The Sphider database, like most databases, has relationships between various tables. Unlike most databases, however, these relationships have never been defined within the database! Sure, tables have had their keys, but there were no foreign key constraints. All relationships between tables and the consequences of record deletions or modifications have been handled strictly by the Sphider code. MySQL can handle this more efficiently than any Sphider code ever could.
At this point, adding foreign key constraints is really a straight forward task, since for the typical user, the tables all have data. It would be easy for new installations, but the presence of data complicates things. What has been done is to develop a method to back up the database, destroy and recreate all the tables (with foreign key constraints), and then repopulate the tables with the backed up data. The existing backup procedure was not an option because when a restore is run from that, the database would revert to one without the constraints. Then, Sphider code can be REDUCED in size by a couple hundred lines to eliminate code that handles relationship changes that MySQL can do more efficiently.
The process of building a process to back up the data, recreate the database with constraints, and restore the data has been completed. Now it has to be thoroughly tested. Early tests are positive, but we want to be sure. Once we have a high level of confidence in the process, Sphider 3.3.0-MB will be released. The intent is that the ONLY changes in 3.3.0 will be the database structure and associated code related to structure.
Look for Sphider 3.3.0-MB towards the end of July.