INSTALLATION On Debian Lenny Base install apt-get install php5-xapian (you need version 1.x of Xapian here - check xapian.org for older Deb/Ub) two bugs: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=493944 http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=493941 on dokeos root: mkdir searchdb chmod 777 searchdb (or equivalent) Useful xapian development tools apt-get install xapian-doc xapian-tools (See delve command) On Ubuntu 8.10 Chamilo 1.8.8 + XAPIAN in Ubuntu 10.10 1. Activate the search module setting in main/admin/settings.php?category=Search 2. Go to main/admin/specific_fields.php and Specific fields (Those are text fields that will be add in documents, exercises, links in order to index data) i.e i.e. Author, Body part, Technology, Topic 3. Go to main/admin/settings.php?category=Search and set a Specific field by default 4. Install the Xapian module for PHP5 sudo apt-get install php5-xapian 5. Install the imagemagick modules sudo apt-get install imagemagick sudo apt-get install php5-imagick 6. In Chamilo root mkdir searchdb sudo chmod 777 searchdb 7. Useful Xapian development tools sudo apt-get install xapian-doc xapian-tools 8. Restart Apache 9. Create a course and 2 *new* Learning paths for testing 10.Edit the LPs created and add/edit the specific fields (i.e. Author, Body part, Technology, Topic) 11.Go to the On Ubuntu 12.04 Chamilo 1.9.4 + Xapian in Ubuntu 12.04 Since php5-xapian bindings are not available due to license inconsistencies, you have to build the php5-xapian package yourself. you can follow the instrucions on the xapian.org wiki: http://trac.xapian.org/wiki/FAQ/PHP%20Bindings%20Package build packages: sudo apt-get build-dep xapian-bindings sudo apt-get install php5-dev php5-cli devscripts apt-get source xapian-bindings cd xapian-bindings-1.2.* rm -f debian/control debian/*-stamp env PHP_VERSIONS=5 debian/rules maint sed -i 's!include_path=php5$!include_path=$(srcdir)/php5!' php/Makefile.in echo auto-commit >> debian/source/options debuild -e PHP_VERSIONS=5 -us -uc cd .. If you're using PHP 5.4, then subclassing Xapian classes in PHP doesn't currently work properly and the testsuite will fail with a segmentation fault. The wrappers work otherwise, so if that's all you need, you can build the package without running the testsuite by changing the penultimate command above to: env DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nocheck debuild -e PHP_VERSIONS=5 -us -uc Then you can install the built package: sudo dpkg -i php5-xapian_*.deb