/bulksearch

Superfast, lightweight and read-write optimized full text search library.

Primary LanguageHTMLApache License 2.0Apache-2.0

BulkSearch

Superfast, lightweight and read-write optimized full text search library.

When it comes to the overall speed, BulkSearch outperforms every searching library out there and also provides flexible search capabilities like multi-word matching, phonetic transformations or partial matching. It is basically based on how a hdd manage files on the filesystem. Adding, updating or removing items are also fast as searching for them, but also requires some additional amount of memory. When your index don't needs to be updated continuously then FlexSearch may be a better choice. BulkSearch also provides you a asynchronous processing model to perform queries in background.

Benchmark:

Supported Platforms:

  • Browser
  • Node.js

Supported Module Definitions:

  • AMD (RequireJS)
  • CommonJS (Node.js)
  • Closure (Xone)
  • Global (Browser)

All Features:

  • Partial Words
  • Multiple Words
  • Flexible Word Order
  • Phonetic Search
  • Limit Results
  • Pagination
  • Caching
  • Asynchronous Mode
  • Custom Matchers
  • Custom Encoders

Installation

HTML / Javascript
<html>
<head>
    <script src="js/bulksearch.min.js"></script>
</head>
...

Note: Use bulksearch.min.js for production and bulksearch.js for development.

Use latest from CDN:

<script src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/nextapps-de/bulksearch/master/bulksearch.min.js"></script>
Node.js
npm install bulksearch

In your code include as follows:

var BulkSearch = require("bulksearch");

Or pass in options when requiring:

var index = require("bulksearch").create({/* options */});

AMD

var BulkSearch = require("./bulksearch.js");

Compare BulkSearch vs. FlexSearch

Description BulkSearch FlexSearch
Access Read-Write optimized index Read-Memory optimized index
Memory Large (~ 90 bytes per word) Tiny (~ 2 bytes per word)
Usage
  • Limited content
  • Index updates continously
  • Fastest possible search
  • Rare updates on index
  • Low memory capabilities
Limit Results Yes Yes
Pagination Yes No

API Overview

Global methods:

Index methods:

Usage

Create Index

BulkSearch.create(<options>)

var index = new BulkSearch();

alternatively you can also use:

var index = BulkSearch.create();
Create index with custom options
var index = new BulkSearch({

    // default values:

    type: "integer",
    encode: "icase",
    boolean: "and",
    size: 4000,
    multi: false,
    strict: false,
    ordered: false,
    paging: false,
    async: false,
    cache: false
});

Read more: Phonetic Search, Phonetic Comparison, Improve Memory Usage

Add items to an index

Index.add(id, string)

index.add(10025, "John Doe");

Search items

Index.search(string|options, <limit|page>, <callback>)

index.search("John");

Limit the result:

index.search("John", 10);

Perform queries asynchronously:

index.search("John", function(result){
    
    // array of results
});

Pass parameter as an object:

index.search({

    query: "John", 
    page: '1:1234',
    limit: 10,
    callback: function(result){
        
        // async
    }
});

Update item from an index

Index.update(id, string)

index.update(10025, "Road Runner");

Remove item from an index

Index.remove(id)

index.remove(10025);

Reset index

index.reset();

Destroy index

index.destroy();

Re-Initialize index

Index.init(<options>)

Note: Re-initialization will also destroy the old index!

Initialize (with same options):

index.init();

Initialize with new options:

index.init({

    /* options */
});

Add custom matcher

BulkSearch.addMatcher({REGEX: REPLACE})

Add global matchers for all instances:

BulkSearch.addMatcher({

    'ä': 'a', // replaces all 'ä' to 'a'
    'ó': 'o',
    '[ûúù]': 'u' // replaces multiple
});

Add private matchers for a specific instance:

index.addMatcher({

    'ä': 'a', // replaces all 'ä' to 'a'
    'ó': 'o',
    '[ûúù]': 'u' // replaces multiple
});

Add custom encoder

Define a private custom encoder during creation/initialization:

var index = new BulkSearch({

    encode: function(str){
    
        // do something with str ...
        
        return str;
    }
});

Register a global encoder to be used by all instances

BulkSearch.register(name, encoder)

BulkSearch.register('whitespace', function(str){

    return str.replace(/ /g, '');
});

Use global encoders:

var index = new BulkSearch({ encode: 'whitespace' });

