          • 5.0.0

                          #13
                          frankly speaking it is not an open source project like firefox (google affiliated search box) or ubuntu (the uproar over amazon affiliate links in unity lens search). collaborating on a project that improves a core feature of your own product comprehensively makes a whole lot sense to me. even reddit outsourced their search engine to IndexTank http://blog.reddit.com/2010/07/new-search.html

                          Comment

                          • Zachery
                            Former vBulletin Support
                            • Jul 2002
                            • 59097

                            #14
                            Originally posted by janslu
                            Why treat it as a competition??? Sphinx is fairly easy to implement on a linux server and AFAIK it's advantages are unmatched by any mysql/php solution. Correct me if I'm wrong but it is the only affordable solution for a big board. It must be offered as an option for sites that cross a certain threshold.
                            It is not our competition. But we must have a working search engine for the greater majority of our customers, before we have a sphinx search engine. The vast majority of our userbase are on shared hosting, sphinx is not even a remote possibility for these people. When I said our hands are tied I mean our hands are tied for the default out of the box solution that must meet or exceed the majority of our customers needs. Sphinx is not an option for the default search.

                            Sphinx however is something we're aware of how awesome it is, no one is debating that. Its on our radar, and that's all I can really say about it at this time.

                            Originally posted by Lizard King
                            Just a FYI , Shawn already stated that he has no intension of upgrading his solution to vBulletin 5 and he seem to be another big board that will switch to a competitor soon.
                            Despite the fact that Shawn is pretty awesome. That doesn't mean no one else will come up with a sphinx search. I'd suspect someone will.

                            Comment

                            • Wayne Luke
                              vBulletin Technical Support Lead
                              • Aug 2000
                              • 73981

                              #15
                              The Internet Brands Automotive Vertical relies on Sphinx Search for their vBulletin sites. We'll see what their developers come up with and see if they can release it. They are the ones that did the Sphinx search for 4.X.
                              Translations provided by Google.

                              Wayne Luke
                              The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
                              vBulletin 5 API

                              Comment

                              widgetinstance 262 (Related Topics) skipped due to lack of content & hide_module_if_empty option.
                              Working...