Why is search case-sensitive?

[DrVolodya]

It appears that the search in LinkAce is case-sensitive. Why? Can it be an option for those rare situation when it can be useful and be case-insensitive by default?

[Kovah]

Can you share a few more details about your case and setup? Because the default setup was changed long ago, it might be left from LinkAce 1 if you used that and upgraded.

[DrVolodya]

"Current version: v2.4.0" I've just installed everything on my Synology 2 days ago using /latest.
I've also now confirmed that the search doesn't recognize partial strings either, but that is less of an issue.
If there's a default behaviour, is there a way to change it on my side to have search case-insensitive? Thanks!

[Kovah]

I would need further details for that. As I mentioned, the default is case insensitive handling. Have you used the docker-compose file? What database do you use?

[DrVolodya]

OK, thanks. Yes, I used Portainer with the following. And it's Postgres.

------------
services:
  linkace-db:
    image: postgres:18
    container_name: LinkAce-DB
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "pg_isready", "-q", "-d", "linkace", "-U", "linkaceuser"]
      timeout: 45s
      interval: 10s
      retries: 10
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: linkace
      POSTGRES_USER: ***
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ***
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/linkace/db:/var/lib/postgresql:rw
    restart: on-failure:5

  linkace:
    image: linkace/linkace:latest
    container_name: LinkAce
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "nc -z 127.0.0.1 80 || exit 1"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 90s 
    environment:
      APP_ENV: production
      DB_CONNECTION: pgsql
      DB_HOST: linkace-db
      DB_PORT: 5432
      DB_DATABASE: linkace
      DB_USERNAME: linkaceuser
      DB_PASSWORD: linkacepass
      BACKUP_ENABLED: true #or false to Enable Backups.
      MAIL_FROM_NAME: LinkAce
      MAIL_DRIVER: smtp
      MAIL_HOST: ***
      MAIL_PORT: 465
      MAIL_USERNAME: ****
      MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS: ***
      MAIL_PASSWORD: ***
      MAIL_ENCRYPTION: tls
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/linkace/data:/var/www/html/storage:rw
      - /volume1/docker/linkace/backups:/app/backups:rw
      - /volume1/docker/linkace/logs:/storage/logs:rw
    ports:
      - 8087:80
    depends_on:
      - linkace-db
    restart: on-failure:5
------------

[Kovah]

Hm, you might want to check on the default Postgres behavior. I am not using it for LinkAce in production, so I can just guess what might be wrong.
For reference, the Demo runs on SQLite where search is case insensitive. My personal instance runs on MySQL with the current default setup and there it works as well.

[DrVolodya]

Thanks for your answers! I've now reinstalled LinkAce with mariadb, and still get only case-sensitive search results... I've given up. Have no idea why it's not working for me as designed.

[DrVolodya]

OK, got it! It turned out, that the linkace DB was in _bin collation so it was case-sensitive when string matching. I've converted it to _ci and all is working as expected. Sorry to bother you, I should've looked into this from the beginning.

[DrVolodya]

Maybe adding the following, as was suggested to me by Marius, will help?
command:
- --character-set-server=utf8mb4
- --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
- --skip-character-set-client-handshake

[Kovah]

The bin collation was the default for LinkAce 1, but was changed quite a while ago. It's weird that your own Postgres did that on its own. 🧐
Will investigate if there's stuff still present somewhere in RT he codebase.

[habitats-tech]

The best way to solve UTF-8 issues is the OS you are operating should be set to use UTF-8 encoding prior to installing any software. For example, in Debian the default (as in most distros) is C. You need to set it to C.UTF-8.

In Debian you use a command like: Debian<=12: localectl set-locale LANG=C.UTF-8 - Debian=13: update-locale LANG=C.UTF-8

See this link: https://portal.habitats.tech/Debian+(DEB)/4.+Debian+-+Setup#Configure+Locale+(recommended)

LinkAce guide coming up tomorrow at https://portal.habitats.tech

[DrVolodya]

I've actually re-inastalled LinkAce with MasiaDB, and the result was the same. That's when I started looking into collation.
I'm using DSM7 on Synology. Don't know if that has a play in this.

[DrVolodya]

Yes, I think you are correct, it's the OS. I've changes the settings in /etc/profile and will do a test at some point. Thank you!