This is just to let everyone know that I'm currently in the process of implementing free text search in fields. The goal is not to create "advanced search"-style forms but rather to provide something similar to the free text search interface at NCSU Libraries. People used to more conventional search tools should like this, as well as people who know precisely what they're looking for when starting the search.

The three main components that will support this feature are: 1) the indexer, 2) the query builder, 3) the user interface.

1) The indexer should be pretty much independent from the Faceted Search package, and other modules could use its indexes. It will use the same database tables as the Drupal core search. The indexer will provide a small API for modules to specify fields to index.

2) The query builder will be an improved version of Faceted Search's current query builder. Actually, the area that needs the most work is not the query builder itself, but the code that's using the query builder in Faceted Search. While playing with this, I also hope to get rid of an annoying temporary table!

3) Faceted Search's UI will be updated to integrate the new feature. Fields should be selectable for free text search on a per-environment basis.

Comments

David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented

At this point, the reworking of the query builder should be pretty much finished (in the dev version). I have a prototype indexer for Biblio Fields (not published yet, and note that adding CCK fields will be easy). Now most of the remaining work is in the areas of letting Faceted Search know about the indexed fields, and providing adequate UI and URL parsing for selecting fields for keyword search.

borgo’s picture

borgo commented

It will be a major addition to Drupal search capabilities. Looking forward.

john bickar’s picture

john bickar commented

Is this functionality in the 5.x-1.0-beta3 version? Also, is the Biblio fields search implemented in the same version?

Thanks!

David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented

Field search is not part of beta3. It will be added to an upcoming version, and will require additional modules as well. I will post more info here when it's done!

David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented

A nice step forward has been made with the Field Indexer module. Work now continues in Faceted Search itself.

john bickar’s picture

john bickar commented

Great! Thanks for the update - looking forward to it!

David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented
Title: Field search » Field search: Call for testing
Category: feature » task

Support has now been added to the 5.x-0.x-dev version of Faceted Search (the downloadable package should get updated shortly).

To use this, one needs the Field Indexer module, and also the new Field Keyword Filter module that's now included in the Faceted Search package.

You are all more than welcome to test this new feature and report any bug! (please post them in separate threads)
There will be a new release of Faceted Search once it looks stable enough.

john bickar’s picture

john bickar commented

I installed Faceted Search beta3 yesterday and Field Indexer today on a dev site and its working on keywords. Was some of this functionality actually included in beta3?

I will download the latest dev and test out. This is a great improvement!

john bickar’s picture

john bickar commented

This is awesome. I've tested it and it's working as expected (with the following questions):

1) Is it necessary to re-index the site (admin/settings/search) before the search will show results from fields? I would assume so, but it never hurts to ask.

2) I have a content type (from the biblio module) that has a themable display. I have customized the display to not show a specific field (by commenting out that line in the themable function). When I un-comment that line and re-build the index, search finds nodes based on words in that field, regardless of whether I subsequently comment out that line or not. If I comment out the line again and re-index the site, I get no search results found. Is this expected behavior?

David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented

1) After enabling a field in the Field Indexer module, your nodes are automatically marked for re-indexing. So normally the only thing you need to do is to run cron.php. You may check the indexing status as usual in admin/settings/search.

2) Yes, this is the expected behavior. Unfortunately, commenting out some fields does not update the data that has already been indexed in the database, so this is why you have to manually re-index the site after changing the theme function.

Btw, I'll soon publish an add-on module for Field Indexer that will allow restricting keyword searches to Biblio fields.

Thanks for the feedback!

David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented
Version: 6.x-1.x-dev » 5.x-1.x-dev
David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented
Component: General » Field Search
David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Did more testing and bug fixing in the last week. The feature now appears stable enough for a release soon...

David Lesieur’s picture

David Lesieur commented
Title: Field search: Call for testing » Field search

Per-field keyword search is now part of Faceted Search 1.0 beta4.

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented
Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for two weeks with no activity.