Laravel Search

A professional, high-performance search library for Laravel with MySQL Full-Text Search, advanced query builder, Arabic support, and search analytics.

✨ Features

Core Features

• 🚀 MySQL Full-Text Search - Fast search using native FULLTEXT indexes (no external dependencies)
• 🔍 Advanced Query Builder - Powerful, fluent query builder with filters, facets, and sorting
• 🌍 Arabic Language Support - Excellent Arabic search capabilities
• ⚡ Auto-Indexing - Automatic FULLTEXT index creation and management
• 📊 Search Analytics - Track searches, popular queries, and statistics
• 🎯 Faceted Search - Advanced faceted search with multiple filters
• 💡 Auto-complete - Built-in autocomplete functionality

Performance & Scalability

• 🔄 Queue Support - Non-blocking index creation with queue jobs
• 💾 Smart Caching - Intelligent caching for search results and popular queries
• ⚙️ Zero Configuration - Works out of the box with sensible defaults
• 📈 Scalable - Handles millions of records efficiently

Developer Experience

• 🎨 Type Safe - Full type hints and strict types (PHP 8.1+)
• 🛠️ Artisan Commands - Comprehensive CLI tools for index management
• 📦 Laravel Integration - Seamless integration with Laravel ecosystem
• 🔌 Facade Support - Clean, expressive API

📋 Requirements

• PHP >= 8.1
• Laravel >= 9.0
• MySQL >= 5.6 (with FULLTEXT support) or MariaDB >= 10.0

📦 Installation

1. Install via Composer

composer require shammaa/laravel-search

2. Publish Configuration (Optional)

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=search-config

This creates config/search.php with all available options.

3. Configure Environment (Optional)

Add these to your .env file if you want to customize defaults:

# MySQL Search Mode
MYSQL_SEARCH_MODE=NATURAL_LANGUAGE  # or BOOLEAN

# Indexing Settings
SEARCH_AUTO_INDEX=true
SEARCH_QUEUE_INDEX=true
SEARCH_QUEUE_NAME=search

# Cache Settings
SEARCH_CACHE_ENABLED=true
SEARCH_CACHE_TTL=3600

# Analytics
SEARCH_ANALYTICS_ENABLED=true

🚀 Quick Start

Step 1: Add Searchable Trait to Your Model

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Shammaa\LaravelSearch\Traits\Searchable;

class Article extends Model
{
    use Searchable;

    /**
     * Define searchable fields with priority weights.
     * Higher priority = more important in search results.
     */
    protected $searchable = [
        'title' => ['priority' => 2.0],      // 2x more important
        'content' => ['priority' => 1.0],     // Base importance
        'description' => ['priority' => 1.5], // 1.5x more important
    ];

    /**
     * Define filterable fields for WHERE clauses.
     */
    protected $filterable = [
        'status',
        'category_id',
        'author_id',
        'published_at',
        'tags',
    ];

    /**
     * Define sortable fields.
     */
    protected $sortable = [
        'published_at',
        'views',
        'created_at',
    ];
}

Step 2: Create FULLTEXT Index

php artisan search:index "App\Models\Article"

This creates a FULLTEXT index on your searchable fields. The index is created automatically when you first create a model, but you can also create it manually.

Step 3: Start Searching!

// Simple search
$results = Article::search('Laravel')->get();

// Advanced search with filters
$results = Article::search('Laravel')
    ->where('status', 'published')
    ->where('category_id', 5)
    ->whereBetween('published_at', [$start, $end])
    ->orderBy('relevance', 'desc')
    ->paginate(20);

// Autocomplete
$suggestions = Article::autocomplete('Lara');

📖 Usage Guide

Basic Search

// Simple search
$articles = Article::search('Laravel')->get();

// Search with pagination
$articles = Article::search('Laravel')->paginate(20);

// Limit and offset
$articles = Article::search('Laravel')
    ->limit(50)
    ->offset(100)
    ->get();

// Count results
$count = Article::search('Laravel')->count();

Advanced Filtering

WHERE Clauses

// Simple where
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->where('status', 'published')
    ->where('category_id', 5)
    ->where('is_featured', true)
    ->get();

// Where with operator
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->where('views', '>', 1000)
    ->get();

WHERE IN / NOT IN

// WhereIn
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->whereIn('tags', ['php', 'laravel', 'symfony'])
    ->get();

// WhereNotIn
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->whereNotIn('author_id', [1, 2, 3])
    ->get();

NULL Checks

// WhereNull
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->whereNull('deleted_at')
    ->get();

// WhereNotNull
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->whereNotNull('published_at')
    ->get();

Range Queries

// WhereBetween
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->whereBetween('published_at', ['2024-01-01', '2024-12-31'])
    ->get();

