How do I remove sphinx_deleted from a Sphinx query? - ruby

Question

I am new to Ruby and ThinkingSphinx.
I have the following Sphinx Query - SELECT * FROM user_core, user_delta WHERE sphinx_deleted = 0.
I do not want to see the condition "WHERE 'sphinx_deleted' = 0. How do I remove this? I have removed the sql_attr_uint = sphinx_deleted from my sphinx.conf file, yet I see the sphinx_deleted being passed in the query.
Here is the index file definition:
ThinkingSphinx::Index.define :user, :with => :active_record, :delta => true do
indexes [first_name,last_name,display_name], :as=>:name, :sortable=>true
indexes first_name, :sortable => true
indexes last_name, :sortable => true
indexes display_name, :sortable => true
indexes email, :sortable => true
indexes phone, :sortable => true
indexes title, :sortable => true
has id, :as => :user_id
has roles(:id), :as => :role_ids
has jurisdictions(:id), :as => :jurisdiction_ids
set_property :delta => true
end
I do not have a sphinx_scope or default_sphinx_scope defined.
We are using thinking-sphinx-3.1.0 and ruby-2.1.0

Answer 1

The sphinx_deleted attribute is created by Thinking Sphinx, and is used in the following cases (using your scenario of a User model with core and delta indices in the examples):
When a User is deleted, sphinx_deleted is set to 1 for that record in both the core and delta indices - there's no point returning Sphinx records if the underlying ActiveRecord object no longer exists.
When a User is updated, the delta index is processed with the latest field and attribute details, and the core index's document has sphinx_deleted set to 1, so only the latest (accurate) information will match. e.g. if a user has their name changed from Fred to Georgina, a search for 'Fred' will not return Georgina, because the core index document (which does match) is filtered out.
That is why the attribute exists. You cannot tell Thinking Sphinx to not add it, nor can you remove that filter, short of mucking around in the internals of Thinking Sphinx.
If there is a specific reason for wanting to remove the attribute and filter, feel free to comment here, or you can open an issue on the GitHub repo, or post to the TS Google Group.
Update
Okay, further to this, there are three ways around it.
Option One:
The first way is to make the query to Sphinx yourself, using a Thinking Sphinx connection:
results = ThinkingSphinx::Connection.take do |connection|
connection.execute "SELECT * FROM user_core, user_delta"
end
Keep in mind that this returns raw Sphinx values, not ActiveRecord instances.
Option Two:
A more complicated alternative, though, is to have your own search middleware stack. First, you'll want to create a custom subclass of ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::SphinxQL that removes the :sphinx_deleted filter:
class SphinxQLWithoutFilter < ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::SphinxQL
def call(contexts)
contexts.each do |context|
Inner.new(context).call
end
app.call contexts
end
private
class Inner < ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::SphinxQL::Inner
def inclusive_filters
super.except :sphinx_deleted
end
end
end
Then, create a new middleware stack which uses this new SphinxQL query middleware:
WithoutFilterMiddleware = ::Middleware::Builder.new do
use ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::StaleIdFilter
use SphinxQLWithoutFilter
use ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::Geographer
use ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::Inquirer
use ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::ActiveRecordTranslator
use ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::StaleIdChecker
use ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::Glazier
end
And then you can use that middleware stack in specific search queries:
User.search 'foo', :middleware => WithoutFilterMiddleware
It's worth noting the two middleware present in that stack for stale ids. They work together to catch any Sphinx results that do not have a matching ActiveRecord object, and re-run the Sphinx query up to three times filtering out those unmatched records. They're probably useful, but if you don't want to use them, you can remove them from your custom stack. However, without them, any Sphinx records that don't have matching ActiveRecord objects will be transformed into nils.
Option Three:
This is the more hackish version of the previous solution, but will apply to all searches, so probably isn't worthwhile: re-open the class that adds the filter with class_eval and change the method definition:
ThinkingSphinx::Middlewares::SphinxQL::Inner.class_eval do
def inclusive_filters
# normally:
# (options[:with] || {}).merge({:sphinx_deleted => false})
# but without the sphinx_deleted filter:
options[:with] || {}
end
end
Now, all that said: I presume you're not actually deleting users, but somehow the deletion callbacks are being fired anyway? Hence, users do exist but are currently being filtered out by Sphinx? If so, I highly recommend not using ActiveRecord's destroy method, and instead having a custom method to mark users as inactive. This avoids the callbacks, and thus avoids the need for any of the above 'solutions'.