Guide to using Sphinx with PHP and MySQL

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 libsphinxclientpecl 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

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

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