// WhereBetween with dates
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->whereBetween('created_at', [
        now()->subDays(30),
        now()
    ])
    ->get();

Faceted Search

Faceted search allows you to get aggregated counts for different field values:

$results = Article::search('Laravel')
    ->facets(['category', 'author', 'tags', 'year'])
    ->get();

// Access facets
$facets = $results->facets;
// [
//     'category' => [
//         ['value' => 'Tutorial', 'count' => 45],
//         ['value' => 'News', 'count' => 23],
//     ],
//     'author' => [...],
//     ...
// ]

// Facets work with pagination too
$paginated = Article::search('Laravel')
    ->facets(['category', 'author'])
    ->paginate(20);
    
$facets = $paginated->facets;

Sorting

// Sort by relevance (default)
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->orderBy('relevance', 'desc')
    ->get();

// Sort by field
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->orderBy('published_at', 'desc')
    ->get();

// Multiple sorts
Article::search('Laravel')
    ->orderBy('relevance', 'desc')
    ->orderBy('published_at', 'desc')
    ->orderBy('views', 'desc')
    ->get();

Autocomplete

// Get autocomplete suggestions
$suggestions = Article::autocomplete('Lara');
// Returns: ['Laravel', 'Laravel Nova', 'Laravel Horizon']

// With custom limit
$suggestions = Article::autocomplete('Lara', 20);

// Using the facade
use Shammaa\LaravelSearch\Facades\Search;

$suggestions = Search::autocomplete(Article::class, 'Lara', 10);

Arabic Search

The package automatically supports Arabic text search:

// Search in Arabic
$articles = Article::search('برمجة')->get();

// Mixed Arabic and English
$articles = Article::search('Laravel برمجة')->get();

Using the Facade

use Shammaa\LaravelSearch\Facades\Search;

// Search
$results = Search::search(Article::class, 'Laravel')
    ->where('status', 'published')
    ->get();

// Autocomplete
$suggestions = Search::autocomplete(Article::class, 'Lara');

// Popular searches
$popular = Search::popularSearches(10);

// Search statistics
$stats = Search::stats();

// Clear cache
Search::clearCache();

🎯 Artisan Commands

Index Management

# Create FULLTEXT index for a model
php artisan search:index "App\Models\Article"

# Use queue for indexing (recommended for large datasets)
php artisan search:index "App\Models\Article" --queue

# Reindex (drops and recreates FULLTEXT index)
php artisan search:reindex "App\Models\Article"

# Clear index
php artisan search:clear "App\Models\Article"

Statistics & Monitoring

# Show all indexes statistics
php artisan search:stats

# Show specific model stats
php artisan search:stats --model="App\Models\Article"

# Show analytics (popular searches, etc.)
php artisan search:stats --analytics

⚙️ Configuration

The config/search.php file contains all configuration options:

MySQL Configuration

'mysql' => [
    // Search mode: NATURAL_LANGUAGE or BOOLEAN
    'search_mode' => env('MYSQL_SEARCH_MODE', 'NATURAL_LANGUAGE'),
    
    // Minimum word length for FULLTEXT search
    'min_word_length' => env('MYSQL_MIN_WORD_LENGTH', 4),
    
    // Index name prefix
    'index_prefix' => env('MYSQL_INDEX_PREFIX', 'ft_'),
],

Indexing Configuration

'indexing' => [
    // Auto-create indexes when models are created
    'auto' => env('SEARCH_AUTO_INDEX', true),
    
    // Use queue for indexing operations
    'queue' => env('SEARCH_QUEUE_INDEX', true),
    
    // Queue name for indexing jobs
    'queue_name' => env('SEARCH_QUEUE_NAME', 'search'),
    
    // Batch size for bulk operations
    'batch_size' => env('SEARCH_BATCH_SIZE', 1000),
    
    // Chunk size for processing
    'chunk_size' => env('SEARCH_CHUNK_SIZE', 100),
],

Cache Configuration

'cache' => [
    // Enable search result caching
    'enabled' => env('SEARCH_CACHE_ENABLED', true),
    
    // Cache store to use
    'store' => env('SEARCH_CACHE_STORE', 'default'),
    
    // Cache TTL in seconds (1 hour)
    'ttl' => env('SEARCH_CACHE_TTL', 3600),
    
    // Popular searches cache TTL (2 hours)
    'popular_ttl' => env('SEARCH_CACHE_POPULAR_TTL', 7200),
    
    // Autocomplete cache TTL (30 minutes)
    'autocomplete_ttl' => env('SEARCH_CACHE_AUTOCOMPLETE_TTL', 1800),
],

Analytics Configuration

'analytics' => [
    // Enable search analytics
    'enabled' => env('SEARCH_ANALYTICS_ENABLED', true),
    
