Sphinx query - right way of querying - sphinx

Question

In my application I'm using MySQL query:
SELECT DISTINCT * FROM forum_topic \
LEFT JOIN forum_post ON forum_post.id_topic = forum_topic.Id \
WHERE MATCH (forum_post.content) AGAINST ('searching text') \
AND !MATCH (forum_topic.topic_name) AGAINST ('searching text') \
GROUP BY forum_topic.Id
but now I want to migrate into Sphinx. I created config file and table sph_counter in DB. Now my config looks like that:
source main
{
type = mysql
sql_host = localhost
sql_user = root
sql_pass =
sql_db = sphinx
sql_port = 3306 # optional, default is 3306
sql_query_pre = SET NAMES utf8
sql_query_pre = REPLACE INTO sph_counter SELECT 1, MAX(Id) FROM forum_post
sql_query = SELECT * FROM forum_topic LEFT JOIN forum_post ON forum_post.id_topic = forum_topic.Id \
WHERE forum_post.Id<=( SELECT max_doc_id FROM sph_counter WHERE counter_id=1 )
AND MATCH (forum_post.content) AGAINST ('searching text') \
AND !MATCH (forum_topic.topic_name) AGAINST ('searching text')
GROUP BY(forum_topic.Id)
sql_attr_uint = id_topic
}
source delta : main
{
sql_query_pre = SET NAMES utf8
sql_query = SELECT * FROM forum_topic LEFT JOIN forum_post ON forum_post.id_topic = forum_topic.Id \
WHERE forum_post.Id<=( SELECT max_doc_id FROM sph_counter WHERE counter_id=1 )
AND MATCH (forum_post.content) AGAINST ('searching text') \
AND !MATCH (forum_topic.topic_name) AGAINST ('searching text')
GROUP BY(forum_topic.Id)
}
index main
{
source = main
path = /var/data/main_sphinx
charset_type = utf-8
}
index delta : main
{
source = delta
path = /var/data/delta_sphinx
charset_type = utf-8
}
Is that the right way I'm searching with Sphinx? Or have I do this from PHP script?

Answer 1

You dont put the 'query' in teh config file. You want the sphinx index to contain ALL your documents. Sphinx runs the query, offline and indexes teh results. Sphinx will then run queries against its index.
So you actully want something like
sql_query = SELECT p.*,t.* FROM forum_post p INNER JOIN forum_topic p ON p.id_topic = t.Id \
WHERE p.Id<=( SELECT max_doc_id FROM sph_counter WHERE counter_id=1 )
Wouldnt suggest the GROUP BY id_topic - because that will mean one document per topic. Which will meant sphinx will only see one post per thread, so most of the topic wont be searchable.
Have also moved the tables around, so Posts is first. So that the sphinx document_id - the first column from the SELECT list - is the post_id - because that is what is unique.
You have the topic id as a attribute, so can do grouping in sphinx if needbe.
Now you can run indexer with this index, and index every document.
Then you run queries against the index (like your 'searching text' example):
$cl->setMatchMode(SPH_MATCH_EXTENDED);
$res = $cl->Query('#content searching text','index');
This way, you build one index, then run arbitary queries against it.
(Using the #content syntax, means only searches the content column with your query, which is butter, than searching, and then excluding it from author.