Are there other search options for heroku

Question

I am about to launch a beta site, and heroku looks like a great option. The only think that is getting me down is that the only search option is $20/mth for the Websolr add-on.

I am sure that Websolr is great, but at this very early point in this project, I rather not light up that expense.

Are there any free search options to couple with heroku's Blossom (free) plan.

I feel like such a cheapskate!

Legrand

Answer 1

This post seems to have good options:

Leveraging the full text search of postgrSQL:

http://tenderlovemaking.com/2009/10/17/full-text-search-on-heroku.html

Also explains the options of Ferret and Solr.

Legrand

Answer 2

IndexTank has a heroku addon you can use for free.

It has some advantages over websolr, like realtimeness, fast (all in ram), and a very flexible scoring system that doesn't require to reindex (allows for very easy a/b testing).

Mendie

I've been having good luck with IndexTank. It's quick and easy to get started. There's a nicely maintained interface gem at github.com/kidpollo/tanker – Conscious

I just searched Heroku's plugins and I don't think this exists any more. – Narrate

Answer 3

My gem pg_search does full-text search against PostgreSQL, and works directly on Heroku.

Check it out and let me know if it works for you!

Oleson

Answer 4

acts_as_tsearch works great. No configuration needed if you have postgresql > 8.3. Have to experiment with multiple tables though. Will use it on heroku till i can afford the WebSolr Add-on. I found it a better option compared to the texticle method as explained in the article link above (tendermaking).

acts_as_tsearch: http://github.com/pka/acts_as_tsearch

Potassium

Answer 5

No, I was looking for that too a week ago, and didn't find anything...
And I don't think there is any work in progress on another add-ons like this as they already have one, so they won't put another that is free... :/
Anyway, heroku is amazing, so try to make it work with code or just spend $20 :)

Paintbrush

Then I guess the followup question. Are they any 'in-rails' full text serach options. Thanks – Legrand

There is ferret, but I'm not sure this will work... Try post the results :) – Paintbrush

Answer 6

acts_as_ferret won't work as Heroku cleans up the /tmp directory regularly. Even i am in need of a full-text solution. Thinking of trying out the acts_as_tsearch plugin.

Potassium

Answer 7

Looks like IndexTank was purchased by LinkedIn and will be discontinuing support (although some portions might be open-sourced in the future). See this post for more info: https://indextank.com/documentation/faq2

Pralltriller

Answer 8

If you're using Postgres for your Rails app then take a look at this free way to do full text search:

Part 1 and Part 2

This uses the pg_search gem to allow you to use PostgreSQL's pg_search_scopes feature and have full text search without any other dependencies.

Glucinum