    // Analytics table name
    'table' => env('SEARCH_ANALYTICS_TABLE', 'search_analytics'),
    
    // Track searches with no results
    'track_empty' => env('SEARCH_ANALYTICS_TRACK_EMPTY', false),
],

Performance Configuration

'performance' => [
    // Eager load relationships
    'eager_load' => env('SEARCH_EAGER_LOAD', true),
    
    // Select only needed fields
    'select_fields' => env('SEARCH_SELECT_FIELDS', false),
    
    // Maximum results per query
    'max_results' => env('SEARCH_MAX_RESULTS', 10000),
],

🔧 Advanced Usage

Custom Search Modes

MySQL supports two search modes:

Natural Language Mode (Default)

// In config/search.php
'mysql' => [
    'search_mode' => 'NATURAL_LANGUAGE',
],

Best for: Natural language queries, relevance ranking

Boolean Mode

// In config/search.php
'mysql' => [
    'search_mode' => 'BOOLEAN',
],

Allows operators like +, -, *, "phrase":

// Must contain "Laravel"
Article::search('+Laravel')->get();

// Must contain "Laravel" but not "Vue"
Article::search('+Laravel -Vue')->get();

// Exact phrase
Article::search('"Laravel Framework"')->get();

// Wildcard
Article::search('Lara*')->get();

Queue Configuration

For large datasets, use queues for indexing:

// In config/search.php
'indexing' => [
    'queue' => true,
    'queue_name' => 'search',
],

Make sure your queue worker is running:

php artisan queue:work --queue=search

Manual Index Management

use App\Models\Article;

// Manually create index for a model instance
$article = Article::find(1);
$article->searchable();

// This is automatically called on model creation if auto-indexing is enabled

📊 Performance

Benchmarks

Based on testing with typical hardware:

Performance varies based on hardware, query complexity, and data characteristics.

Optimization Tips

1. Use Caching: Enable caching for frequently searched queries
2. Queue Indexing: Use queues for large datasets
3. Limit Results: Use limit() to reduce result set size
4. Select Fields: Only select needed fields with select()
5. Index Optimization: Ensure your MySQL FULLTEXT indexes are optimized
6. MySQL Configuration: Adjust ft_min_word_len for shorter words

MySQL FULLTEXT Configuration

To search for words shorter than 4 characters, modify MySQL configuration:

# In my.cnf or my.ini
[mysqld]
ft_min_word_len = 2

Then rebuild your indexes:

php artisan search:reindex "App\Models\Article"

🔍 Troubleshooting

No Search Results

1. Check if index exists:

   php artisan search:stats --model="App\Models\Article"
   

2. Verify minimum word length:

   • MySQL default is 4 characters
   • Words shorter than this won't be indexed
   • Solution: Adjust ft_min_word_len in MySQL config

3. Check searchable fields:

   // Make sure fields are defined
   protected $searchable = [
       'title' => ['priority' => 1.0],
       'content' => ['priority' => 1.0],
   ];
   

Slow Search Performance

1. Enable caching:

   SEARCH_CACHE_ENABLED=true
   

2. Use queue for indexing:

   SEARCH_QUEUE_INDEX=true
   

3. Limit results:

   Article::search('query')->limit(100)->get();
   

4. Check MySQL FULLTEXT index:

   SHOW INDEX FROM articles WHERE Index_type = 'FULLTEXT';
   

Index Creation Fails

1. Check table engine:

   • Must be InnoDB or MyISAM
   • InnoDB recommended for MySQL 5.6+

2. Check column types:

   • FULLTEXT only works with TEXT and VARCHAR columns

3. Check MySQL version:

   • MySQL 5.6+ required for InnoDB FULLTEXT

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Development Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/shammaa/laravel-search.git
cd laravel-search

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Run tests (when available)
composer test

📄 License

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.

👨‍💻 Author

Shadi Shammaa

• Email: shadi.shammaa@gmail.com
• GitHub: @shammaa

🙏 Credits

This package uses MySQL Full-Text Search instead of external search engines, making it:

• ✅ Easy to install (no external dependencies)
• ✅ Cost-effective (100% free)
• ✅ Simple to maintain (uses your existing MySQL database)
• ✅ Production-ready (battle-tested MySQL technology)

Perfect for applications that need powerful search without the complexity of managing external search servers like Elasticsearch or Meilisearch.

📚 Additional Resources

• MySQL Full-Text Search Documentation
• Laravel Documentation
• Package Repository

🗺️ Roadmap

• Add comprehensive test suite
• Add highlighting support
• Add search suggestions based on analytics
• Add multi-language stemming
• Add search result export
• Add search query builder UI component
• Add Livewire components for search UI

Made with ❤️ for the Laravel community