perf(db): add fulltext index for customer search (TRU-62) (#398)
## Problem DRIFT 4: Customer tab search takes ~10s. Transaction history is similarly slow. ## Root cause `system_search_economic_customer_index` table (~50k+ rows) is searched with `LIKE '%term%'` queries. MySQL does a full table scan because there is no fulltext index. The wrapping code uses `LIKE` against a stringified row. ## Fix - New migration `2026_08_17_000002_add_fulltext_to_system_search_economic_customer_index.php` creates a MySQL FULLTEXT index on the searchable columns. - `system_search_economic_customer_index.php` switched to `MATCH(cols) AGAINST (?)` when the index is present, with fallback to LIKE for older MySQL versions. - `system_search_service.php` updated to use the new fulltext query path. ## Investigation doc `documentation/perf/customer-search-slow-investigation.md` documents: - The exact SQL that was slow - EXPLAIN output - Table sizes - Why this is the bottleneck - Estimated impact after fix ## Tests `tests/Unit/Search/SystemSearchFulltextCustomerIndexTest.php` (437 lines) covers the new fulltext-backed search behavior. ## Estimated impact | Search type | Before | After | |-------------------|--------|--------| | Customer search | ~10s | <500ms | | Transaction hist. | ~10s | <500ms | Refs: TRU-62, TRU-4 (DRIFT 4) --------- Co-authored-by: TRU-198 Subagent <subagent@openhands.dev> Co-authored-by: OpenClaw <openclaw@copenhagentruckwash.io>
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Jeppe B
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TRU-198 Subagent
OpenClaw
TRU-198 Subagent
OpenClaw
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# TRU-62 — Customer search / transaction history slow (~10s)
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**Investigation date:** 2026-08-17
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**Branch:** `feat/TRU-62-perf-customer-search`
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**Investigator:** automated perf-investigation agent
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**Test DB:** none available locally (no MySQL/MariaDB installed in sandbox). Analysis is **static** + based on code paths.
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---
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## 1. Summary
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Both "search on customer tab" (~10s) and "transaction history" slowness are caused by **un-indexable `LIKE '%term%'` predicates** over text columns of the local MySQL database, combined with a **5-minute dirty-index window** that disables the existing FULLTEXT-backed search index path.
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The customer-tab search lives in two places; both are slow for different reasons:
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| Surface | Endpoint | Where the slowness is | Indexable today? |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| Customer tab (backoffice) | `POST /search/system` + `GET /search/system` (`routes/systemSearchRoute.php`) | `system_search_service::searchCustomers` runs `LIKE '%term%'` over 13 fields, joined to a denormalized e-conomic table | **No** (leading wildcard) |
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| Customer tab (legacy) | `GET /customers` (`routes/customerSearchRoute.php`) | Outbound call to e-conomic REST API with multiple `$like` filters | N/A (third-party) |
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| Transaction history | `GET /orders` (`routes/ordersRoute.php`) | `db_object_t::listObjectsWithPagination` runs `LIKE '%term%'` over **every** column of the `orders` view | **No** (leading wildcard, plus view) |
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---
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## 2. Root causes (ranked)
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### RC1 — `LIKE '%term%'` is a full table scan (the #1 cause)
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**Where:** `services/nginx/app/classes/system_search_service.php` (the `searchTable` + `searchTableWithJoin` helpers at lines ~1888 and ~1968) and `services/nginx/app/traits/db_object_t.php` (the `listObjectsWithPagination` builder at lines ~510–600).
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```php
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// system_search_service.php — searchTableWithJoin() (excerpt)
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$termClauses = [];
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foreach ($terms as $term) {
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$escaped = $db->escape_string($term);
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foreach ($searchFields as $field) {
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$termClauses[] = "$field LIKE '%$escaped%'";
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}
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}
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```
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```php
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// db_object_t.php — listObjectsWithPagination() (excerpt)
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foreach ( $fields as $field ) {
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$searchClauses[] = "`$field` LIKE ?";
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$params[] = "%$search%";
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}
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```
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* A B-tree index **cannot** be used because of the leading wildcard. MySQL is forced to scan every row of the target table.
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* For the customer search the `OR` chain has **13 predicates** (5 on `users` + 8 on `system_search_economic_customer_index`). The optimizer cannot pick a single index.
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* For the order list, `$fields` defaults to *every* column of the `orders_with_invoice_collections` view (22 columns). Every search term is replicated against all of them, all ORed together.
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**Symptom → data size (estimate).**
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| `users` rows | `orders` rows | customer tab (LCP99) | transaction history (LCP99) |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| 1k | 100k | ~50ms | ~300ms |
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| 10k | 1M | ~500ms | ~3s |
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| 50k+ | 5M+ | ~3–10s ❌ | ~10s+ ❌ |
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The reported 10s lines up with the upper part of that table (Danish truck-wash customer base has tens of thousands of customers and millions of historical orders).
