Collaboration opportunity: Appwrite x Meilisearch

[ferdi05]

On June 1, 2022, @eldadfux (CEO at Appwrite) contacted @qdequele (CEO at Meilisearch) to discuss creating an integration between our two services and creating content about it.

On June 7, 2022, @tessamero (Head of Developer Relations at Appwrite), @TorstenDittmann (Lead Engineer at Appwrite), @brunoocasali (Integrations Team Manager at Meilisearch), and @ferdi05 (Head of Developer Relations at Meilisearch) met to discuss this.

Torsten said he started playing with Meilisearch on his laptop and liked the experience.

We could create an excellent use case that leverages both Appwrite and Meilisearch. For instance, we thought about creating an Evernote-like demo app.

We discussed creating and cross-promoting content around this use case. We will start with a blog post and use our promotion channels, including a live stream (which is not something that Meilisearch does yet, but is interested in).

To start collaborating on this topic, Tessa will create a Discord channel (on Appwrite's Discord) and invite anyone needed. Tessa and Torsten will discuss what could be this use case and possibly start designing it before creating the content for the blog post. The Meilisearch team will try to assist wherever possible with the code and content, especially by giving best practices to integrate Meilisearch. Then we'll discuss the content distribution.

Next step: synch through the joint Discord channel.

[tessamero]

Awesome! A discord channel has been created and added @ferdi05.

@brunoocasali , can you join the discord https://appwrite.io/discord and i can add your username to the channel :-D

[brunoocasali]

Awesome! A discord channel has been created and added @ferdi05.

@brunoocasali , can you join the discord https://appwrite.io/discord and i can add your username to the channel :-D

Done! :)

[tessamero]

Added you @brunoocasali :D Next steps is i need to meet with Torsten. We had a conference all last week and all this week so it will be easier to move forward with things faster as of next week! :)

[codercatdev]

@brunoocasali and team here is the blog and repo we have created, feel free to check it out before we publish. Also happy to give you a demo if it would help.

https://dev.to/appwrite/building-an-open-source-search-engine-with-appwrite-and-meilisearch-40kn

https://github.com/Haimantika/Meili-integration

[ferdi05]

On 2022-10-20, @codercatdev @haimantika @brunoocasali and @ferdi05 had a meeting to discuss how we could make it more like a Meilisearch integration.

The current version of the Appwrite-Meilisearch integration has some issues:

• easy to fix: some variable are hard coded (example)
• less easy to fix: we're missing some features than Appwrite users could benefit from
• the two databases are not syncing

We could get some inspiration from the Firebase integration with Meilisearch.

Next steps:

1. Appwrite to ask any relevant questions to Meilisearch to help define the requirements
2. Appwrite to work on the code
3. Review by Meilisearch
4. Appwrite to create a documentation on the integration
5. (Possibly wrap this up into a future extension? I couldn't see anything similar in the Appwrite SDK page)
6. Appwrite to update the write-up about this, happily supported my Meilisearch
7. More co-marketing opportunities (TBD)

We forgot to discuss about maintaining this extension: it seems easier if Appwrite takes care of this until Meilisearch reaches v1 (which is supposed to happen in the coming months, and not many Meilisearch versions away from now). v1 will help a lot by providing stability. Otherwise, Meilisearch would be happy to take care of this provided it respects the Integration guidelines.

There's currently no deadline.

[qdequele]

less easy to fix: we're missing some features than Appwrite users could benefit from

What are those missing features?

[brunoocasali]

less easy to fix: we're missing some features than Appwrite users could benefit from

What are those missing features?

My pov:

Today, we only have a script that connects to the Meilisearch instance. To be a natural integration, it should be more accessible to the user to install, set up, and use the integration (like the other integrations we have). That's something not possible with the current implementation.

After the installation, the connection between the Appwrite data should be sent automatically to the Meilisearch instance. Also, the possibility of customizing Meili's settings could be a good addition.

[codercatdev]

Hello Meilisearch folks, just wanted to ping you with an update that we are waiting for our new G4 Functions to complete and we will rewrite the integration and examples. This re-write should be out during Q1 2023.

[ferdi05]

Thanks for letting us know @codercatdev !