Efficient Content Storage and Indexing (ECSI) in Contextual Related Posts Pro and Better Search Pro

Efficient Content Storage & Indexing (ECSI) is an advanced data storage system for Contextual Related Posts Pro and Better Search Pro, significantly improving the quality of related posts and search results with enhanced performance. The post content is stored in custom database tables optimized for search and retrieval. This feature was first introduced in Contextual Related Posts Pro v4 and Better Search Pro v4.2.

By creating custom database tables with intelligent indexing, ECSI delivers better performance without requiring technical expertise. WordPress multisite users will particularly benefit as queries are simpler and faster.

Overview

ECSI moves processed post content into dedicated, optimized tables, rather than using WordPress’s native post tables. This approach:

• Post content is pre-processed for shortcodes and blocks, eliminating the superfluous markup created by WordPress when saving post content.
• Custom FULLTEXT indices to improve contextual matching.
• Provides better support for multisite WordPress installations.
• Advanced related posts storage and tracking (coming soon in a future version of CRP Pro)

Benefits of ECSI

1. Faster Queries
   • Pre-processed content eliminates runtime processing
   • Optimised table structure for related posts/search queries
   • Efficient FULLTEXT indices for content searching
2. Better Resource Usage
   • Reduced database load
   • Optimised storage format
   • Efficient taxonomy relationship handling
3. Scalability
   • Handles large post volumes efficiently
   • Optimised for multisite installations
   • Batch processing for large indexing operations

How ECSI works behind the scenes

When you enable ECSI, the plugin creates a custom table wp_wz_posts to store the pre-processed content, which includes:

• Multisite Support: Optimised for sites with multiple networks.
• FULLTEXT Indices: Speed up title, content, and excerpt searches.
• JSON Columns: Store taxonomy terms and relationships in a flexible format.
• Generated Columns: Pre-compute values to boost query performance.

Contextual Related Posts Pro and Better Search Pro use the same tables, eliminating any duplication if you’re running both plugins.

When you save a post, ECSI processes it in several steps:

• Renders blocks and shortcodes
• Strips HTML tags and Gutenberg comments
• Optimises content length (max 50,000 characters)
• Extracts and stores taxonomy relationships
• Maintains primary term information
• Stores processed data in the custom table

This approach eliminates processing time during content retrieval, resulting in faster queries and reduced server load. ECSI queries fully support caching; just remember to enable caching on the settings page.

Enabling ECSI

Prerequisites

• Contextual Related Posts Pro and/or Better Search Pro activated
• Super Admin for Multisite or Administrator access to your WordPress site

Enable for a single site

1. Go to Settings → Related Posts or Better Search → Settings
2. Click the Performance tab
3. Toggle Use Custom Tables to ON
4. Save changes
5. Go to Tools → Related Posts Tools or Better Search → Tools
6. Click Reindex Custom Tables
7. Optionally, check Force reindex to delete existing posts and resync.
8. Wait for the process to complete

Enable on a multisite network

1. In Network Admin, go to Contextual Related Posts → Settings or Better Search → Settings
2. Under the Performance settings section, select Enable Enhanced Content Search Index on all sites.
3. Save settings
4. Go to Network Admin → Contextual Related Posts → Tools or Network Admin → Better Search → Tools
5. Select specific sites or leave all unchecked to process the entire network
6. Click Reindex Custom Tables

Content Synchronization

Automatic Updates

ECSI maintains data consistency through:

1. Real-time synchronisation on post updates
2. Automatic removal of deleted posts
3. Handling of post status changes
4. Ignores revisions and autosaves
5. Multisite synchronization

Batch Processing

For bulk operations:

• Processes posts in batches of 25
• Shows progress indicators
• Allows stopping and resuming
• Marks tables as ready at 80% completion
• Handles network-wide operations

Compatibility

ECSI is compatible with:

• WordPress multisite networks
• Custom post types (if enabled in Contextual Related Posts and/or Better Search settings)
• Most caching plugins
• Popular WordPress themes and plugins

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does reindexing take?

Reindexing processes posts in batches of 25. A site with:

• 500 posts: about 2-3 minutes
• 5,000 posts: about 15-20 minutes
• 50,000+ posts: may take several hours

This will depend on the server resources on which your site is hosted. The process can run in the background using WordPress’ cron, which is particularly useful if you have a large number of posts.

Will enabling ECSI affect my existing related posts?

Existing related posts will be updated once the cache is invalidated and served from the custom table. You can manually clear the cache to speed up this process.

What happens if I disable ECSI later?

The plugin will revert to using standard WordPress tables. Custom tables remain in your database until manually removed.

Do I need to reindex after adding new content?

No. New and updated content is automatically processed and added to the custom tables.

Troubleshooting

Best practices

For optimal performance

• Enable ECSI before adding large amounts of content
• Reindex during off-peak hours
• Regularly monitor database performance
• Use a good-quality hosting provider

For multisite networks

• Consider storage requirements before enabling network-wide
• Monitor performance on individual sites
• Use network-wide reindexing for consistency

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