Real-time table

A Real-time table is a main type of table in Manticore, allowing you to add, update, and delete documents with immediate availability of the changes. The settings for a Real-time Table can be defined in a configuration file or online using CREATE/UPDATE/DELETE/ALTER commands.

A Real-time Table is comprised of one or multiple plain tables called chunks. There are two types of chunks:

multiple disk chunks - These are stored on disk and have the same structure as a Plain Table.
single ram chunk - This is stored in memory and is used as an accumulator of changes.

The size of the RAM chunk is controlled by the rt_mem_limit setting. Once this limit is reached, the RAM chunk is flushed to disk in the form of a disk chunk. If there are too many disk chunks, they can be merged into one for better performance using the OPTIMIZE command or automatically.

Creating a real-time table via SQL protocol:

CREATE TABLE products(title text, price float) morphology='stem_en';

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Creating a real-time table via JSON over HTTP:

POST /cli -d "CREATE TABLE products(title text, price float)  morphology='stem_en'"

{
"total":0,
"error":"",
"warning":""
}

Creating a real-time table via PHP client:

$index = new \Manticoresearch\Index($client);
$index->setName('products');
$index->create([
    'title'=>['type'=>'text'],
    'price'=>['type'=>'float'],
]);

Python:

utilsApi.sql('CREATE TABLE forum(title text, price float)')

Javascript:

res = await utilsApi.sql('CREATE TABLE forum(title text, price float)');

Java:

utilsApi.sql("CREATE TABLE forum(title text, price float)");

Creating a real-time table via a configuration file:

table products {
  type = rt
  path = tbl
  rt_field = title
  rt_attr_uint = price
  stored_fields = title
}

👍 What you can do with a real-time table:

Add documents using the Add feature.
Update attributes and full-text fields through the Update process.
Delete documents using the Delete feature.
Emptying the table using the Truncate process.
Change the schema online using the ALTER command as described in Change schema online.
Define the table in a configuration file as described in Define table.
Use the UUID feature for automatic ID provisioning.

⛔ What you cannot do with a real-time table:

Index data using the indexer feature.
Connect it to sources for easy indexing from external storage.
Update the killlist_target, as it is automatically managed by the real-time table.

Real-time table files structure

The following table outlines the different file extensions and their respective descriptions in a real-time table:

Extension	Description
`.lock`	A lock file that ensures that only one process can access the table at a time.
`.ram`	The RAM chunk of the table, stored in memory and used as an accumulator of changes.
`.meta`	The headers of the real-time table that define its structure and settings.
`..sp`	Disk chunks that are stored on disk with the same format as plain tables. They are created when the RAM chunk size exceeds the rt_mem_limit.

For more information on the structure of disk chunks, refer to the plain table format)