Call encoders directly

Private encoder:

var encoded = index.encode("sample text");

Global encoder:

var encoded = BulkSearch.encode("whitespace", "sample text");
Mixup/Extend multiple encoders
BulkSearch.register('mixed', function(str){
  
    str = this.encode("icase", str);  // built-in
    str = this.encode("whitespace", str); // custom
    
    return str;
});
BulkSearch.register('extended', function(str){
  
    str = this.encode("custom", str);
    
    // do something additional with str ...

    return str;
});

Get info

index.info();

Returns information about the index, e.g.:

{
    "bytes": 103600,
    "chunks": 9,
    "fragmentation": 0,
    "fragments": 0,
    "id": 0,
    "length": 7798,
    "matchers": 0,
    "size": 10000,
    "status": false
}

Note: When the fragmentation value is about 50% or higher, your should consider using cleanup().

Optimize / Cleanup index

Optimize an index will free all fragmented memory and also rebuilds the index by scoring.

index.optimize();

Pagination

Note: Pagination can simply reduce query time by a factor of 100.

Enable pagination on initialization:

var index = BulkSearch.create({ paging: true });

Perform query and pass a limit (items per page):

index.search("John", 10);

The response will include a pagination object like this:

{
    "current": "0:0",
    "prev": null,
    "next": "1:16322",
    "results": []
}

Explanation:

"current" Includes the pointer to the current page.
"prev" Includes the pointer to the previous page. Whenever this field has the value null there are no more previous pages available.
"next" Includes the pointer to the next page. Whenever this field has the value null there are no more pages left.
"results" Array of matched items.

Perform query and pass a pointer to a specific page:

index.search("John", {
    
    page: "1:16322", // pointer
    limit: 10
});

Options

Option Values Description
type "byte"
"short"
"integer"
"float"
"string"
The data type of passed IDs has to be specified on creation. It is recommended to uses to most lowest possible data range here, e.g. use "short" when IDs are not higher than 65,535.
encode false
"icase"
"simple"
"advanced"
"extra"
function(string):string
The encoding type. Choose one of the built-ins or pass a custom encoding function.
boolean "and"
"or"
The applied boolean model when comparing multiple words. Note: When using "or" the first word is also compared with "and". Example: a query with 3 words, results has either: matched word 1 & 2 and matched word 1 & 3.
size 2500 - 10000 The size of chunks. It depends on content length which value fits best. Short content length (e.g. User names) are faster with a chunk size of 2,500. Bigger text runs faster with a chunk size of 10,000. Note: It is recommended to use a minimum chunk size of the maximum content length which has to be indexed to prevent fragmentation.
multi true
false
Enable multi word processing.
ordered true
false
Multiple words has to be the same order as the matched entry.
strict true
false
Matches exactly needs to be started with the query.
cache true
false
Enable caching.

Phonetic Encoding

Encoder Description False Positives Compression Level
false Turn off encoding no no
"icase" Case in-sensitive encoding no no
"simple" Phonetic normalizations no ~ 3%
"advanced" Phonetic normalizations + Literal transformations no ~ 25%
"extra" Phonetic normalizations + Soundex transformations yes ~ 50%

Compare Phonetic Search

Reference String: "Björn-Phillipp Mayer"

Query ElasticSearch BulkSearch (iCase) BulkSearch (Simple) BulkSearch (Adv.) BulkSearch (Extra)
björn yes yes yes yes yes
björ no yes yes yes yes
bjorn no no yes yes yes
bjoern no no no yes yes
philipp no no no yes yes
filip no no no yes yes
björnphillip no no yes yes yes
meier no no no yes yes
björn meier no no no yes yes
meier fhilip no no no yes yes
byorn mair no no no no yes
(false positives) yes no no no yes

Memory Usage

Note: The data type of passed IDs has to be specified on creation. It is recommended to uses the most lowest possible data range here, e.g. use "short" when IDs are not higher than 65,535.

ID Type Range of Values Memory usage of every ~ 100,000 indexed words
Byte 0 - 255 4.5 Mb
Short 0 - 65,535 5.3 Mb
Integer 0 - 4,294,967,295 6.8 Mb
Float 0 - * (16 digits) 10 Mb
String * (unlimited) 28.2 Mb

Author BulkSearch: Thomas Wilkerling
License: Apache 2.0 License