Sphinx for business directory listing

[eluser]ravi kiran[/eluser]
I am building a business directory listing using CI.
I would want to have a powerful search function. Search function should be able to do the full text search and then should have the functions to filter like filter based on state, region, town or category etc . We might be having some tens of thousands of records. So i need a optimal solution. I read a little bit about sphinx can i go for it? Will it solve my purpose? any advices or suggestions or care that to be taken while working with sphinx or any other better tool.

[eluser]Mackstar[/eluser]
From what I have heard and seen sphinx should be just up your alley, I have heard craigslist use it to power their search. It connects well with PHP.

I don't know how seamlessly it plugs into CI, but it should be easy enough?? I will be trying it out on a future project, but I haven't got that far.

Cheers

Richard

[eluser]ravi kiran[/eluser]
Oh thanks for that bit of information, I'll try that and let u know how it works.
Anymore suggestions or any other better tool?

[eluser]Mackstar[/eluser]
Sphinx seems the best free tool out there, other alternatives can cost thousands...

Sphinx is becoming main stream and is actively being used across many programming communities in various languages. I wouldn't look elsewhere unless you find out that sphinx doesn't work for you.

[eluser]ravi kiran[/eluser]
Thanks for the information, did you ever try to work with it? if yes how easy is it to install and work?

[eluser]Mackstar[/eluser]
Hi I have installed it and tested it locally, it was fairly easy to install, but you do need to be little used to working in the command line to do so.

If you get stuck then knowledge of using linux is essential... , but I would try it and see how you get on.

Make sure that you create you data directory and make it writable.

Seems fairly straight forward, maybe much easier on windows, but I guess most of us here are using LAMP.

Cheers

Richard

[eluser]ravi kiran[/eluser]
Hi Richard,

I have installed it successfully on my system(LAMP). But can you please guide me how to use it using php. And what all i need to do to get optimum results.

Thanks
Ravi Kiran

[eluser]Mackstar[/eluser]
Hi Ravi,

Have you seen the sample php file?? They have provided a php example in the api directory of the install folder. You need to include the sphinxapi.php file and it has 2 test files (test.php and test2.php) which I think gives you a good idea of usage.

For more info I would look at the sphinx website for more details on indexing configuration etc..

You can also check out their forum

http://www.sphinxsearch.com/forum/

Cheers

Richard