How to add a search feature to your blog for cakephp

I was looking for a decent search feature to add to my blog, and after some reading around, I found this feature very easy and interesting. I found a how to in the bakery, but as several users pointed out, it lacked simplicity and a reindex feature. I kept it to the basics and hope this will work as easy for you as it did for me.

Table of Contents

Step 1: Download Searchable Behaviour
Step 2: Create Table For Indexes
Step 3: Add SearchIndex Model
Step 4: Update Your Post Model
Step 5: Add Actions In Your Post Controller
Step 6: Add Search Input Field
Step 7: Add search.ctp
Step 8: Update Routes
Step 9: Reindex Your Data
Step 10: Add functions to your post model
Step 11: Add function to Post Controller

Step 1: Download Searchable Behaviour

Download the latest Searchable Behaviour from here and upload the contents to your app/models directory.

Step 2: Create Table For Indexes

Notice that We've added UNIQUE to the key 'association_key'.

sql

CREATE TABLE `search_index` (
        `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
        `association_key` varchar(36) NOT NULL,
        `model` varchar(128) collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
        `data` longtext collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
        `created` datetime NOT NULL,
        `modified` datetime NOT NULL,
        PRIMARY KEY  (`id`),
        UNIQUE KEY `association_key` (`association_key`,`model`),
        FULLTEXT KEY `data` (`data`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci;

Step 3: Add SearchIndex Model

php

<?php
class SearchIndex extends AppModel {
  var $name = 'SearchIndex';
  var $useTable = 'search_index';
  private $models = array();

  private function bindTo($model) {
    $this->bindModel(
      array(
        'belongsTo' => array(
          $model => array (
            'className' => $model,
            'conditions' => 'SearchIndex.model = \''.$model.'\'',
            'foreignKey' => 'association_key'
          )
        )
      ),false
    );
  }


  function searchModels($models = array()) {
    if (is_string($models)) $models = array($models);
    $this->models = $models;
    foreach ($models as $model) {
      $this->bindTo($model);
    }
  }

  function beforeFind($queryData) {
    $models_condition = false;
    if (!empty($this->models)) {
      $models_condition = array();
      foreach ($this->models as $model) {
        $Model = ClassRegistry::init($model);
        $models_condition[] = $model . '.'.$Model->primaryKey.' IS NOT NULL';
      }
    }

    if (isset($queryData['conditions'])) {
      if ($models_condition) {
        if (is_string($queryData['conditions'])) {
          $queryData['conditions'] .= ' AND (' . join(' OR ',$models_condition) . ')';
        } else {
          $queryData['conditions'][] = array('OR' => $models_condition);
        }
      }
    } else {
      if ($models_condition) {
        $queryData['conditions'][] = array('OR' => $models_condition);
      }
    }
    return $queryData;
  }
}
?>

Step 4: Update Your Post Model

We want to make the model Searchable and to have a minimal of validation of the fields.

php

var $actsAs   = array('Searchable');
var $validate = array(
  'title' => array(
    'rule' => array('minLength', 1)
  ),
    'text' => array(
      'rule' => array('minLength', 1)
  )
);

Step 5: Add Actions In Your Post Controller

php

function search() {
  $this->set('results', $this->Post->search($this->data['Post']['q']));
  $this->set('query',$this->data['Post']['q']);
}

Step 6: Add Search Input Field

Just add this wherever you want your users to search from.

php

<?php
echo $form->create("Post",array('action' => 'search'));
echo $form->input("q",'label' => 'Search'));
echo $form->end("Search");
?>

Step 7: Add search.ctp

Here you can see that I've added some nice higlightning and excerpts to the results.

php

<h1>
Search results <?php if(!empty($query)){ echo 'for <em>"' . $query . '"</em>';} ?>
</h1>
<?php foreach ($results as $post): ?>
<div style="" class="searchResultHolder curved-5">
<?php echo '[' . ucfirst($post['Post']['title']) . '](/' . date('Y',$post['Post']['published']) . '/' . date('m',$post['Post']['published']) . '/' . $post['Post']['slug'] . '), <em>published: '.date('Y-m-d H:i:s',$post['Post']['published']).' </em>';?><br />
<?php
$str = $post['Post']['text'];
$str = $text->excerpt($str, $query, 200);

?>
<div style="margin-top:5px;" class="summary"><?php echo $text->highlight($str, $query);?></div>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Step 8: Update Routes

As a precautin, add this to routes just to safeguard that the link works.

php

Router::connect('/posts/search/', array('controller' => 'post', 'action' => 'search'));

Step 9: Reindex Your Data

Per default, the new search feature you just added will not index old data. It will only index new data you add from now on. To reindex your old data, follow these steps:

Step 10: Add functions to your post model

Add these functions into your Post Model. Remember, you can change the field you want index.

php

function indexData() {
  $index = $this->data['Post']['text'];
  return $index;
}

function reindexAll() {
  if (!$this->SearchIndex) {
    $this->SearchIndex = ClassRegistry::init('SearchIndex');
  }
  ini_set('max_execution_time', 360); // increase execution time
  App::import('Model', $this->name);
  $newmodel = new $this->name();
  $data = $newmodel->findAll();
  foreach ($data as $i=>$row) {
    $newmodel->data = $row;
    $index = $newmodel->indexData();
    if ($index) {
      $searchEntry = $this->SearchIndex->find('first', array(
          'fields'=>  array(
              'id'
            ),
            'conditions'  =>  array(
              'model' =>  $this->name,
              'association_key' =>  $row[$this->name]['id']
          )
        ));
      $index_data = array(
      'SearchIndex' => array(
        'model' => $this->name,
        'id' => empty($searchEntry) ? 0 : $searchEntry['SearchIndex']['id'],'association_key' => $row[$this->name]['id'],
        'data' => $index
      )
      );
    $res = $this->SearchIndex->save($index_data);
    }
  }
}

Step 11: Add function to Post Controller

Add this to your Post Controller:

php

function admin_reindex() {
  $this->Post->reindexAll();
  die();
}

And presto! You have a fully functional search function with all your data indexed! Just remember to hide or comment out the reindex functionality after you've finished with it.