# Ferret 0.2.1 (port of Apache Lucene to pure ruby) **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 14, 2005, 7:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ferret-0-2-1-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/47828 "2005-11-14T07:09:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dbalmain.ml)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ferret-0-2-1-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/47828/1 "2005-11-14T07:09:26Z")
Hi Folks, I’ve just released version 0.2.1. Since my last announcement there have been quit a few changes, mostly to the Index::Index interface. We also have a great new logo thanks to Jan P… You can check it all out here; [http://ferret.davebalmain.com/trac/](http://ferret.davebalmain.com/trac/) Dave Balmain == Description Ferret is a full port of the Java Lucene searching and indexing library. It’s available as a gem so try it out! To get started quickly read the quick start at the project homepage; [http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api](http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api) [http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api/files/TUTORIAL.html](http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api/files/TUTORIAL.html) == Changes === Multifield searches You can now do multi field searches using the query parser. ``` # search the title and content fields for ruby index.search_each("title|content:ruby") {|doc, score| puts ``` “#{doc}:#{score}”} ``` # search all fields for ruby index.search_each("*:ruby") {|doc, score| puts "#{doc}:#{score}"} ``` === Compound file support and Apache Lucene index reading You can now store your index in compound files which reduces the number of files used by the index. This is useful as your index gets bigger to prevent a too many files open index. It is also handy for reading Apache Lucene indexes as Apache Lucene uses compound file format by default. === Merging indexes You can now merge two or more existing indexes into one. The is useful if you want to have indexers working in parallel to create your index and then merge all the indexes together create one final index. ``` # add indexes 1 to 10 to the final index index.add_indexes([index1, index2, ... , index10]) ``` === Persisting in Memory index. You can gain a little in performance by using an in memory index for your indexing and then persisting it to your file system when you are finished. ``` index = Index::Index.new() # do all your indexing index.persist("/path/to/your/index/directory") ``` === Thread safety Ferret is now threadsafe so feel safe to use it in a multithreaded environment. Check out the thread tests in the test/functional directory in the latest distribution. === Easy update and delete You can now use a query to do a delete; ``` index.query_delete("content:java or content:perl") ``` And you can now easily update documents; ``` index.update(34, doc) index.query_update('author:"David B."', {:author => "Dave ``` Balmain"}) === Primary Key The latest addition is a primary key to the index. Note that this only works through the Index::Index class and should only be used if you know what you are doing. ``` index = Index::Index.new(:key => ["id", "table"]) index << {:id => 1123, :table => "product", :product = "Jacket"} # ... # The following will replace the Jacket product with a t-shirt index << {:id => 1123, :table => "product", :product = "T-Shirt"} ``` Have fun and let me know what you think. ---
**Author:** ![dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dbalmain.ml)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ferret-0-2-1-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/47828/2 "2005-11-14T13:46:48Z")
David B. wrote: > Have fun and let me know what you think. Thank you for this awesome library. I just wanted to tell you that you work is much appreciated. I don’t actually use it right now, but I most certainly will in the future. Having such a nice and powerful search engine is really beneficial for Ruby, too, I think. Sascha E. ---
**Author:** ![dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dbalmain.ml)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ferret-0-2-1-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/47828/3 "2005-11-14T23:47:37Z")
Does it support indexing PDFs, Docs and PPT files? If I remember correctly this feature is provided in Java Lucene via a project called Jakarta POI. It is not a big deal since you already started the ball rolling and someone might add these features in time. Kudos to your efforts. ---
**Author:** ![dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dbalmain.ml)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ferret-0-2-1-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/47828/4 "2005-11-15T04:27:17Z")
Hi Kris, If you want to index these you’ll need to write (or acquire) specific analyzers for the document type. That’s how it works in Lucene too. One solution may be to index the documents with Lucene and use Ferret to search the indexes. Cheers, Dave ---
**Author:** ![dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dbalmain.ml)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ferret-0-2-1-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/47828/5 "2005-11-15T16:08:54Z")
Any example of (web) search scripts (not necessarily Ruby) that will work with the index? Thanks! “David B.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote in message news:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid… Hi Folks, I’ve just released version 0.2.1. ---
**Author:** ![dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dbalmain.ml)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ferret-0-2-1-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/47828/6 "2005-11-15T16:17:59Z")
I’m really excited about this library. However, after testing it out I’m a little puzzled by the behavior. To test it out I added about 20 documents, each containing the same 5 fields (with different field values in each doc). When I then try to query, the results I get seem random - that is, they don’t always return documents that I’d expect should be matching. Example: doc = Document.new … doc \<\< Field.new(“name”, “foobar”, Field::Store::NO, Field::Index::UNTOKENIZED) … index \<\< doc Now when i call search\_each(“foobar”), i dont see a result (with some i do, others i don’t). However, if I call search\_each(“foobar~”), then it seems to reliably return the expected matches. Any tips? -jay (running ruby 1.8.2 on OS X 10.3.8) ---
**Author:** ![dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@dbalmain.ml](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dbalmain.ml)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ferret-0-2-1-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/47828/7 "2005-11-15T18:24:32Z")
Hi Jay, You’ve got me puzzled too. Would it be possible for you to send me a full example of this strange behaviour. It’s possible that it only happens on OS X. ☹ I really need to get my hands on a Mac for a day because there seems to be a few problems with that environment. Hopefully we’ll have this all sorted out soon. Thanks, Dave