This magento extension provides integration for Magento CE with a sphinx search server.

sphinxsearch was tested on Magento CE version 1.7.X.X and 1.8.0.0. It probably works with 1.6.X.X too, but i haven't tested it yet. Earlier versions of Magento won't work without changes in the extension code.

• Use modman (https://github.com/colinmollenhour/modman) for easy installation of this extension. Integration with magento connect will be provided in the near future.
• If you don't want to use modman you can install the extension manually instead:
  • Just copy the following directory with all contained files and subdirs to your shop root directory. Use this exact path, create subdirs if necessary!
    • app/code/community/Gfe/SphinxSearch
  • Also copy the following 2 files to your shop directory:
    • app/etc/modules/Gfe_SphinxSearch.xml
    • lib/sphinxapi.php
• Logout from magento backend to execute extension setup files.
• Login to backend to configure sphinxsearch under Configuration/Catalog/Sphinx Search Engine.
• Recreate index catalog_search

Please refer to the sphinx installation guide for your server OS.

Just a quick guide for Debian GNU/Linux or Ubuntu:

• # apt-get install sphinxsearch
• Then copy sphinx.conf.example to /etc/sphinxsearch/sphinx.conf and edit according to your database configuration. This config file provides sphinx search server all information to create an its index for all products in your magento shop.
• Edit /etc/default/sphinxsearch (change NO to YES)
• re-create sphinx' index: # indexer --all
• start sphinx search with # /etc/init.d/sphinxsearch start

Done!

I first integrated sphinx search into Magento 1.4.X.X with the help of this post:
http://tonyhb.com/using-sphinx-within-magento-plus-optimising-search-result-rankings-weights-and-relevancy
You can find this integration by user tonyhb here on github:
https://gist.github.com/2727341
I turned it into a full extension since then.