How can I make Django search in multiple fields using QuerySets and MySql "Full Text Search"?

Question

I'm a Django novice, trying to create a "Search" form for my project using MySql with MyISAM engine. So far, I manage to get the form to work, but Django doesn't seem to search all fields the same way. Results are random. Exemple: search in region returns no result or worst search in description works fine while howtogetin doesn't seem to apply..

Here is my model:

class Camp(models.Model):
    owner = models.OneToOneField(User)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    description = models.TextField()
    address1 = models.CharField(max_length=128)
    address2 = models.CharField(max_length=128)
    zipcode = models.CharField(max_length=128)
    region = models.CharField(max_length=128)
    country = models.CharField(max_length=128)
    phone = models.CharField(max_length=60)
    howtogetin = models.TextField()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.name

Here is my view:

def campsearch(request):
if request.method == 'POST':
    form = CampSearchForm(request.POST)
    if form.is_valid():
        terms = form.cleaned_data['search']
        camps = Camp.objects.filter(
            Q(name__search=terms)|
            Q(description__search=terms)|
            Q(address1__search=terms)|
            Q(address2__search=terms)|
            Q(zipcode__search=terms)|
            Q(region__search=terms)|
            Q(country__search=terms)|
            Q(howtogetin__search=terms)
            )
        return render(request, 'campsearch.html', {'form':form, 'camps':camps})
else:
    form = CampSearchForm()
    return render(request, 'campsearch.html', {'form':form})

Any clue?

Answer 1

I'd recommend you to implement this:

#views.py
def normalize_query(query_string,
    findterms=re.compile(r'"([^"]+)"|(\S+)').findall,
    normspace=re.compile(r'\s{2,}').sub):

    '''
    Splits the query string in invidual keywords, getting rid of unecessary spaces and grouping quoted words together.
    Example:
    >>> normalize_query('  some random  words "with   quotes  " and   spaces')
        ['some', 'random', 'words', 'with quotes', 'and', 'spaces']
    '''

    return [normspace(' ',(t[0] or t[1]).strip()) for t in findterms(query_string)]

def get_query(query_string, search_fields):

    '''
    Returns a query, that is a combination of Q objects. 
    That combination aims to search keywords within a model by testing the given search fields.
    '''

    query = None # Query to search for every search term
    terms = normalize_query(query_string)
    for term in terms:
        or_query = None # Query to search for a given term in each field
        for field_name in search_fields:
            q = Q(**{"%s__icontains" % field_name: term})
            if or_query is None:
                or_query = q
            else:
                or_query = or_query | q
        if query is None:
            query = or_query
        else:
            query = query & or_query
    return query

And for each search

 #views.py
 def search_for_something(request):
    query_string = ''
    found_entries = None
    if ('q' in request.GET) and request.GET['q'].strip():
        query_string = request.GET['q']
        entry_query = get_query(query_string, ['field1', 'field2', 'field3'])
        found_entries = Model.objects.filter(entry_query).order_by('-something')

    return render_to_response('app/template-result.html',
            { 'query_string': query_string, 'found_entries': found_entries },
            context_instance=RequestContext(request)
        )

And in the template

#template.html
<form class="" method="get" action="{% url 'search_for_something' model.pk %}">
    <input name="q" id="id_q" type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="Search" />
    <button type="submit">Search</button>
</form>

#template-result.html
{% if found_entries %}
   {% for field in found_entries %}
        {{ model.field }}
   {% endfor %}
{% endif %}

And the url

 #urls.py
 url(r'^results/$', 'app.views.search_for_something', name='search_for_something'),

Answer 2

__search is only going to work on TextFields with Full Text Indexing (sounds like your description field is this). Instead of this try using:

Q(name__icontains=terms)

That is a case insensitive 'contains' on the 'CharField' fields.

---

search: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#search

icontains: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/querysets/#icontains