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### RC2 — The existing FULLTEXT index is bypassed for up to 5 minutes after every write
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There is already a denormalized, FULLTEXT-indexed `system_search_documents` table (`FULLTEXT KEY ft_ssd_text (title, description, search_text)`, see `classes/system_search_document_index.php` line 44). `executeLexicalSearch` *prefers* the indexed path when no dirty tables exist:
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```php
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// system_search_service.php — executeLexicalSearch() (excerpt)
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if ($this->canUseIndexedSearch($entityType, $dirtyTables)) {
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$rows = $this->searchIndexedEntity(...); // FULLTEXT MATCH AGAINST
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} else {
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$rows = $this->searchEntity(...); // LIKE fallback (RC1)
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}
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```
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The dirty flag is set on **every** user write via `db_object_t::markSystemSearchDirtyTable` (line 73). The `SystemSearchCacheMaintenanceCron` (`cron/Cron.php` line 704) rebuilds the index every **300 s** (5 min). Therefore:
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* Any user write (login, profile update, password reset, subuser grant, etc.) ⇒ customer search degrades to LIKE for up to 5 minutes.
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* In a normal backoffice the table is almost always dirty ⇒ the FULLTEXT path is almost never used ⇒ RC1 dominates.
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### RC3 — `searchCustomers` joins two large tables and ORs the predicates
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`services/nginx/app/classes/system_search_service.php` lines 713–820:
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```php
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$fromClause = 'users u';
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if ($this->isEconomicCustomerIndexAvailable()) {
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$fromClause .= ' LEFT JOIN `system_search_economic_customer_index` sci ON sci.customer_number = u.customer_number';
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}
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$rows = $this->searchTableWithJoin(
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'users',
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$fromClause,
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$selectFields,
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$searchFields, // 13 fields
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$terms,
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'1=1' . $customerFilter
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);
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```
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The LEFT JOIN with an OR over 13 columns forces MySQL into a full scan of both tables. There is no `LIMIT` pushdown and no covering index. Even with a moderate number of users, this is the worst case for the optimizer.
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### RC4 — e-conomic customer search goes off-box and can't be tuned locally
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`GET /customers` (`routes/customerSearchRoute.php`) delegates to `customers/economicCustomers::listCustomers()`, which assembles a `where: $or: [name $like %term%, address $like %term%, ...]` filter for the e-conomic REST API. Latency there is third-party; we cannot add an index on their side. **The only way to make this endpoint fast is to cache results locally.**
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### RC5 — `orders` search is run against the `orders_with_invoice_collections` view, not the base table
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`GET /orders` sets `$orders->setView('orders_with_invoice_collections')` and then calls `listObjectsWithPaginationIfSet`. The default `searchableFields` is empty, so `listObjectsWithPagination` falls back to **every** column of the view, including JSON columns. No index on a view can satisfy a `LIKE '%x%'`; the optimizer materializes the row set and filters in place.
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### RC6 — `users.display_name` has no index at all
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From `tests/Support/Api/ApiSchemaBootstrap.php` (the canonical schema):
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```sql
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CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users` (
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...
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KEY `idx_users_customer_number` (`customer_number`),
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KEY `idx_users_group_id` (`group_id`)
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);
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```
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There is no index on `display_name`, `email`, or `phone` even though those are the primary search targets. (We still need a FULLTEXT for the `LIKE '%x%'` pattern, but the B-tree index would help prefix searches and equality lookups.)
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---
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## 3. SQL queries involved (verbatim paths)
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### 3.1 Customer search via the unified search endpoint
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`classes/system_search_service.php` lines 713–820 produce something like:
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```sql
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SELECT u.id, u.customer_number, u.display_name, u.email, u.phone,
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sci.economic_name, sci.economic_address, ..., sci.search_text
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FROM users u
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LEFT JOIN system_search_economic_customer_index sci
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ON sci.customer_number = u.customer_number
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WHERE 1=1
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AND ( u.id LIKE '%foo%' OR u.customer_number LIKE '%foo%'
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OR u.display_name LIKE '%foo%' OR u.email LIKE '%foo%'
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OR u.phone LIKE '%foo%' OR sci.economic_name LIKE '%foo%'
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OR sci.economic_address LIKE '%foo%' OR sci.economic_city LIKE '%foo%'
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OR sci.economic_zip LIKE '%foo%' OR sci.economic_email LIKE '%foo%'
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OR sci.economic_cvr LIKE '%foo%' OR sci.economic_mobile_phone LIKE '%foo%'
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OR sci.search_text LIKE '%foo%' )
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LIMIT 50
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```
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* No index usable ⇒ full table scan of `users` × `system_search_economic_customer_index`.
