flutter_tantivy #

A Flutter plugin for full-text search powered by Tantivy, a fast full-text search engine library written in Rust. This plugin uses flutter_rust_bridge to provide high-performance native search capabilities to Flutter applications.

Features #

• 🚀 High Performance: Native Rust implementation with efficient indexing and searching
• 🔍 Full-Text Search: Advanced search capabilities with query parsing
• 💾 Persistent Storage: Index data persists across app sessions
• 🔄 CRUD Operations: Complete create, read, update, and delete operations
• 📦 Batch Operations: Efficient batch insertions and deletions
• 🎯 Relevance Scoring: Search results ordered by relevance score
• 🔒 Thread-Safe: Safe concurrent access to the search index
• 📱 Cross-Platform: Supports Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, and Windows

Installation #

Add this to your package's pubspec.yaml file:

dependencies:
  flutter_tantivy: ^0.1.0

Then run:

flutter pub get

Quick Start #

1. Initialize the Library #

import 'package:flutter_tantivy/flutter_tantivy.dart';
import 'package:path_provider/path_provider.dart';

Future<void> main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();

  // Initialize Rust library
  await RustLib.init();

  // Initialize Tantivy index
  final directory = await getApplicationDocumentsDirectory();
  final indexPath = '${directory.path}/tantivy_index';
  initTantivy(dirPath: indexPath);

  runApp(MyApp());
}

2. Add Documents #

// Add a single document
final doc = Document(
  id: '1',
  text: 'Flutter is an open-source UI toolkit by Google',
);
await addDocument(doc: doc);

// Batch add documents (more efficient)
final docs = [
  Document(id: '1', text: 'Flutter is a UI toolkit'),
  Document(id: '2', text: 'Rust is a systems programming language'),
  Document(id: '3', text: 'Tantivy is a search engine library'),
];
await addDocumentsBatch(docs: docs);

3. Search Documents #

final results = await searchDocuments(
  query: 'Flutter OR Rust',
  topK: BigInt.from(10),
);

for (final result in results) {
  print('Score: ${result.score}');
  print('ID: ${result.doc.id}');
  print('Text: ${result.doc.text}');
}

4. Get Document by ID #

final doc = getDocumentById(id: '1');
if (doc != null) {
  print('Found: ${doc.text}');
}

5. Update Document #

final updatedDoc = Document(
  id: '1',
  text: 'Flutter is an open-source UI toolkit created by Google',
);
await updateDocument(doc: updatedDoc);

6. Delete Document #

// Delete single document
await deleteDocument(id: '1');

// Batch delete documents
await deleteDocumentsBatch(ids: ['1', '2', '3']);

Advanced Usage #

Manual Transaction Control #

For advanced users who need fine-grained control over commits:

// Add documents without committing
await addDocumentNoCommit(doc: doc1);
await addDocumentNoCommit(doc: doc2);
await deleteDocumentNoCommit(id: 'old_id');

// Manually commit all changes
commit();

This is useful when you need to perform multiple operations atomically.

API Reference #

Initialization #

• initTantivy({required String dirPath}) - Initialize or open a Tantivy index at the specified directory

CRUD Operations #

• addDocument({required Document doc}) - Add a single document (auto-commits)
• getDocumentById({required String id}) - Retrieve a document by its ID (synchronous)
• updateDocument({required Document doc}) - Update an existing document
• deleteDocument({required String id}) - Delete a document by ID

Batch Operations #

• addDocumentsBatch({required List<Document> docs}) - Add multiple documents efficiently
• deleteDocumentsBatch({required List<String> ids}) - Delete multiple documents efficiently

Search Operations #

• searchDocuments({required String query, required BigInt topK}) - Search documents with a query string

Advanced Operations #

• addDocumentNoCommit({required Document doc}) - Add document without committing
• deleteDocumentNoCommit({required String id}) - Delete document without committing
• commit() - Manually commit pending changes

Data Types #

Document

class Document {
  final String id;    // Unique identifier
  final String text;  // Searchable text content
}

SearchResult

class SearchResult {
  final double score;      // Relevance score
  final Document doc;      // The matched document
}

Query Syntax #

Tantivy supports a rich query syntax:

• Term search: flutter
• Phrase search: "flutter framework"
• Boolean operators: flutter AND dart, ios OR android
• Negation: flutter NOT web
• Field search: text:flutter (when using custom schemas)
• Wildcard: flut*

Performance Tips #

1. Use Batch Operations: When adding or deleting multiple documents, use addDocumentsBatch and deleteDocumentsBatch instead of individual operations
2. Manual Commits: For bulk operations, use addDocumentNoCommit and call commit() once at the end
3. Index Location: Store the index on local storage, not in temporary directories
4. Query Optimization: Keep queries simple and specific for better performance

Platform-Specific Setup #

Android #

Add the following to your android/app/build.gradle:

android {
    ndkVersion "25.1.8937393"  // or higher
}

iOS #

Minimum iOS version: 11.0

macOS #

Minimum macOS version: 10.11

Example #

Check out the example directory for a complete working demo app that demonstrates all the features of this plugin.

Architecture #

This plugin uses:

• Rust for the core search engine implementation (Tantivy)
• flutter_rust_bridge for seamless Dart-Rust interop
• FFI for native performance

Contributing #

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License #

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments #

• Tantivy - The amazing full-text search engine
• flutter_rust_bridge - For making Rust-Flutter integration seamless

Support #

If you find this package useful, please consider giving it a ⭐ on GitHub!

For bugs and feature requests, please file an issue on the GitHub issue tracker.