Typesense Search

Overview

EXPERIMENTAL AND INCOMPLETE

Available from ResourceSpace 11.0 (or in trunk/branches for developers).
This plugin is under development and is missing some functions such as resource filtering and permissions. It should only be used where you are comfortable with all users seeing all resources in results, until these additional restraints have been added to Typesense.

The Typesense Search plugin integrates ResourceSpace with a local Typesense server to provide significantly faster keyword searching on large datasets.

When compatible searches are detected, the plugin routes them to Typesense automatically. Any unsupported searches fall back transparently to the standard ResourceSpace/MySQL search engine. If the Typesense server is unreachable or misconfigured, the standard search is used instead, again transparently.

Supported Search Types

Standard keyword searches
Resource type filtering
Archive state filtering

Unsupported Search Types

The following search types currently fall back automatically to the standard ResourceSpace/MySQL search engine:

Searches beginning with !
Field searches using :
Node searches using @@
Smart search
Editable-only searches
Disk usage requests

Requirements

Ubuntu 22.04 or newer recommended
ResourceSpace
PHP cURL extension
Typesense Server 0.25 or newer recommended

Installing Typesense on Ubuntu

Install Required Packages

sudo apt updatesudo apt install curl gnupg -y

Download the Typesense Package

curl -fsSL https://dl.typesense.org/releases/typesense-0.25.2/typesense-server-0.25.2-amd64.deb -o typesense-server.deb

Install Typesense

sudo dpkg -i typesense-server.deb

Enable and Start the Service

sudo systemctl enable typesense-serversudo systemctl start typesense-server

Verify the Service Is Running

curl http://127.0.0.1:8108/health

Expected response:

{"ok":true}

Plugin Installation

Ensure the Correct Branch Is Installed

Ensure you are using the correct ResourceSpace branch containing the typesense_search plugin.

Enable the Plugin

Enable the plugin from the ResourceSpace Plugin Manager.

Configure the Plugin

Open the plugin setup page and configure the connection settings.

Host: 127.0.0.1
Port: 8108
Protocol: http
API key: YOUR_SECURE_API_KEY
Collection: resources (or your custom name)
Timeout seconds: 2

Verify PHP cURL Support

php -m | grep curl

If cURL is missing:

sudo apt install php-curlsudo systemctl restart apache2

Initial Indexing

The plugin includes a command line reindexing script:

plugins/typesense_search/scripts/reindex.php

Run the script from the ResourceSpace root directory:

php plugins/typesense_search/scripts/reindex.php

Optional Arguments

php plugins/typesense_search/scripts/reindex.php [batch_size] [start_after_ref]

Examples:

php plugins/typesense_search/scripts/reindex.php 500

php plugins/typesense_search/scripts/reindex.php 500 100000

Indexing Output

The reindex script reports:

Indexed resources
Failed resources
Batch timing
Indexing rate
Total indexed content size
Memory usage

Example output:

Starting Typesense reindex | Batch size: 500 | Starting after ref: 0[2026-05-12 15:10:42]Indexed this batch: 500| Failed this batch: 0| Total indexed: 500| Last ref: 500| Batch content: 1,284,221 chars| Total content: 1,284,221 chars| Batch time: 4.21s| Rate: 118.77 resources/sec| Memory: 64MB

Testing Search

After indexing completes:

Log into ResourceSpace.
Run a normal keyword search.
Verify that results appear as expected.
Optimally, enable debug logging (below) and verify that keyword searches are using Typesense by looking for the Typesense lines in the log.

No user interface changes are required; searches continue to operate normally.

Debugging

ResourceSpace debug logging can help troubleshoot indexing or search issues.

Verify Typesense Health

curl http://127.0.0.1:8108/health

Verify Collections

curl -H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: YOUR_SECURE_API_KEY" \http://127.0.0.1:8108/collections

Verify Indexed Documents

curl -H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: YOUR_SECURE_API_KEY" \"http://127.0.0.1:8108/collections/resources/documents/search?q=test&query_by=title,text"

Metadata Updates

The plugin automatically reindexes resources whenever metadata changes.

Node updates also trigger reindexing for affected resources.

Notes

The current focus of the plugin is accelerating standard keyword searches on large datasets.

Planned future enhancements may include:

Native node searching
Native field search support
Faceting and filtering (search filters and field permissions)
Real-time background indexing

Knowledge Base