Laravel Smart Search

A lightweight, configurable, scoring-based search engine for Laravel.

Laravel Smart Search provides:

• Exact match priority
• Weighted scoring system
• FULLTEXT support (MySQL/MariaDB)
• Automatic fallback to LIKE search
• Configurable columns
• Safe FULLTEXT detection (no crashes)
• Optional fallback disabling per request

Installation

Install via Composer:

composer require traore225/laravel-smart-search

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• Laravel 10+ / 11+
• MySQL or MariaDB recommended for FULLTEXT support

Publish Configuration

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=smart-search-config

This creates:

config/smart-search.php

FULLTEXT Setup (Recommended)

Generate a migration for your FULLTEXT index:

php artisan smart-search:make-index --table=posts --columns=title
php artisan migrate

Check if FULLTEXT is installed:

php artisan smart-search:install --table=posts --column=title

If you prefer to add it manually:

ALTER TABLE posts ADD FULLTEXT (title);

FULLTEXT is optional but recommended for performance. Smart Search automatically detects if FULLTEXT is available and safely disables it if missing.

Basic Usage

use Traore225\LaravelSmartSearch\Search\SearchEngine;

$engine = app(SearchEngine::class);

$query = \App\Models\Post::query();

$query = $engine->apply($query, [
    'description' => 'ps3 controller',
]);

$results = $query->paginate();

Disable Fallback (Per Request)

$query = $engine->apply($query, [
    'description' => 'ps3 controller',
    'fallback' => false,
]);

Configuration Example

return [
    'max_title_tokens' => 3,

    'columns' => [
        'title' => 'title',
        'description' => 'description',
    ],

    'fulltext' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'multiplier' => 10,
    ],

    'weights' => [
        'exact_title' => 1000000,
        'title_word_base' => 4000,
        'title_word_step' => 500,
        'title_cumulative_base' => 3000,
        'title_cumulative_step' => 300,
    ],

    'fallback' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'min_words' => 2,
        'fields' => ['title', 'description'],
    ],
];

How It Works

Priority order:

1. Exact match
2. Weighted LIKE scoring
3. FULLTEXT boolean scoring (if available)
4. Fallback LIKE search (if enabled)

FULLTEXT is auto-detected and safely disabled when the index is missing.

Database Support

Performance

• FULLTEXT auto-detected and cached
• No crash if index is missing
• Minimal overhead
• No external dependencies

License

MIT License © 2026 Traore Sidiki