Hey guys
For quite some time now I've been longing to install a non MySQL search engine on the forum and I finally got it done!!
This forum's search feature is now powered by the ultra efficient Sphinx Search Engine
X 1,000!!
This Sphinx search engine runs as a separate deamon process and provides query results to the forum. A scheduled task retrieves the data from the database every hour and rebuilds the indexes. This engine is fulltext specialized and returns results often
a thousand times faster than MySQL.
In the past the forum has been powered by the built-in MySQL query feature, but now,
not only is the Sphinx about 1,000 times faster, ADDITIONALLY there is the following advantage that outweighs all:
When a user enters a search into the forum, MySQL begins opening and closing tables in the database while it searches and compiles results for you.
The problem with searching via MySQL is that whenever it is inside a table searching for content, if content inside that particular table suddenly changes midway through the search, it would return inaccurate or incorrect results. To prevent this from happening, MySQL "
locks down" each table it is inside of while it is being searched...
...This is bad for any and everyone viewing any page anywhere on this forum because you have to effectively
get in line or
wait for tables to become
available or
"unlocked" before your internet browser can even start receiving the data to load the page.
So! The GREAT news is that the Sphinx search engine is
out side of MySQL and does its own searching and indexing, so ZERO tables are
locked down So I hope you will notice not only a drastic speed increase while searching but also an overall speed increase on any page anywhere through out the MCI forum Regards,
BigMike