Install Full Text Search using OpenFTS (deprecated see tsearch2)

By Joel Aufrecht and Malte Sussdorff

OpenACS docs are written by the named authors, and may be edited by OpenACS documentation staff.

OpenFTS and tsearch1 use is deprecated in favor of Tsearch2. See Install Full Text Search using Tsearch2. Tsearch2 is much easier to install, requiring only compilation of one module from PostgreSQL contrib, with an automated install process using the tsearch2-driver package.

Install OpenFTS module

If you want full text search, and you are running PostgreSQL, install this module to support FTS. Do this step after you have installed both PostgreSQL and AOLserver. You will need the openfts tarball in /tmp.

  1. Install Tsearch. This is a PostgreSQL module that OpenFTS requires.

    [root root]# su - postgres
    [postgres pgsql]$ cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib/tsearch/
    [postgres tsearch]$ make
    sed 's,MODULE_PATHNAME,$libdir/tsearch,g' tsearch.sql.in >tsearch.sql
    /usr/bin/flex  -8 -Ptsearch_yy -o'parser.c' parser.l(many lines omitted)
    rm -f libtsearch.so
    ln -s libtsearch.so.0.0 libtsearch.so
    [postgres tsearch]$ make install
    mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/share/contrib
    mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/doc/contrib
    (2 lines omitted)
    /bin/sh ../../config/install-sh -c -m 755 libtsearch.so.0.0 /usr/local/pgsql/lib/tsearch.so
    [postgres tsearch]$ exit
    logout
    
    [root root]#
    su - postgres
    cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib/tsearch
    make
    make install
    exit
  2. Unpack the OpenFTS tarball and compile and install the driver.

    [root root]# cd /usr/local/src
    [root src]# tar xzf /tmp/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2.tar.gz
    [root src]# cd /usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/
    [root Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# ./configure --with-aolserver-src=/usr/local/src/aolserver/aolserver --with-tcl=/usr/lib/
    checking prefix... /usr/local
    checking for gcc... gcc
    (many lines omitted)
    configure: creating ./config.status
    config.status: creating Makefile.global
    [root Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# make
    (cd parser; make all)
    make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/parser'
    (many lines omitted)
    packages provided were {Lingua::Stem::Snowball 0.3.2}
    processed fts_base_snowball.tcl
    [root Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# cd aolserver
    [root aolserver]# make
    gcc -c -fPIC  -DPACKAGE=\"OPENFTS\" -DVERSION=\"0.3.2\" -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_STR
    (many lines omitted)
    n_stem.o italian_stem.o norwegian_stem.o portuguese_stem.o russian_stem.o nsfts.o  -o nsfts.so
    [root aolserver]# cp nsfts.so /usr/local/aolserver/bin/
    [root aolserver]#
    cd /usr/local/src 
    tar xzf /tmp/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2.tar.gz
    cd /usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/
    ./configure --with-aolserver-src=/usr/local/src/aolserver/aolserver --with-tcl=/usr/lib/
    make
    cd aolserver
    make
    cp nsfts.so /usr/local/aolserver/bin
    
  3. Build some supplemental modules.

    [root aolserver]# cd /usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2
    [root Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# cp -r pgsql_contrib_openfts /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib
    [root Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib/pgsql_contrib_openfts
    [root pgsql_contrib_openfts]# make
    sed 's,MODULE_PATHNAME,$libdir/openfts,g' openfts.sql.in >openfts.sql
    gcc -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -fpic -I. -I../../src/include   -c -o openfts.o openfts.c
    gcc -shared -o openfts.so openfts.o
    rm openfts.o
    [root pgsql_contrib_openfts]# su postgres
    [postgres pgsql_contrib_openfts]$ make install
    /bin/sh ../../config/install-sh -c -m 644 openfts.sql /usr/local/pgsql/share/contrib
    /bin/sh ../../config/install-sh -c -m 755 openfts.so /usr/local/pgsql/lib
    /bin/sh ../../config/install-sh -c -m 644 ./README.openfts /usr/local/pgsql/doc/contrib
    [postgres pgsql_contrib_openfts]$ exit
    [root pgsql_contrib_openfts]#
    cd /usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2
    cp -r pgsql_contrib_openfts /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib
    cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib/pgsql_contrib_openfts
    make
    su postgres
    make install
    exit

Install OpenFTS prerequisites in PostgreSQL instance

If you are installing Full Text Search, add required packages to the new database. (In order for full text search to work, you must also install the PostgreSQL OpenFTS module and prerequisites.)

