The next Sphider is in the pipeline

Sphider 2.3.1 is brand new, but work has already begun on 2.4.0.

Among the features already being implemented are the ability to hide the result number when displaying search results. Also, for the regular text search, the option to display the index date is being added. (This will not be available for the image or RSS searches.) The RSS and image searches will have the option to turn off the advanced search features.

A new template is being added. Unlike nearly all the current templates, this one has some class. Here is a screen shot:

The Newspaper template

In the sample above, in “settings” the result number is turned off, the index date is turned on, and the description length has been increased to 1000.

Probably the biggest change will be transparent to the user. The “settings” table is being reworked. As Sphider has changed, so has the table, with new columns being appended on a regular basis. Now, while the position of columns within a table is totally immaterial to functionality, after awhile it can be really confusing for the developer having to bounce all over the place to gather data.  This change will organize the data in a regular flow which will be much easier to maintain going forward.

Other improvements are also being considered, but whether or not they are implemented at this time is yet to be determined. No release date has been set.

When 2.4.0 is released, whenever that may be, the downloads for the SQLite and PostgreSQL versions will likely be removed due to lack of demand.

Also, earlier thoughts of adding audio (mp3, wav, ogg) indexing support to Sphider have been dropped, also due to lack of demand. The actual indexing algorithm has been proven and sketched out, but there is no rationale for implementing it other than “Gee, that’s a neat feature.”