How to search on a single OR multiple columns with TSVECTOR and TSQUERY - postgresql

Question

I used some boilerplate code (below) that creates a normalized tsvector _search column of all columns I specify (in searchObjects) that I'd like full-text search on.
For the most part, this is fine. I'm using this in conjunction with Sequelize, so my query looks like:
const articles = await Article.findAndCountAll({
where: {
[Sequelize.Op.and]: Sequelize.fn(
'article._search ## plainto_tsquery',
'english',
Sequelize.literal(':query')
),
[Sequelize.Op.and]: { status: STATUS_TYPE_ACTIVE }
},
replacements: { query: q }
});
Search index setup:
const vectorName = '_search';
const searchObjects = {
articles: ['headline', 'cleaned_body', 'summary'],
brands: ['name', 'cleaned_about'],
products: ['name', 'cleaned_description']
};
module.exports = {
up: async queryInterface =>
await queryInterface.sequelize.transaction(t =>
Promise.all(
Object.keys(searchObjects).map(table =>
queryInterface.sequelize
.query(
`
ALTER TABLE ${table} ADD COLUMN ${vectorName} TSVECTOR;
`,
{ transaction: t }
)
.then(() =>
queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`
UPDATE ${table} SET ${vectorName} = to_tsvector('english', ${searchObjects[
table
].join(" || ' ' || ")});
`,
{ transaction: t }
)
)
.then(() =>
queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`
CREATE INDEX ${table}_search ON ${table} USING gin(${vectorName});
`,
{ transaction: t }
)
)
.then(() =>
queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`
CREATE TRIGGER ${table}_vector_update
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON ${table}
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE tsvector_update_trigger(${vectorName}, 'pg_catalog.english', ${searchObjects[
table
].join(', ')});
`,
{ transaction: t }
)
)
.error(console.log)
)
)
),
down: async queryInterface =>
await queryInterface.sequelize.transaction(t =>
Promise.all(
Object.keys(searchObjects).map(table =>
queryInterface.sequelize
.query(
`
DROP TRIGGER ${table}_vector_update ON ${table};
`,
{ transaction: t }
)
.then(() =>
queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`
DROP INDEX ${table}_search;
`,
{ transaction: t }
)
)
.then(() =>
queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`
ALTER TABLE ${table} DROP COLUMN ${vectorName};
`,
{ transaction: t }
)
)
)
)
)
};
The problem is that because the code concats both columns within each array of searchObjects, what is getting stored is a combined index of all columns in each array.
For example on the articles table: 'headline', 'cleaned_body', 'summary' are all part of that single generated _search vector.
Because of this, I can't really search by ONLY headline or ONLY cleaned_body, etc. I'd like to be able to search each column separately and also together.
The use case is in my search typeahead I only want to search on headline. But on my search results page, I want to search on all columns specified in searchObjects.
Can someone give me a hint on what I need to change? Should I create a new tsvector for each column?

Answer 1

If anyone is curious, here's how you can create a tsvector for each column:
try {
for (const table in searchObjects) {
for (const col of searchObjects[table]) {
await queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`ALTER TABLE ${table} ADD COLUMN ${col + vectorName} TSVECTOR;`,
{ transaction }
);
await queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`UPDATE ${table} SET ${col + vectorName} = to_tsvector('english', ${col});`,
{ transaction }
);
await queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`CREATE INDEX ${table}_${col}_search ON ${table} USING gin(${col +
vectorName});`,
{ transaction }
);
await queryInterface.sequelize.query(
`CREATE TRIGGER ${table}_${col}_vector_update
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON ${table}
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE tsvector_update_trigger(${col +
vectorName}, 'pg_catalog.english', ${col});`,
{ transaction }
);
}
}
await transaction.commit();
} catch (err) {
await transaction.rollback();
throw err;
}