# Advantages of using :single\_index?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/advantages-of-using-single-index/91321>\
**Category:** Ferret\
**Created:** [April 6, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/advantages-of-using-single-index/91321 "2007-04-06T19:16:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fbeausoleil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/ec9cab/32.png) [@fbeausoleil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fbeausoleil)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/advantages-of-using-single-index/91321/1 "2007-04-06T19:16:18Z")

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Hi all,

Google returns two results for this:  
[http://www.google.ca/search?q=acts\_as\_ferret+shared\_index+option&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&client=firefox-a](http://www.google.ca/search?q=acts_as_ferret+shared_index+option&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&client=firefox-a)

Both point to the ChangeLog, so I don’t really know if anybody used a  
shared index. From the RDoc, I know the option makes AAF “use a  
Ferret index that is shared by all classes…” What would be the  
advantages / disadvantages of doing so ?

We’re using a DRb Server to handle the search with multiple Mongrel  
receiving the queries.

## Thanks !

François Beausoleil  
[http://blog.teksol.info/](http://blog.teksol.info/)  
[http://piston.rubyforge.org/](http://piston.rubyforge.org/)

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**Author:** ![fbeausoleil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/ec9cab/32.png) [@fbeausoleil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fbeausoleil)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/advantages-of-using-single-index/91321/2 "2007-04-06T20:50:13Z")

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On Apr 6, 2007, at 19:15, François Beausoleil wrote:

> Both point to the ChangeLog, so I don’t really know if anybody used a  
> shared index. From the RDoc, I know the option makes AAF “use a  
> Ferret index that is shared by all classes…” What would be the  
> advantages / disadvantages of doing so ?
> 
> We’re using a DRb Server to handle the search with multiple Mongrel  
> receiving the queries.

it’s basically about speed… the bigger your index gets, the better it  
might be to have separate indexes. it also depends on your  
queries, if you do single-model-searches or cross-model-searches  
most of the time…

If your database isn’t that huge and/or you do a lot of searches  
over all models (multi searches), you might want to use the  
single\_index… it might speed up searching but might also slow  
down indexing…

so the real answer is: it depends 🙂

Ben

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**Author:** ![fbeausoleil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/ec9cab/32.png) [@fbeausoleil](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fbeausoleil)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/advantages-of-using-single-index/91321/3 "2007-04-09T15:41:54Z")

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Hello Benjamin,

2007/4/6, Benjamin K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> If your database isn’t that huge and/or you do a lot of searches  
> over all models (multi searches), you might want to use the  
> single\_index… it might speed up searching but might also slow  
> down indexing…

Well, that was exactly what I wanted to know. We’re basically going  
to use the index to do multi model searches exclusively, so my  
answer’s right there.

## Thanks !

François Beausoleil  
[http://blog.teksol.info/](http://blog.teksol.info/)  
[http://piston.rubyforge.org/](http://piston.rubyforge.org/)