I would like to improve the search functionality of our Magento search engine. I know that the search terms live in the database table catalogsearch_fulltext, but I do not know how Magento populates this table nor how to edit how it does so.
Essentially, the search is being populated with several aspects of the products including the short description and the long description. In most cases this is redundant and I would like to remove either one of the product descriptions from the fulltext table or both of them.
Eventually I would like to write an extension that adds additional keywords such as pluralizing titles and such.
But my question for now is: How can I edit how Magento populates the catalogsearch_fulltext table during product index? Thanks!
Go into your attribute management and select/deselect the items you want included in quick/advanced search. Attribute options control the source for the table you asked about. Once you've made a change in 1.4.x.x, it will tell you that a reindex is necessary, click the link, reindex and you will be searching on the new search sources.