[nodebb-plugin-meilisearch] use MeiliSearch as a full-text search backend

crazycells

@sharonyue said in [nodebb-plugin-meilisearch] use MeiliSearch as a full-text search backend:

@oplik0 could you please let me know if my nodebb version works? or do I need to update it or just keep it as it is

I think oplik0 used NodeBB v2 plugin-quickstart to build this... so, I would assume it should work with NodeBB 2.x

you might have problems with NodeBB 1.X

oplik0

@sharonyue said in [nodebb-plugin-meilisearch] use MeiliSearch as a full-text search backend:

BTW, what version of nodebb should I use? I am using 1.18.6

Sorry, for late reply, I had to check and didn't have time to do it yesterday - it actually wasn't compatible with NodeBB <2.0.0, but it turns out to have been a simple change (though now the plugin will make NodeBB show a deprecation warning when used in NodeBB v2 - so note that I'll abandon support for 1.x if the deprecated argument is removed).

It should work now sinve v0.5.7, but note that I won't be testing the plugin on 1.x branches. I'm mainly focused on latest NodeBB versions (so I'm normally testing it with v2.5.2 now), so any updates may break the older ones (I'll try to fix what's reported, unless it makes the experience on the latest version worse, in which case the newer one takes precedence). So even more "use at your own risk" than the general warning here

TL;DR - I'd recommend using current NodeBB versions (v2, ideally v2.5.2), but it should work with 1.18.6 now too.

Does it mean I need to install Meilisearch first?

Yes, I don't think there is any supported way to embed Meilisearch and even if there was, it ultimately is separate software from NodeBB just like the database, so I prefer this model. You can find a quickstart guide with installation instructions (including quick setups for dedicated guests on a couple of cloud platforms) in Meilisearch documentation: https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/getting_started/quick_start.html#setup-and-installation

sharonyue

Thank you guys. I will first try 1) update nodebb, 2) install meilisearch, 3) install the plugin and get back to you

volanar

This post is deleted!

volanar

@oplik0 said in [nodebb-plugin-meilisearch] use MeiliSearch as a full-text search backend:

Meilisearch for NodeBB

https://github.com/oplik0/nodebb-plugin-meilisearch

This plugin allows you to use Meilisearch as search backend instead of the database or Solr (see this topic for why some want to switch)

Installation

Install via plugins page in the ACP or run this command in NodeBB folder:
npm install nodebb-plugin-meilisearch
Configuration

install this plugin via ACP or by running npm install nodebb-plugin-meilisearch

Activate in the plugins page (note: make sure dbsearch plugin is disabled)

Rebuild and restart NodeBB

Check that the plugin successfully connected to Meilisearch and adjust the connection settings in /admin/plugins/meilisearch if necessary.

Meilisearch should start indexing all posts as soon as it connects for the first time, but if that didn't happen you can start reindexing from the ACP page

Adjust other search settings as you see fit. Defaults should be good enough for most use cases though.

Notes

This plugin requires a Meilisearch instance or the same server or somewhere else your NodeBB instance can access

This plugin conflicts with other search plugins and will not work if nodebb-plugin-dbsearch is active

While it should work fine, note that it's still not well tested. User beware

Thank you. This is one of the most needed plugins, just few people understand it yet

rongcuid

I am trying out this plugin, but it does not seem to support Chinese. At least, my test searches don't work. Any chance of checking this issue?

rongcuid

It was actually because the backend silently ignores errors and I did not realize my Meilisearch API was not configured properly. See https://github.com/oplik0/nodebb-plugin-meilisearch/issues/3

gotwf

@rongcuid

Just an fyi... fwiw...

@sharonyue is Chinese and OP from another thread that prompted discussion of Meilisearch in the first place. Which subsequently inspired @oplik0 to code up this plugin. Maybe reach out to her for any additional insights/experience she may have?

oplik0

@rongcuid Sorry, since I was setting up my dev environment before I got ACP working I didn't entirely think out error messages - I'll correct this but unfortunately I'm can't do it this week so it'll take until early october.

rongcuid

@oplik0 No problem. Thank you for bringing this plugin to life!

At the same time, it might be nice to mention it in the README.

oplik0

@rongcuid said in [nodebb-plugin-meilisearch] use MeiliSearch as a full-text search backend:

At the same time, it might be nice to mention it in the README.

Good idea, added a warning. Hopefully it won't be needed for long

volanar

For test
https://sandbox.meilisearch.com/

sharonyue

@oplik0 is this issue fixed right now?

sharonyue

@rongcuid Hi, how about your website right now? Does meilisearch works better then solr?

rongcuid

@sharonyue I do not have a public website, just a local test server. Meili works much better than Solr, but this is not tested on a live, production server.

sharonyue

@rongcuid Thanks for your feedback. I have a website running 6 years, I want to try this Meili but I hope to I can get more feedbacks.. otherwise its a bit troublesome for us to test it in our public website..

metaverse

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metaverse

I fix a bug in this plugin, which will cause empty result in search with filter

sharonyue

@metaverse Hello there, how is this plugin going? fully tested rn?

oplik0

@sharonyue I don't think I fully fixed the setup being a bit finnicky due to lack of feedback on tasks (essentially, especially if you have a lot of posts, things can take a few minutes to finish processing mostly on Meilisearch side, while you're left with nonfunctional search and setting page that doesn't seem to reflect on anything since all the changes will just be queued after the currently running tasks*), but once everything is set up, I haven't had any issues running it.

There are now some basic automated tests, so at the very least I won't accidentally break a simple setup, but obviously they could be much better

* in my defense, when the plugin was being written, Meilisearch task management was very lacking, and 0.30 that addressed that issue was actually released not long after initial plugin versions