Package: libdbix-fulltextsearch-perl (0.73-9) [universe]

Indexing documents with MySQL as storage

DBIx::FullTextSearch is a flexible solution for indexing contents of documents. It uses the MySQL database to store the information about words and documents and provides Perl interface for indexing new documents, making changes and searching for matches. For DBIx::FullTextSearch, a document is nearly anything -- Perl scalar, file, Web document, database field.

The basic style of interface is shown above. What you need is a MySQL database and a DBI with DBD::mysql. Then you create a DBIx::FullTextSearch index -- a set of tables that maintain all necessary information. Once created it can be accessed many times, either for updating the index (adding documents) or searching.

DBIx::FullTextSearch uses one basic table to store parameters of the index. Second table is used to store the actual information about documents and words, and depending on the type of the index (specified during index creation) there may be more tables to store additional information (like conversion from external string names (eg. URL's) to internal numeric form). For a user, these internal thingies and internal behaviour of the index are not important. The important part is the API, the methods to index document and ask questions about words in documents. However, certain understanding of how it all works may be useful when you are deciding if this module is for you and what type of index will best suit your needs.