Just a quick announcement that I’ve updated my search script for Boolean matching in MySQL. The latest version is available for download on the PHP (Hypertext PreProcessing)/MYSQL Search Engine script page.
The changes to this version include:
- Fixed: various minor bugs
- Fixed: multipage results not available with quoted strings
- Fixed: full-text query problem
- Fixed: some compatibility issues with different PHP/MySQL configurations.
- Added: sortable results
- Added: configurable field label names
- Added: sample results page
- Added: test mode for troubleshooting.
It’s not a massive update; but the script should be easier to use and more reliable.
Joe Dolson
; November 9, 2008 at 8:56 pm@robson – Hi! I’ve been out of town for the last few days, but I’ll take a look when I get a chance.
@olli – I appreciate your comments, but you’re addressing them to the wrong person. That’s the way the * operator was designed in MySQL: it operates as a terminal wildcard, not an initial wildcard. More about Boolean queries in MySQL.
Best,
Joe
olli
; November 9, 2008 at 1:17 pmHi,
nice Script, but “*enwood” returns no results (Kenwood)… 🙁
Robson
; November 5, 2008 at 12:30 pmSorry to bother you again, man, but I’m havin a little problem with the script and maybe you can help me.
On saturday, I made my company’s most recent project public. Its a search engine where people can find the whole content of the local phone book online.
The problem I’m having is that I’m not finding some things that I know that are in the DB. I dont know if it’s my mistake or it’s not a mistake at all.
The only modifications I made to your original script were: I made it OO to suit the rest of the project, I made every query start with a + when no operator is used and I put an * in every query. Its all on http://www.bqbuscas.com.br
I hope u can help me and sorry, again, to bother u.
Thanks in advance
Joe Dolson
; October 7, 2008 at 9:31 amThanks, Robson. The only way I know to use wildcards at the beginning of your query string is by using regular expressions — and (although I’m not 100% sure,) I don’t think you can combine regular expressions with the fulltext search expressions.
What you could do is add a regular expression mode option to the script such that a person can elect to do a search providing only the end of the word, and it would run the search using the separate select statement with a regular expression — but, sadly, the fulltext options simply don’t include a stemming selector. Maybe someday…
Robson
; October 6, 2008 at 9:04 pmThank you very much for the script, Joe. I’ve been using it since version 1.5 and I’m always glad to find out the great enhancements you always make to it.
I really need to use a wildcard both in the beginning and in the end of the query string. I’ve searched extensively to find out a way to accomplish it but I’m still clueless. Is there a way or a workaround I can implement in order to get to it?? Sorry to bother. And thank you very much again.
Joe Dolson
; August 11, 2008 at 2:26 pmThanks, Alen! Look forward to hearing from you after you’ve finished things up.
Alen
; August 11, 2008 at 10:27 amI just found your script googling out to find a nice php script to run on my website.
after trying your demo i got a GREAT impression about it! Bravo!
After putting it in production i will let you know!
cu!
Joe Dolson
; June 19, 2008 at 12:18 pmIn fact, it does support the “*” wildcard operator. It’s only available as a final wildcard, but you can enter “cur*” to perform a search for terms beginning with “cur.” (Curtain, curtail, current, etc.)
I think that this is documented in the script somewhere, although I’ll be honest that I don’t recall the details right now…
I appreciate the comment, however, and I’ll make a point of adding that to the documentation as soon as possible!
Susan
; June 19, 2008 at 8:52 amThanks for this lovely site and this utility. I wonder, is there a reason why it searches for whole words only? We have a small database but there are some technical terms which are difficult to spell. Is it possible for users to add an * or something if they want a truncated value?
Joe Dolson
; October 23, 2007 at 9:40 amCertainly worth noting. I can’t honestly say that PHP (Hypertext PreProcessing) 6 is at the front of my thoughts right now — given how long it takes for these things to move into production environments. However, since
pregfunctions are available now, I might as well make the switch!Thanks –
Mike Cherim
; October 23, 2007 at 8:25 amNice job Joe. I do want to note one thing: The
ereg()/eregi()functions will no longer be supported with PHP6 so you might want to replace that withpreg_match()in the next build.