19.1. Overview of Text Search in DB2

DB2 offers two technologies to perform full-text search. Both of them handle plain text, HTML and XML data, as well as document formats such as PDF and Microsoft Word.

• The DB2 Net Search Extender (NSE) has been providing powerful text search capabilities since DB2 8 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows. The Net Search Extender is XML aware and fully functional with the new XML column type in DB2 9 and higher. The DB2 Net Search Extender continues to provide reliable and mature text search in DB2 with proven scalability and performance.

• DB2 Text Search is new text search functionality that is based on the technology in the open source project Lucene. The same technology is also used in IBM OmniFind Text Search Server for DB2 z/OS (see section 19.8). DB2 Text Search became first available in DB2 9.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows, Fixpack 1. Its features and performance continue to be improved in subsequent releases. DB2 Text Search in DB2 9.5 is just the beginning of integrating OmniFind text search capabilities into DB2 on all platforms.