• Fixed a permissions bug that prevented some users from being able to edit comicdb entries.

• Comic indexing and searching

The mod_comicdb module enables searching of comics in a btPHP database. It indexes on the existing comic title field, as well as two fields added by the module itself: description and full text. These fields must be typed in for each comic, after the comic itself is added to btPHP. Permissions for access to the comic database are separate from normal comic permissions.

Search queries are usually just lists of keywords. The search finds strips that match any of those terms, but it ranks strips with more terms higher. Also, there is a MySQL variable that determines the minimum length for a word to be included in the index. It is usually around 4, meaning only words with 4 letters or more are indexed. This variable can only be set by the system administrator, but if you run your own server you can change it yourself if you so desire. Finally, the search will discard results returned for terms that occur in about 50% or more of all records. This means, for example, that searching on the main character's name in a long-running comic would likely return no results.

If your server runs MySQL 4.0.1 or higher, you can enable boolean mode for more advanced search features. For example, you can search "harry -potter" to find records with "harry" but not "potter". Additionally, a boolean mode search does not ignore terms for being present in a large majority of records. Furthermore, a boolean search can specify any combination of the three indexed fields, and only those specified fields will be included in the search. So, for example, you could search only for strips with the word "claymation" in the title. Strips with "claymation" in the description or body text, but not in the title, will not be returned.

• btPHP 1.3.1 or higher, and any requirements thereof.

mod_comicdb 1.0.1 [Release Notes]:

• mod_comicdb-1.0.1.zip (12.14 KB)
• mod_comicdb-1.0.1.tar.gz (7.69 KB)