[thelist] Hello + Penance...er.. tip.

Frank framar at interlog.com
Tue Dec 19 17:39:40 CST 2000


>  folks, don't forget a <TIP> (tm) with your, um, low
>  signal-to-noise posts...

Yes daddy...

<tip type="Cold Fusion" Author="Frank Marion">

So you can search your database, and you've created a simple search 
engine that hits on keywords using SQL. You CAN search your database 
using the Verity engine. Verity itself will not search a database, 
but it will search an SQL query. Neat idea, huh?

</tip>

<tip type="Cold Fusion" Author=Frank Marion">

Which do I use? Verity, or SQL? Verity is best at handling large 
chunks of unstructured text (like a news article). It automatically 
handles stemming (love, loved, loves, loving, lover) and is best at 
handling 'natural language' ('Who loves me?') type queries. SQL is 
best of finding precise matches in very structured information (like 
prices). Verity can, however give you somewhat mushy results. Why not 
search the return of your verity query with SQL? The Pro side: Very 
accurate results with good control over your data. The Con side: You 
lose relevance ranking, and must resort to using ORDER BY.

</tip>

<tip type="Cold Fusion" Author="Frank Marion">

So you're using the Verity engine to search your big note fields. 
What happens if the collection isn't there, or gets destroyed? Why 
not back it up with an SQL search? By using <cfcatch> and <cftry> you 
can make it so that if there verity search chokes, that there's a 
redundant search mechnism that takes only minutes to implement. If 
you're using <cftry>, make it so that your app mails you about the 
error. In the mean time, your client and the user were served, and 
you don't have to get up at 4 am to deal with it.

Redundancy often pays off, and is cheap to implement.

</tip>
-- 

Frank Marion                      Loofah Communications
frank at loofahcom.com               http://www.loofahcom.com




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