Fulltext Search Over Multiple Fields...

[durin]

I am trying to build a search interface to a mysql db with a few features. There are 5 searchable fields:

Page, Title, Author, Keywords, Abstract

The form is setup to be able to search any of these fields,all of these fields, or any combination of the fields. I want to use a fulltext match search so booleans can be used and for faster searching.

I'm still new to fulltext searches and was hoping for some help setting up the fulltext indexes - do I need to setup a different one for every possible combination of searches (Title & Author, Title & Author & Keywords, Abstract & Page, etc...)? Should I setup the searches individually then compare them against one another?

I'm not sure what the best solution is so any advice you guys can provide would be appreciated. Thanks!

[xblue]

Hi, are you referring to the IN BOOLEAN MODE option of fulltext searches? I don't think that is available until version 4.

As for the queries, since the syntax is:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE MATCH (fields) AGAINST ('keywords'), it wouldn't need much effort to generate a comma separated field list from user input on the fly, however be aware that you need to index the fields properly.

[durin]

Indexing the fields is the dilema I am having, in order to do every combination I think I would need about 25 indexes - I'm thinking it would be easier just to have the 5 fields as indexes and use an OR statement.