Building a Full-Text Search Engine in Laravel Without Third-Party Services

Search is a critical feature for any content-driven application, but third-party search services can be expensive. Laravel Scout's database driver gives you surprisingly powerful full-text search for free.

Setting Up Scout with Database Driver

Install Scout via composer require laravel/scout and set SCOUT_DRIVER=database in your .env. Add the Searchable trait to your models and define toSearchableArray() to control which fields are indexed.

Optimizing Search Results

The database driver uses LIKE queries under the hood, but you can make them fast with proper indexing. Add full-text indexes on your searchable columns: $table->fullText(['title', 'content']) in your migration.

Weighted Search Results

Not all matches are equal. A match in the title should rank higher than a match in the body. Implement weighted scoring by using orderByRaw() with a CASE expression that assigns different weights to different columns.

Search Suggestions and Autocomplete

Build a real-time autocomplete by debouncing search input with Livewire's wire:model.live.debounce.300ms. Return the top 5 results as suggestions while the user types, then show full results on form submission.

Handling Edge Cases

Account for typos with fuzzy matching using SOUNDEX() or Levenshtein distance calculations. Handle empty queries gracefully by showing recent or popular content instead of an empty state.

This approach handles thousands of records without breaking a sweat. When you outgrow it, migrating to Meilisearch is a one-line config change thanks to Scout's driver abstraction.