Full text search support

[ranhsd]

Hi, I wanted to know if parse-server support full text search. The full text search is available since MongoDB version 2.6 and it is possible to create text index (currently only one) which provides efficient search capabilities on text fields.

From the code it looks like that this capability has not been implemented ...

In case we need to add this capability i think we should perform the following tasks:

1. Write the server side code (probably modify the MongoDB storage adapter)
2. Update Parse rest api endpoints
3. Update all client SDK's (at least iOS/Android/Javascript)

Thanks.

[flovilmart]

Can you point out the documentation for full text search? If it requires a special operator?

[ranhsd]

Hi @flovilmart . Yes it actually required 2 things and there is also one limitation

1. Create text index on one or more columns (multiple column is the compound index)
2. Use the following command the run the search:

db.{collection_name}.find({$text: {$search: "{search string}"}}

Full text search is supported since v2.6 of Mongo and currently you can create only one text index per collection.

There is a great user guide + tutorial which explain what it is and to use it:

https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/full-text-search-in-mongodb--cms-24835

[flovilmart]

Ok that's something worth considering!

[ranhsd]

Yes it is! until now the solution was to create the full text search indexes in elastic search via mongoostatic.
The idea is to replicate all the text indexes column data into elastic search and when the client sending a search query the library execute the query in front of elastic instead of MongoDB. The big advantage of this approach is that elastic search engine is much more powerful than MongoDB native search capabilities and also you can create multiple full text search indexes with this approach. Unfortunately we cannot integrate this solution because parse-server not use Mongoose behind the scenes so we must use the native MongoDB capabilities

BTW! how much effort is to use Mongoose for executing the queries to the DB instead of the native MongoDB driver? (I am not talking about replacing the whole solution but maybe use it as optional dependency)

[hhanesand]

Looks like it has already implemented this at https://github.com/seriph/parse-server

@seriph Could you throw together a pull request? 😄

[seriph]

Sure, I put this together right around the time that this thread was started. Code works great but I consider it beta. Note that it requires changes to both the server and the API. I'll submit a pull soon.

Until then, if you have urgent need in your projects, feel free to use the npm packages I submitted. Just drop and replace with parse and parse -server.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/parse-server-text
https://www.npmjs.com/package/parse-text

I've only updated the node/js API so far. Would love to see someone update for the other platforms.

[flovilmart]

@seriph nice, we'll take care of the SDK's once the feature lands in parse-server (no need to rush those). @rogerhu and I will take care of the android and iOS SDK's.

[ranhsd]

We need also to update the docs about this new capability. Thanks a lot !

[SebC99]

Any news on this? It would be awesome! :)

[dplewis]

@flovilmart I can do a PR for this as Postgres also supports full text.

1. Should the tests go in ParseQuery.spec?
2. What would we call this query.fullTextSearch()?

[flovilmart]

1. YES! Amazing
2. Ok! That's fine for me

For the REST format, let's stick with something close to the mongo query format (as the GeoPoints do)

[dplewis]

Should I include all endpoints? Or do 1 at a time

{
  $text:
    {
      $search: <string>,
      $language: <string>,
      $caseSensitive: <boolean>,
      $diacriticSensitive: <boolean>
    }
}

[flovilmart]

The REST format ultimately should support all payloads, you can put validation on all at first, and write failing tests that are xit'ed this way we know this support is ongoing if you prefer spliting the work in multiple PR

[seriph]

How does postgres apply?

…

On Jun 2, 2017 6:20 PM, "Florent Vilmart" ***@***.***> wrote: The REST format ultimately should support all payloads, you can put validation on all at first, and write failing tests that are xit'ed this way we know this support is ongoing if you prefer spliting the work in multiple PR — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3747 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABUl40u1IR54geM0mn9h2Fv5syJNRwv5ks5sAKbkgaJpZM4NF72e> .

[dplewis]

Postgres is another NOSQL database Parse supports like Mongo.
We try to have as much functionality supported by both databases.

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/static/textsearch.html