# Search engine that works with MS SQL Server **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 25, 2009, 8:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-engine-that-works-with-ms-sql-server/161299 "2009-02-25T08:34:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuktuk)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-engine-that-works-with-ms-sql-server/161299/1 "2009-02-25T08:34:16Z")
Can anyone recommend a search engine for Rails that works with MS SQL Server? I have good experience in using Sphinx and the Rails plugin UltraSphinx. Unfortunately, it supports only MySQL and PostgreSQL. The newest beta version does add support for MSSQLServer, but only if Sphinx is installed on a Windows machine - and I have to run it on Debian Linux. So if anyone knows of a similar search engine, that supports the above, I would be very grateful. Especially if it already has a plugin for Rails. 🙂 - Carsten ---
**Author:** ![tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuktuk)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-engine-that-works-with-ms-sql-server/161299/2 "2009-02-25T16:23:44Z")
Why don’t you use a full text search engine that doesn’t require a database → [Welcome to Apache Solr - Apache Solr](http://lucene.apache.org/solr/) Can’t understand why people still try to use Sphinx, when it doesn’t get any near Solr’s features and doesn’t update the indexes on the fly. - Maurício Linhares [http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/](http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/) (pt-br) | [http://blog.codevader.com/](http://blog.codevader.com/) (en) On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 4:34 AM, Carsten G. ---
**Author:** ![tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuktuk)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-engine-that-works-with-ms-sql-server/161299/3 "2009-02-25T16:56:50Z")
On 25 Feb 2009, at 15:22, Maurício Linhares wrote: > Why don’t you use a full text search engine that doesn’t require a > database → [Welcome to Apache Solr - Apache Solr](http://lucene.apache.org/solr/) > > Can’t understand why people still try to use Sphinx, when it doesn’t > get any near Solr’s features and doesn’t update the indexes on the > fly. Last time I looked (admittedly a while back) sphinx was noticeably faster at indexing (eg see > **[rails search benchmarks](https://blog.evanweaver.com/2008/03/17/rails-search-benchmarks/)** > > I put together some benchmarks for the three main Rails fulltext search solutions: Sphinx/Ultrasphinx, Ferret/acts\_as\_ferret, and Solr/acts\_as\_solr. The book Advanced Rails Recipes was a big help i… and > **[Home](https://www.percona.com/blog/)** > > Database performance tips from Percona data performance experts. Learn to build and maintain high-performing MySQL, NoSQL, MongoDB, big data, cloud deployments ). As far as the original question goes Sphinx doesn’t have to be able to talk to your database if you can provide a command line tool that will produce an appropriately formatted xml stream for sphinx. Fred ---
**Author:** ![tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuktuk)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-engine-that-works-with-ms-sql-server/161299/4 "2009-02-25T21:04:38Z")
Maurício Linhares wrote: > Solr is a full blown full text search tool with most of the features > you’ll see in “enterprise” tools like fuzzy searching (that enables > … I will give Solr a go, thanks. One of the things I like about ThinkingSphinx though is the ability to combine Sphinx’s free-text searching with other search criterias on other attributes in the model. But I can probably do that myself in another way. - Carsten ---
**Author:** ![tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@tuktuk](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tuktuk)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-engine-that-works-with-ms-sql-server/161299/5 "2009-02-25T17:09:19Z")
And it still is faster at indexing, as it isn’t capable of on-the-fly updates (if something changes, you´ll have to rebuild your index). I see Sphinx as an option if your full text search functionality isn’t that complicated (Sphinx can’t do partial matches or fuzzy search) or your indexed models don’t change much. Solr is a full blown full text search tool with most of the features you’ll see in “enterprise” tools like fuzzy searching (that enables things like Google’s “did you mean?” feature), stop words removal, faceting and a simple way to write your own customized filters (and loads of documentations if you need to tweak it). I tried Ferret and it had loads of problems, specially with concurrent access, tried Sphinx but the lack of on-the-fly updates, partial maches (there’s a hack to get this working, but it’s a hack) and fuzzy search lead me to try Solr and now I have no reason to look back 🙂 - Maurício Linhares [http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/](http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/) (pt-br) | [http://blog.codevader.com/](http://blog.codevader.com/) (en) On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 12:55 PM, Frederick C.