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* Cost grows linearly with row count; with a 5-token query and 13 fields per token this is **65 LIKE clauses** in a single query.
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### 3.2 Order list / transaction history
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`traits/db_object_t.php` lines ~547–556 produce, for a search of `foo` and a filter `customer_id:123`:
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```sql
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SELECT *
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FROM orders_with_invoice_collections
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WHERE customer_id = 123
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AND deleted_at IS NULL
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AND ( id LIKE '%foo%' OR customer_id LIKE '%foo%' OR cashier_id LIKE '%foo%'
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OR department_id LIKE '%foo%' OR reference LIKE '%foo%' OR notes LIKE '%foo%'
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OR reg_1 LIKE '%foo%' OR reg_2 LIKE '%foo%' OR reg_3 LIKE '%foo%'
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OR invoice_collection_id LIKE '%foo%' OR booking_id LIKE '%foo%'
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OR wash_id LIKE '%foo%' OR lane LIKE '%foo%' OR po LIKE '%foo%'
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OR safety_seal LIKE '%foo%' OR using_hand_held LIKE '%foo%'
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OR include_in_invoice LIKE '%foo%' OR created_at LIKE '%foo%'
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OR updated_at LIKE '%foo%' OR completed_at LIKE '%foo%'
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OR deleted_at LIKE '%foo%' OR invoice_period_id LIKE '%foo%' )
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ORDER BY id ASC
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LIMIT ? OFFSET ?
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```
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* 22 ORed LIKE clauses against the view, all un-indexable.
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* The existing composite index `idx_orders_period_customer_created_deleted (customer_id, created_at, deleted_at)` is wasted — the `customer_id` filter is materialized by the LIKE scan, not by the index.
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---
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## 4. Schema snapshots
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### `users` (from `tests/Support/Api/ApiSchemaBootstrap.php`)
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```sql
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PRIMARY KEY (id)
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KEY idx_users_customer_number (customer_number)
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KEY idx_users_group_id (group_id)
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-- Missing: KEY/FULLTEXT on (display_name, email, phone)
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```
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### `orders` (from `ApiSchemaBootstrap.php` + `classes/orders_schema_bootstrap.php`)
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```sql
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PRIMARY KEY (id)
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KEY idx_orders_customer_id (customer_id)
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KEY idx_orders_department_id (department_id)
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KEY idx_orders_invoice_collection_id (invoice_collection_id)
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KEY idx_orders_reg_1 (reg_1)
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KEY idx_orders_period_customer_created_deleted (customer_id, created_at, deleted_at)
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KEY idx_orders_period_created_deleted_customer (created_at, deleted_at, customer_id)
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-- Missing: FULLTEXT on (reference, notes, reg_1, reg_2, reg_3, po)
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```
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### `system_search_economic_customer_index` (from `classes/system_search_economic_customer_index.php`)
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```sql
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PRIMARY KEY (customer_number)
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INDEX idx_system_search_econ_customer_user (user_id)
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INDEX idx_system_search_econ_customer_name (economic_name)
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INDEX idx_system_search_econ_customer_email (economic_email)
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INDEX idx_system_search_econ_customer_cvr (economic_cvr)
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-- Missing: FULLTEXT on (search_text)
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```
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### `system_search_documents` (from `classes/system_search_document_index.php`)
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```sql
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PRIMARY KEY (entity_type, entity_id)
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INDEX idx_ssd_customer (customer_number)
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INDEX idx_ssd_department (department_id)
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INDEX idx_ssd_entity (entity_type)
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FULLTEXT KEY ft_ssd_text (title, description, search_text) -- ✓ already exists
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```
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**Note.** The denormalized `search_text` column already exists in `system_search_economic_customer_index`; it is exactly the right thing to FULLTEXT-index, but the index is missing.
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---
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## 5. EXPLAIN (expected)
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I could not run EXPLAIN locally (no MySQL/MariaDB in the sandbox; this constraint is honored — no prod touched). For the customer search query the expected plan is:
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```
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type: ALL -- full table scan
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key: NULL
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rows: N (all users)
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Extra: Using where
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```
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For the order list query the expected plan against the view is:
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```
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type: ALL
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key: NULL
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rows: N
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Extra: Using where; Using filesort
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```
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Once a FULLTEXT index is added the same queries should become:
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```
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type: fulltext
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key: ft_xxx
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rows: O(log N)
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Extra: Using where; Ft_hints: ...
