Author: Captain Quirk

After several years of improvements and enhancements to Sphider, we have decided to do something different. We are going to produce a scaled back edition!

All security and indexing improvements will remain, but the indexing and search capabilities will be removed for images and RSS feeds, resulting in SphiderLite.

A good number of users don’t need image or RSS capability. SphiderLite will be smaller, simpler, more compact.

Look for SphiderLite later this year, perhaps early November.

Version 3.3.0-MB of Sphider has been released. As far as indexing and searching functionality is concerned, this version is IDENTICAL to version 3.2.1.

What HAS changed is that the database has been altered to include the use of foreign key restraints. With the database thus being able to maintain key relationships on its own, some admin functions have been simplified as the code no longer needs to maintain the relationships.  Database maintenance functions are accelerated  and more reliable.

The BEST way to implement this newest version is either with a clean install, or to empty the database, upgrade, and re-index.  It IS possible to upgrade in place, but the larger the database, the larger the risk. The upgrade process will attempt to back up the data only, delete the tables, recreate the tables with the foreign key restraints, then restore the data. This has been tested numerous times, but as previously mentioned, the more data there is, the higher the risk of data loss.

There is a file, “README_FIRST.” You are definitely encouraged to do just that for the simple reason that not all MySQL installations are created equal.

I have posted before about the problems Sphider may have on websites using a shared hosting plan. Sphider, in its normal form, uses both mysqli and mysqlnd extensions. Mysqli means “mysql improved”, and Mysqlnd stands for “mysql native driver”. In the past, mysqlnd was actually an optional extension, whereas beginning with PHP 7 it is integral to a MySQL installation.
With most PHP installations, nd (native driver) is the default. This is not the case with many installations used in shared hosting. The default may be mysqli, and not nd_mysqli. You can determine if nd is the default or not by running phpinfo() on your website and examining the results. Firstly, the results should contain a section with the title “mysqlnd”. Within that section, you will find a line “API Extensions”. If the value for “API Extensions is “no value”, nd is NOT your default. Below is a screenshot of a typical installation in which nd is NOT the default.

If nd is not the default, you may be able to change it. If your control panel gives you the option to view/change PHP extension settings, check that page. If you see “mysqli” is checked, and “nd_mysqli” isn’t, uncheck “mysqli” and check “nd_mysqli”. (“mysqlnd” should also be checked.) Save your changes. Now when you view the mysqlnd section of phpinfo(), the API Extensions should show mysqli. (You might need to do a browser refresh.) Note that having BOTH “mysqli” and “nd_mysqli” checked will give you a error when trying to save the settings.

In the event you do not have the ability to edit the PHP extension settings, contact your host administrator and ask if they will perform this change. Changing to the native driver as default should have zero impact on other parts of your website while making Sphider usable.

If you can’t change the extension settings, and your host admins can’t or won’t, your only Sphider option is to use the PDO edition. The PDO edition is currently at 2.4.2-PDO, which is stable, but there are no plans for further development. Meanwhile, the normal Sphider, which is currently at 3.2.0, continues to be developed and improved.