Specify per-field properties and behaviors.

The Schema we used in the last chapter specifies three fields:

    FullTextType *type = FullTextType_new((Analyzer*)analyzer);

    {
        String *field_str = Str_newf("title");
        Schema_Spec_Field(schema, field_str, (FieldType*)type);
        DECREF(field_str);
    }

    {
        String *field_str = Str_newf("content");
        Schema_Spec_Field(schema, field_str, (FieldType*)type);
        DECREF(field_str);
    }

    {
        String *field_str = Str_newf("url");
        Schema_Spec_Field(schema, field_str, (FieldType*)type);
        DECREF(field_str);
    }

Since they are all defined as “full text” fields, they are all searchable – including the url field, a dubious choice. Some URLs contain meaningful information, but these don’t, really:

http://example.com/us_constitution/amend1.txt

We may as well not bother indexing the URL content. To achieve that we need to assign the url field to a different FieldType.

StringType

Instead of FullTextType, we’ll use a StringType, which doesn’t use an Analyzer to break up text into individual fields. Furthermore, we’ll mark this StringType as unindexed, so that its content won’t be searchable at all.

    {
        String *field_str = Str_newf("url");
        StringType *type = StringType_new();
        StringType_Set_Indexed(type, false);
        Schema_Spec_Field(schema, field_str, (FieldType*)type);
        DECREF(type);
        DECREF(field_str);
    }

To observe the change in behavior, try searching for us_constitution both before and after changing the Schema and re-indexing.

Toggling ‘stored’

For a taste of other FieldType possibilities, try turning off stored for one or more fields.

    FullTextType *content_type = FullTextType_new((Analyzer*)analyzer);
    FullTextType_Set_Stored(content_type, false);

Turning off stored for either title or url mangles our results page, but since we’re not displaying content, turning it off for content has no effect – except on index size.

Analyzers up next

Analyzers play a crucial role in the behavior of FullTextType fields. In our next tutorial chapter, AnalysisTutorial, we’ll see how changing up the Analyzer changes search results.