search engine help

Hello all

I have not posted in a long time on this forum. So here it goes.

I have created a database in MySQL and have done an index of it as well. What I would like to do is now create a search engine for it. These are the languages I know Java (introduction), HTML(forwards and backwards), SQL (intro), Basic(intro), PHP (basic knowlegde), Javascript(basic knowlegde), CSS (a little bit more then intro), I just started Ajax and there is more but I can't remeber at this time. From what I have read about Ajax I think for the design of the page that this is the best one to go with. And from what I know of sql and php these should be the best ones to use for the back bone of the search engine.

Please if I am wrong in the chooses of languages please says so. The problem I am having is I have no clue how to setup the query in sql for the search egine because I don't know how to get the user input into a varible. and what to do with the PHP if anything. So if I am may get some help with this that would be a great help. For those that do help me ur name will be on the credits page under the area of the page that u were able to help me with.

Thank u in advanced for all ur help.

P.S Sorry about the spelling.

I am a Microsoft guy but just wanted to say AJAX is not a language its a technology. If you are doing PHP I assume your web pages would be written in PHP -> outputting HTML. AJAX would be implemented with the combination of PHP code and JavaScript.

Hope that helps a little?

Thank u and u are right. My pages at this moment are writen in HTML and CSS.

Cool logo!

thank u

Ajax has been treated like a language quite a bit. It's odd because anyone working with it knows that it isn't...

Anyway, Ajax and PHP/mySQL is the route I would go as well.

Oh, and don't forget, it's a good idea to use unobtrusive JavaScript and a real destination in the action form attribute so the search function still works if user has JavaScript disabled.

There are a number of 'ready to roll' php search engines scripts freely available that you can embed into your site.

Google for them and have a look at which best suits your needs.

I have and they are not that great because they do not work. Building ur own is a lot better because then u know what is happening and if something goes wrong then u know how to fix it.

I couldn't agree more but how good is your php for coding this sort of application?

I am working on learning PHP.

Then I think you should bite off a smaller project to gain familiarity before thinking of building your own search engine.

Having said that, it depends on the sort of complexity you had in mind. E.g., if you were only searching one field within a database table then that is hardly worthy of the term.

Full text searching on the other hand is a different story.

titles of periodicals and the database is setup so that a user can search for film, articles and other things like that it is for a libaray to put a periodicals search online.

Could you reword that last post? Are you saying yoou want full text searching?

ive coded 2 search engines for my websites. Considering that both of them were extremely database data heavy, it was relatively easy.
i allowed for category based searching, and each category matched a table of userrs or webpages or write ups. whatever it was.

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Would u possibly make avalible the script for one of ur search enters?

Jack, my advice is to learn some more sql and php before you even breathe the word "Ajax". It sounds like you're not even perfectly clear on the difference between searching a database -- pretty basic and really just using php to access the database and sql commands -- and doing a text search on a website, which is a bit more complex, since you don't have the built-in search technology provided by a good SQL program.

(BTW, there actually is a fully functional third party plug-in text search script if you don't mind using Google. It may not be exactly what you want, but it does work.)

As for Ajax -- well, all I can tell you is my personal experience, which is that learning "XML" is harder than php and mysql combined, and learning a lot about XML won't even get you to Ajax (which has a javascript core, really). Moreover, it's really a nice gimmick, but for building a website like yours has nothing approaching the importance of a workhorse serving scripting language like PHP, and a basic database program like SQL. You can be the hottest Ajax programmer on the planet and you're still going to need PHP and SQL, just like you need to have HTML before you can use PHP.