[Moin-user] using Xapian search

[Thomas Waldmann]

> long time MoinMoin user here who has just got around to installing
> Xapian for search. There are a couple of things which I find are
> different when using Xapian compared to the legacy search engine.

Well, that's because both are fundamentally different.

> The first difference involves my, perhaps unusual, navigation method.
> It is perhaps easiest to explain by example. I have a page in the wiki
> called MoinTipsTricks and rather than typing the full path I do a title
> search on "moint".

For indexed search, you can only find what was put into the index.

When encountering MoinTipsTricks, MoinTipsTricks is put into the index.

Also, it splits the words and puts Moin and Tips and Tricks into the
index. It does not put MoinT into the index.

>  The legacy search would return the only page
> starting with moint which is MoinTipsTricks. Xapian returns 'Your
> search query "moint" didn't return any results.' Title searching on
> "moin" with Xapian does return a list of pages.

try: tips
or: tips tricks

> Xapian title search returns one result per page plus one result for
> each attachment on that page. Finding a specific page can then become
> more difficult. I would still like the ability to search attachments
> but not have it as the default option.

Well, better get used to that (or refine your search with mime:wiki to
only find wiki pages). The different handling of pages and attachments
is going away in future anyway.

>     xapian_stemming = False

Stemming sometimes can help a bit (if you primarily have one language in
your wiki and that language is supported by the stemmer).

E.g. if you search for the word "search", it would also find "searches"
or "searching" (needs rebuilding the index).