Searching 3 character short words on shared hosting

jacko

Shared servers usually have the limit of minimum 4 characters in my.cnf configuration file without the ability to change it:
ft_min_word_len=4

That causes search engine to ignore 3 character words. Is there any smart workaround that could be incorporated in Flarum to bypass that limitation?

jacko

jacko That causes search engine to ignore 3 character words. Is there any smart workaround that could be incorporated in Flarum to bypass that limitation?

bump!
Any future solution coming up for shared hosting?

Kulga

jacko Is there any smart workaround that could be incorporated in Flarum to bypass that limitation?

I don't believe there is a plan for doing this. Circumventing (or workaround) a setting in a config file makes no sense unless you're restricted from making that change. In that case (such as shared hosting) the correct course of action is to contact the provider and request the change.
Edit: A workaround could work if it never contacted mysql in the first place / using a native index to search.

If a VPS / managed VPS are not viable solutions and your current one declines to make the modification, best bet would be to contact other shared hosters about that particular setting.

jacko

Integrating Google search has been y solution on dzwiek.org Xenforo forums I run. That's a good suggestion for an extension I think.

webeindustry

You can't change a setting like that without root access. No dice on shared hosting. The change would need be implemented by a sysadmin and would affect all services using mysql on the server. Best bet if you really want the feature is get a full virtualized vps or dedi.

jacko

webeindustry
I know that, I was hoping to be clear about that in the opening post.
What I'm asking for is a workaround - ideally a one that will be possible within shared hosting price range.

webeindustry

The "workaround" would be to get outside of shared hosting. What price range are you after? VPS are pretty cheap these days.

jacko

webeindustry I will never use a VPS again. Too many options, too many variables, too many choices regarding the software that is running on the server. I could never get any inexpensive VPS working faster than my current shared hosting where I have http://dzwiek.org and http://brzmienie.info forums and my personal website http://milaszewski.com and I was spending far too much time to get things working properly.
What I'm looking for is a shared hosting plan similar to what Hawkhost is offering but with ft_min_word_len set at 3.
CPanel, Litespeed server, Opcache, MariaDB - all installed, configured and maintained by someone else, not me. I don't have time for that.

zgq354

jacko I think it would be more convenient if we build a flarum docker image.

jordanjay29

jacko You probably want to look into managed VPS hosting, then. At some point, your website may outgrow shared hosting (or you need this specific feature, which you may find a shared host that will turn on, but you may not) and you'll be back in the same boat. Managed VPS hosts usually take care of a lot of the legwork for you, and you can turn to their support teams when you need some help with things they don't do automatically. Expect to pay more, but you get more service, so it equals out in the end. If you need a recommendation, just ask.

sijad

jacko Too many options, too many variables, too many choices regarding the software that is running on the server.

It's not that much hard, it's actually fun if you get into it
if you need something easier you may be interested to centminmod
personally I don't like it because it's a little easy to work with and a little limited for me
but it can help you to manage a VPS by yourself

Dominion Toby said last July that Flarum's running on a 512MB instance. That may have changed since then.

jacko digitalocean's 512MB droplet is $5/m

jacko

jordanjay29 That's a lot more to pay for one additional feature. $10 for very fast shared hosting with cPanel, Litespeed, MariaDB, SSD storage, Opcache. With VPS you have to add $25 for software licenses alone. Hard to find a VPS equivalent of that below $50 a month. That's an additional $480 each year I can't spend for a non-profit website.

jordanjay29

jacko Hard to find a VPS equivalent of that below $50 a month. That's an additional $480 each year I can't spend for a non-profit website.

You're right, that's not worth it for one feature. It is, however, worth it once you grow large enough that shared hosting isn't going to fit.

But GeekStorage is a good host, I used them and enjoyed it. I moved when I switched to a VPS, though.

sestir

Suppose that somebody is running Flarum on a VPS. Will it be safe to simply set ft_min_word_len=2 ? How about 1? Or what reasons could there be beyond safety concerns, to set a higher value?
For example if classical Greek grammar is being discussed, some user may want to search for [ θη aorist ] or [ θή aorist ].

jacko

sestir what reasons could there be beyond safety concerns, to set a higher value?

Most important concern is CPU consumption and slower server performance.

jacko

www.geekstorage.com replied to my email saying that they don't have limitations on word length. I'll give them a try when I have a spare moment.

jacko

jordanjay29 But GeekStorage is a good host, I used them and enjoyed it.

Good to know, because I found not so good reviews from 2009.

jordanjay29

jacko That's probably around the time I switched away from them for a VPS (their pricing wasn't advantageous at the time). Honestly, I was also using SMF, and it didn't behave well with litespeed. But if Flarum is, then you should have no issues.

jacko

I have temporarily moved faderup.com to geekstorage.
Before I opened the account they said ft_min_word_len is set to 2, but my newly opened account has 4.
Also, their blog stated they have Zend Opcache, but apparently it isn't there on my account.

jacko

At the time when I'm writing this post the database is hosted on Geekstorage, but the DNS hasn't been updated at my location yet and the files are still being on Hawkhost with remote MySQL connection to Geekstorage. At this point, the forum is slower than it was before. You can compare http://brzmienie.info (Hawkhost) to http://faderup.com/ (Geekstorage).