[Xapian-discuss] Re: Practical example/explanation using an existing database

[Edwin Smulders]

Well thanks everyone for the help, the amount of reactions is really
great. I'll have to give everything a closer look, if I still have
problems I'll come back here :)

On 7/24/07, Edwin Smulders <edwin.smulders at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm reading up on the usage of Xapian to find out if we can use it for
> Wine's Application Database, and I'm having a bit of trouble seeing
> the general picture. I could use some practical information (through
> words or code) on how to search an existing (mysql) database.
>
> As far as I can tell it can be used with a mysql db, and I read that
> Xapian first makes an index (in it's own database/tables ?) and then
> searches through that index. Now a few questions come to mind and I
> couldn't find the answers in the documentation.
>
> Firstly, how exactly does the indexing work in regard to telling
> Xapian what to search through? Do we write an SQL query returning all
> the data we want indexed? or maybe do we tell it what tables/columns
> to index (ie. does it generate queries?)
> And how is the index updated, a regular rescan or an update whenever
> data in our system updates?
>
> The other question that came to mind is, once everything is indexed,
> how is the data returned on a search? This is best explained in an
> example:
> If a user would be entering a a search term and I (the programmer)
> want to search the database, can i specifically tell Xapian to search
> in for example the application names, or the descriptions, or both?
>
> I hope somebody can clarify this for me, right now it all looks quite
> difficult to implement.
>
>
> Edwin Smulders
>