[ic] Slow searches

[Mike Heins]

Quoting Company InterNet Services (info@4co.de):
> I have a database with 300,000 items online (will be expanded to 500,000)
> Every time I search it takes around 2 minutes, whether alot of items are
> found or not.  I need this to be much faster... around 2 seconds
> 
> Currently it's on GDBM (the defult database type), My server has Postgress
> installed (but I have never used it).
> 
> Is there a way to convert my current database into a faster type (so searches
> will appear faster.) Or would be making seperate catelogs be better (breaking
> up the database), Would customers still be able to order different items from
> different catelogs using one shopping cart?

It all depends on what type of searching you need.

If it is categories, you need to use the dl=string method of binary
searching, which will bring search times under a second.

If it is full-text, you need Glimpse, which will do much the same thing
for word-based full-text searches.  It is quite possible to get sub-second
searches for 300,000 items depending uniqueness of term.

This is the type of thing where a few hours of outside consulting with a
company that really knows this stuff (like us) will go a long way toward
solving your problems. This is all database and physics 101, but you have
to have the knowledge.

-- 
Red Hat, Inc., 131 Willow Lane, Floor 2, Oxford, OH  45056
phone +1.513.523.7621 fax 7501 <mheins@redhat.com>

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