Re: (0)RDBMS for free text indexing

Hi Bjug, Take a look at the ISYS information retrieval system. It works with all those DBMSs, plus your old legacy files directly. There's desktop versions, a web server version, and an API you can call directly if you want to do your own UI thing. The url is http://www.isysdev.com -- Ian Bjug Boyum wrote: > > Hi, > We are considering several rdbms alternatives for a database with mixed > structured and free-text data (an infosystem for documentation of research > in Norwegian universities and colleges). Our legacy data resides in a dos > dbms (Advanced Revelation). We have currently redesigned it to a relational > schema, and have implemented it on ms-sqlserver (which is the rdbms we > currently are using for other databases). The text fields are mostly > research project descriptions, result summaries, publication references and > the like. We are looking for a system with built-in text indexing > capabilities, for making this kind of information searchable via the web and > in our user applications. Most of the major RDBMSes provide text indexing > today, but we haven't seen any good independent evaluation of the products > regarding this kind of functionality. So, I would like to hear if anyone has > opinions or real-life experiences with text indexing in the following > systems: > > Oracle 8.0 (with context cartridge) > Sybase ASE 11.5 (with Verity snap-in) > Informix 9.1x (verity, fulcrum datablade betas, excalibur text datablade) > IBM db2 5.0 > (others?) > > I generally like oracle and informix for their OO features (particularily > arrays/multivalued fields, which we have had in Arev for over a decade, and > used extensibly in our applications). However, Informix 9.1 has no > replication facilities (whitch we really need), and do not support ObjectIDs > and references (which we really want). As for Oracle, their prices are a bit > over the edge for us, and I also have an (irrational?) impression that > oracle is more proprietary and difficult to administer than the others. I > generally dislike the idea of running an oracle server in a relatively > small-scale facility like ours. I really like sybase for its simplicity (and > familiarity to ms-sql which i allready know), but have doubts about their > 'snap-in' solutions. I'm also unaware of any plans they might have for > implementing SQL3. The same goes for IBM, and for both sybase and IBM, the > severe constraints on row size is also a major turn-off. > > Comments anyone? The current online versions of our R&D databases can be > seen at http://www.nsd.uib.no/english/research/ (warning: they suck!). > > TIA, > Bjug Boyum > > __________________________ > Bjug Boyum > Norwegian social science data services > http://www.nsd.uib.no/english