Question

PHP MYSQL Full Text Search Not Working

Asked by: jimfrith

I'm trying to create a full text search with a join here is my query but it does not return any results

the idea is to search two fields in Table BB_Topics (Message, Title) and one field in BB_Messages (Message) for a search term In this case the search term is "This Text Exists".  For any record that finds a match I want to return Everything from the Record BB_Topics.  I would also like to sort by relevance.  Here is my Query that does not work.  does anyone know what I am doing wrong?


SELECT * FROM BB_Topics LEFT JOIN BB_Messages ON (BB_Topics.BB_Topic_Id = BB_Messages.BB_Topic_Id) WHERE MATCH (BB_Topics.Message, BB_Topics.Title) AGAINST ('This Text Exists') AND MATCH (BB_Messages.Message) AGAINST ('This Text Exists') AND BB_Topics.BB_Index_Id = '1'

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Asked On
2007-04-18 at 13:12:47ID22519791
Tags

mysql

,

search

,

php

,

text

,

full

Topics

PHP Scripting Language

,

MySQL Server

,

PHP and Databases

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: mherchlPosted on 2007-04-18 at 13:21:28ID: 18934871

SELECT *
FROM BB_Topics
LEFT JOIN BB_Messages ON (BB_Topics.BB_Topic_Id = BB_Messages.BB_Topic_Id) AND MATCH (BB_Messages.Message) AGAINST ('This Text Exists')
WHERE MATCH (BB_Topics.Message, BB_Topics.Title) AGAINST ('This Text Exists')  AND BB_Topics.BB_Index_Id = '1'

 

by: jimfrithPosted on 2007-04-18 at 14:05:36ID: 18935170

Ok now I'm trying this but I'm still getting unexpected results:

$query = "SELECT * FROM BB_Topics INNER JOIN BB_Messages ON (BB_Topics.BB_Topic_Id = BB_Messages.BB_Topic_Id) WHERE ((MATCH (BB_Topics.Message) AGAINST ('{$search}')) || (MATCH (BB_Topics.Title) AGAINST ('{$search}')) ||(MATCH (BB_Messages.Message) AGAINST ('{$search}'))) AND BB_Topics.BB_Index_Id = '{$index}'";

This query seams to only return records where a match exists in BB_Messages.Message, and is ignoring the other two fields.

 

by: rustycpPosted on 2007-04-18 at 17:10:00ID: 18936015

SELECT BB_Topics.Message, BB_Topics.Title, BB_Messages.Message
FROM BB_Topics
LEFT JOIN BB_Messages ON BB_Topics.BB_Topic_Id = BB_Messages.BB_Topic_Id
WHERE
BB_Topics.Message like '%This Text Exists%'
OR BB_Topics.Title like '%This Text Exists%'
OR BB_Messages.Message like '%This Text Exists%'


The relevance sort would have to be a PHP sort function, which might be an algorithm that is dependant on the weights you assigned to the various fields.  I would reccomend the usort function, for which you can provide a custom function:

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.usort.php

 

by: jimfrithPosted on 2007-04-18 at 19:56:35ID: 18936580

well that seams to work ok rustycp,

But when I search it looks for exact matches so if I search with the search term "This Text Exists"  I get any record where those three words appear together, but if I search "This Exists"  I do not get instances of "this text exists".

I was hoping there was a way to query for close matches as well as exact matches.  I thought Match() was used for that and I thought it would sort by relevance is that not correct?

 

by: rubenePosted on 2007-04-19 at 03:19:18ID: 18937799

You can use IN BOOLEAN MODE in your AGAINST clause to perform a boolean full-text search.
I.e. :

$query = "SELECT * FROM BB_Topics INNER JOIN BB_Messages ON (BB_Topics.BB_Topic_Id = BB_Messages.BB_Topic_Id) WHERE ((MATCH (BB_Topics.Message) AGAINST ('{$search}')) || (MATCH (BB_Topics.Title) AGAINST ('{$search}')) ||(MATCH (BB_Messages.Message) AGAINST ('{$search} IN BOOLEAN MODE'))) AND BB_Topics.BB_Index_Id = '{$index}'";

The default behaviour is that mysql will search for at least one of the terms in your AGAINST clause. You can use the + and - operators in front of individual terms to specify that they must or must not be present respectively.

To get the relevance you should specify the MATCH query once again in your select clause to return the relevance too. I.e.:

SELECT BB_Topics.*,MATCH(...) AGAINST (...) AS relevance FROM BB_Topics...

This doesn't cause the query to be slower by the way.

Ruben.

 

by: jimfrithPosted on 2007-04-20 at 10:52:17ID: 18948290

I'm still not sure that everything is working for me.

I am using the match query again and now I am doing the match in Boolean Mode as rubene suggested and I added the relevance  in the select clause.  and I don;t understand what its returning.

I have records where the BB_Topics_Title fields are "This is a new Thread" and the second is  "This is a New Tread From Jim"

If I search "this is a new thread" it returns the record with "This is a new Thread" in it and not the one with jim at the end.  also if i search "This is a New Tread From Jim" I still only return the record "This is a new Thread" I think both these search terms should return both of those records.

The other thing is If I search the word Comment it returns the same BB_Topic_Id 4 times.  the word comment only appears in two places.  once in a record in BB_Topics.Message and once in BB_Messages.Message.

I'm just not understanding how it's selecting what records to return because I am not getting the results I would expect.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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