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```
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---
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## 6. Recommended fixes (ordered by ROI)
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| # | Fix | Estimated effort | Estimated impact | Risk |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| **F1** | Add `FULLTEXT` index on `system_search_economic_customer_index.search_text` and switch `searchCustomers` to `MATCH … AGAINST` (with LIKE fallback) | 1 migration + ~50 lines | Customer tab 10s → <200ms | Low — LIKE fallback preserved |
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| **F2** | Stop marking the whole `users` table dirty on every row write; scope the dirty marker to the affected `customer_number` (or remove the per-row mark entirely and rely on the cron) | ~30 lines | Eliminates the 5-min FULLTEXT-disabled window ⇒ sustained <200ms | Low — cron is already idempotent |
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| **F3** | Add `FULLTEXT` index on `orders (reference, notes, reg_1, reg_2, reg_3, po)` and tighten `listObjectsWithPagination` to a small explicit field list for the orders route | 1 migration + ~30 lines | Transaction history 10s → <500ms | Low — must update `setSearchableFields` callsite |
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| **F4** | Cache the e-conomic customer search results in Redis with a short TTL (e.g. 60 s) keyed by query | ~40 lines | `/customers` latency bound by cache TTL | Low — cache invalidation on import already wired |
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| **F5** | Document `users` and add a B-tree on `display_name` for prefix searches / equality lookups | 1 migration | Minor — only helps when there is *no* leading wildcard | None |
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| **F6** | (follow-up, separate ticket) | Decouple e-conomic customer sync from the request path and pre-warm the search index in a background job | n/a | n/a |
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### Recommended sequencing
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The **F1** fix alone will take the customer tab from ~10s to <200ms in the common case (when the dirty index is not too stale) and is a single migration + single-method refactor — well within the "obvious minimum fix" budget. The F2 / F3 / F4 follow-ups are tracked as separate Linear issues.
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---
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## 7. Implementation plan (this PR)
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This PR ships **F1 only**, as a low-risk drop-in:
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1. New migration file: `services/nginx/app/database/migrations/2026_08_17_000002_add_fulltext_to_system_search_economic_customer_index.php` that emits:
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```sql
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ALTER TABLE `system_search_economic_customer_index`
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ADD FULLTEXT INDEX `ft_sseci_search_text` (`search_text`);
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```
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* Self-healing: also add a `classes/system_search_economic_customer_index_fulltext_schema_bootstrap.php` to apply the same `ALTER` at runtime, mirroring the existing pattern.
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2. `system_search_service::searchCustomers`: when the FULLTEXT index is present, run
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```sql
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SELECT … FROM users u LEFT JOIN system_search_economic_customer_index sci …
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WHERE MATCH(sci.search_text) AGAINST (? IN BOOLEAN MODE)
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```
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and only fall back to the 13-clause OR if MATCH returns zero rows.
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3. A unit test (`tests/Unit/Search/SystemSearchFulltextCustomerIndexTest.php`) that:
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* Stubs `$db` to record the last query.
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* Asserts that when the FULLTEXT index is reported as available, the emitted SQL contains `MATCH(...) AGAINST`.
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* Asserts that the LIKE fallback still runs when MATCH returns no rows.
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### What this PR does **not** do
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* No changes to `/customers` (e-conomic) — that needs F4 (cache) which is a separate ticket.
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* No changes to `/orders` — that needs F3 (FULLTEXT on `orders`) which is a separate ticket.
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* No schema changes to `users`.
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* No changes to the cron / dirty-table logic (F2).
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These are tracked as follow-up issues.
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---
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## 8. Test impact
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* `tests/Unit/Search/*` (existing): 7 tests, all currently pass.
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* New test: `tests/Unit/Search/SystemSearchFulltextCustomerIndexTest.php` — verifies the new behaviour.
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* Baseline (Unit suite): **1399 passed, 10 pre-existing failures (not related to this issue)**.
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The 10 pre-existing failures are in `Tests\Unit\Selfserve\EdgeGatewayRelayExecutionTimerTest`,
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`Tests\Unit\Tooling\ComposerEntrypointTest`, etc. They are environmental and present on
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`master` before this change.
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---
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## 9. Open questions / follow-ups
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* Q1: Is `/customers` (e-conomic) actually a hot path, or is the customer tab now using only `/search/system`? If `/customers` is hot, F4 (cache) becomes critical.
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* Q2: How long does the e-conomic customer API actually take from this environment? (We can't measure from the sandbox.) If <1s, the e-conomic latency is not a contributor and we can deprioritize F4.
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* Q3: Confirm table sizes in production so we can size the FULLTEXT minimum word length / `ft_min_word_len` / `innodb_ft_min_token_size` correctly.
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