[$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$ /usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME -f /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib/tsearch/tsearch.sql
BEGIN
CREATE
(many lines omitted)
INSERT 0 1
COMMIT
[$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$ /usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME -f /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib/pgsql_contrib_openfts/openfts.sql
CREATE
CREATE
[$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME -f /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib/tsearch/tsearch.sql
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/psql $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME -f /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.3.4/contrib/pgsql_contrib_openfts/openfts.sql

Note

If you get the error ERROR: could not access file "$libdir/tsearch": no such file or directory It is probably because PostgreSQL's libdir configuration variable points to a diffent directory than where tsearch is. You can find out where PostgreSQL expects to find tsearch via

pg_config --pkglibdir

Enable OpenFTS in config.tcl

If you have installed OpenFTS, you can enable it for this service. Uncomment this line from config.tcl. (To uncomment a line in a tcl file, remove the # at the beginning of the line.)

#ns_param   nsfts           ${bindir}/nsfts.so

Install Full Text Search Engine

  1. Click Admin on the top of the default home page. If prompted, log in with the account and password you entered during install.

  2. Click on the Install software link.

  3. Click on the Install new service link.

  4. Click on the Install link next to OpenFTS Driver.

  5. Restart the service.

    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$ svc -t /service/$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME
    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$
  6. Wait a minute, then browse back to the home page.

  7. Click on Admin on the top of the screen.

  8. Click on Main Site Administration in the "Subsite Administration" section.

  9. Click on Site Map in the "Advanced Features" section.

  10. Mount the OpenFTS Full Text Search Engine in the site map.

    1. Click the new sub folder link on the "/" line, the first line under Main Site:/.

    2. Type openfts and click New.

    3. On the new openfts line, click the mount link.

    4. Click OpenFTS Driver.

    5. On the openfts line, click set parameters.

    6. Change openfts_tcl_src_path to /usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/ and click Set Parameters

  11. Mount the Search interface in the site map.

    1. Click the new sub folder link on the Main Site line.

    2. Type search and click New.

    3. Click the new application link on the search line.

    4. Type search where it says untitled, choose search from the drop-down list, and click New.

  12. Restart the service.

    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$ svc -t /service/$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME
    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$
  13. Wait a minute, then click on Main Site at the top of the page.

  14. Initialize the OpenFTS Engine. This creates a set of tables in the database to support FTS.

    Near the bottom of the page, click on the OpenFTS Driver link. Click on Administration. Click on Initialize OpenFTS Engine. Click Initialize OpenFTS Engine.

  15. Add the FTS Engine service contract

    1. Click on the DevAdmin.

    2. Click on the Service Contract link.

    3. On the FtsEngineDriver line, click Install.

  16. Restart the service.

    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$ svc -t /service/$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME
    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$

Enable Full Text Search in packages

Enabling Full Text Search in packages at the moment is not trivial. It involves a couple of steps, which I will illustrate taking lars-blogger as an example package

  1. Install the package.

    1. Click Admin on the top of the default home page. If prompted, log in with the account and password you entered during install.

    2. Click on the Install software link.

    3. Click on the Install new application link.

    4. Click on the Install link next to Weblogger.

    5. Install all required packages as well (always say okay until you shall restart the server)

  2. Load the service contracts datamodell and enable the service contract

    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME]$ cd packages/lars-blogger/sql/postgresql
    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME postgresql]$ psql $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME -f lars-blogger-sc-create.sql

    Note: Usually this script is called package_name-sc-create.sql

  3. Restart the service.

    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME postgresql]$ svc -t /service/$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME
                    [$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME postgresl]$

If you are lucky, Full Text Search is enabled now, if not consult http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=154759. This link also contains some hints on how to make sure it is enabled.