Guide to using Sphinx with PHP and MySQL

Question

I\'m looking for a complete guide to using Sphinx with PHP and MySQL. I\'d like one that\'s a bit simpler and easygoing than the one provided on the site.

I\'m look

Answer 1

http://play.manticoresearch.com/ is a set of interactive courses that will walk you through different tasks people come across when using Sphinx/Manticore and how they can be solved.

Answer 2

Take a look at Search Engine Extensions at php.net: http://php.net/manual/en/refs.search.php.

Answer 3

I came across this post but didn't find an answer I wanted to see. So here is my Quick Start Guide:

1. Install Sphinx

On Mac with Homebrew:

brew install sphinx

On Amazon Linux (CentOS) with yum:

yum install sphinx

2. Create Sphinx config

Sphinx comes with config template. Look for sphinx.conf.dist in the configs directory:

On Mac installed with Homebrew:

/usr/local/Cellar/sphinx/<sphinx version>/etc

On Amazon Linux installed with yum:

/etc/sphinx

It is pretty straightforward but might contain too many settings for a newbie. In such case you can use this simple config:

source TestSource {
    type = mysql
    sql_host = <host>
    sql_user = <user>
    sql_pass = <password>
    sql_db = <db>

    sql_query_range = select min(id), max(id) from TestTable
    sql_range_step = 2048

    sql_query = select id, some_info from TestTable\
        where id >= $start and id <= $end
}

index TestIndex {
    source = TestSource
    path = /var/lib/sphinx/test-index
    min_word_len = 3
    min_infix_len = 3
}

searchd {
    log = /var/log/sphinx/searchd.log
    query_log = /var/log/sphinx/query.log
    pid_file = /var/run/searchd.pid

    max_matches = 200

    listen = localhost:9312
}

I added max_matches setting to this config because my first question after I got everything working was "Why do I always get only 20 search results?". With max_matches you can set the limit for search results number.

3. Create index using indexer

indexer --all

4. Run Sphinx daemon

sudo searchd -c /path/to/config/sphinx.conf

5. Install PHP Sphinx extension

On Mac with Homebrew:

brew install homebrew/php/php56-sphinx

On Amazon Linux with yum:

yum install libsphinxclient
pecl install sphinx

6. Query your index from PHP

$index = new SphinxClient();
$index->setServer("127.0.0.1", 9312);

$result = $index->query('some search term', 'TestIndex');

print_r($result);

In case of any errors you can get more information with the following method:

$index->getLastError();

7. Keep up to date index

To maintain an up to date index you can use two indices:

1. Main index, which is not updated often (once per week, month, etc)
2. And delta index, which updates often (every hour, 5 min, etc)

Every time delta index is re-indexed it is merged with the main index

Follow this link http://www.sphinxconsultant.com/sphinx-search-delta-indexing/ to read more about this approach.

Links I found useful:

• http://sphinxsearch.com/docs/current.html
• http://sphinxsearch.com/info/faq/
• http://atlchris.com/1996/working-with-sphinx-search-engine-on-a-lamp-linux-apache-mysql-and-php-stack-server/
• http://www.sphinxconsultant.com/sphinx-search-delta-indexing/
• https://github.com/schmittjoh/php-stubs/tree/master/res/php/sphinx

Answer 4

I'm not too sure about a good guide but here are my steps.

a) Download and install it's quite straightforward

b) Make your first index - you need a source a location the given config is very good remember you can use a primary source to config all the main areas and then other sources stem off from that. Each source should start with the primary key and I find it works best to do key_id AS id

c) Test you index using the search

d) Start your search demon for sphinx - searchd this is what php will connect to and how it gets your results.

e) Make a function to search all indexes pass in the index you want to search and it will return the ids in an array that have matched your search

f) Make a delta and updates.

Job done - the sphinx forum is very nice and should provide you if you need any help. Richard