I am trying to apply a spell check to users' queries using a similar system to Google's "Did you mean: " using PHP.
Is there a way to do this with a plugin or API? If not, what are your suggestions?
<?php
function checkSpelling($query) {
//Boolean where false value means a word is spelt wrong in string
return file_get_contents("http://foo.com/?q=$query");
}
function getSuggestions($query) {
//data with suggestions for word
return file_get_contents("http://foo.com/?q=$query");
}
if (!checkSpelling(foo)) {
echo getSuggestions(foo);
}
?>
<?php
require("plugin.php");
//plugin functions similar to the functions above are defined already
if (!checkSpelling(foo)) {
echo getSuggestions(foo);
}
?>
NOTE: Pspell is not an option because I have PHP 5.X.X and am unable to install it on the server.
NOTE: PHP Spell Check does not have the disired interface.
Using Levenshtein Distance would be the first solution that come to mind and I would expect a hybrid approach of auto-complete, a common misspelling keyword set and then Levenshtein and/or SOUNDEX would get you in the usability ballpark that you're looking for. And yeah, it's a bit of a project.
Another piece of advice that comes to mind with things like this is to ask yourself. "What is it that I'm really trying to do?"
Often times a fullblown Google grade solution may be like sandblasting a soup cracker because your use case isn't theirs. If the goal is getting Visitor A to Information B in a nice easy way, they're are a number of ways to accomplish that that may be simpler and/or better for you instead of trying to reverse engineer something verbatim.