fix(web): a search searchd cannot parse shows 0 results, not a 500

Staging traffic parity: /).split( returned 500 because Sphinx rejected the
query with ER_PARSE_ERROR. PHP ran the same query through the mysql CLI,
got no rows and showed 0 results titled Home. Do the same.

Also allow the intended highlight difference for queries with leading or
trailing punctuation (/_ignition), limited by a check to pages where only
the searchterm spans differ.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: kckern

apps/web/src/data/external/sphinx.js

@@ -63,7 +63,15 @@ export class SphinxClient {
   }
 
   async search(query, opts) {
-    const rows = await this.query(buildSearchSql(query, opts));
+    let rows;
+    try {
+      rows = await this.query(buildSearchSql(query, opts));
+    } catch (err) {
+      // Operators pass through as typed, so searchd rejects some queries (/).split( ). PHP ran
+      // them through the mysql CLI, got no rows and showed 0 results.
+      if (err.code === 'ER_PARSE_ERROR') return [];
+      throw err;
+    }
     return rows.map(r => ({ verse_id: Number(r.verse_id), version: String(r.version) }));
   }
 

apps/web/test/parity/allow.json

@@ -13,5 +13,6 @@
   "asset /css/ui.css": "Google sign-in removed: the settings panel's Logout button and its #logout rule are gone (owner decision #11, 2026-10-22)",
   "* check:staleSectionHeading": "Live heads a passage whose first verse starts a section with § but not §¶ (a psalm superscription, NIV Ps. 23:1 \"§A psalm of David.¶▼…\", or after a division label, NET Ps. 90:1 \"Book 4 (Psalms 90-106)§A prayer…\") with the section before it (\"Psalm 22\" and an ellipsis on /niv/ps.23); Node heads it with the section at that verse, and a whole chapter that is one section gets section nav as with §¶; a label before §¶ (NIV Ps. 1:1 \"§Psalms 1–41§¶…\") keeps its passage without live's heading (owner decision 2026-10-22). Allowed only where live shows that heading and ellipsis ending right before the first verse, the first verse's live raw text starts a section, Node's heading is the raw heading with the section's range on live's tag, and nothing else differs but the nav labels of the same links",
   "latex re:(^|[/;])jst\\. && check:latexMissingVerses": "PHP latex read LDS only and dropped JST verses; Node renders each block's version (decision 2026-10-23). Only for references with a JST piece, and only where every live verse is in Node's output and Node has more (live empty or missing verses)",
-  "html re:\\d[a-z]$ && check:subverseDigit": "A trailing subverse letter (/john.3.16a): PHP's /\\d[a-z]$/ also dropped the digit before it (John 3:1); Node drops only the letter (requestParsing.js). Allowed where every differing line is Node's with one digit removed"
+  "html re:\\d[a-z]$ && check:subverseDigit": "A trailing subverse letter (/john.3.16a): PHP's /\\d[a-z]$/ also dropped the digit before it (John 3:1); Node drops only the letter (requestParsing.js). Allowed where every differing line is Node's with one digit removed",
+  "html re:^/(?:search/)?[^A-Za-z0-9/?][^/?]*$|^/(?:search/)?[^/?]*[^A-Za-z0-9/?.]$ && check:highlightOnly": "Search terms with leading or trailing punctuation (/_ignition): live's empty preg_split piece wraps every word in empty searchterm spans; Node highlights only the query words (intended, searchService.test.js). Allowed where only the highlight spans differ"
 }

apps/web/test/parity/allow.mjs

@@ -30,6 +30,20 @@ const CHECKS = {
     const oneDigitLess = (a, b) => b.length === a.length + 1 && [...b].some((ch, i) => /\d/.test(ch) && b.slice(0, i) + b.slice(i + 1) === a);
     return l.some((line, i) => line !== n[i]) && l.every((line, i) => line === n[i] || oneDigitLess(line, n[i]));
   },
+  // Only the search highlight spans differ: without them, the same markup lines in order and the
+  // same text (quoted lines joined, whitespace ignored)
+  highlightOnly: ({ live, node }) => {
+    if (typeof live !== 'string' || typeof node !== 'string') return false;
+    const strip = body => {
+      const lines = body.split('\n').map(l => l.trim()).filter(l => l !== '<span class="searchterm">');
+      return {
+        markup: lines.filter(l => !l.startsWith('"')).join('\n'),
+        text: lines.filter(l => l.startsWith('"')).map(l => l.replace(/^"|"$/g, '')).join('').replace(/\s+/g, ''),
+      };
+    };
+    const l = strip(live), n = strip(node);
+    return l.markup === n.markup && l.text === n.text;
+  },
   // PHP latex read the request's version only and dropped verses (JST) Node prints: every live
   // verse is in Node's output, and Node has more
   latexMissingVerses: ({ live, node }) => {

apps/web/test/parity/allow.test.js

@@ -140,3 +140,19 @@ describe('allow.json: a trailing subverse letter keeps the digit before it', ()
     expect(reason('/xx386', page(''), page('6'))).toBeUndefined();
   });
 });
+
+describe('allow.json: highlight spans for a query with leading or trailing punctuation', () => {
+  const allow = JSON.parse(readFileSync(new URL('./allow.json', import.meta.url), 'utf8'));
+  const span = '            <span class="searchterm">';
+  const live = ['<li>', span, '  "The"', span, '"more ', span, '  "igniting"', '</li>'].join('\n');
+  const node = ['<li>', '  "The more "', span, '  "igniting"', '</li>'].join('\n');
+  const reason = (path, l, n) => allowReason(allow, 'html', path, l, { live: l, node: n });
+  test('allowed where only the highlight spans differ', () => {
+    expect(reason('/_ignition', live, node)).toMatch(/punctuation/);
+  });
+  test('not where the text or markup differs, nor for a plain query', () => {
+    expect(reason('/_ignition', live, node.replace('more', 'less'))).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(reason('/_ignition', live, node.replace('</li>', '</ul>'))).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(reason('/ignition', live, node)).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+});

apps/web/test/unit/sphinx.test.js

@@ -75,6 +75,16 @@ describe('SphinxClient', () => {
     expect(connect).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(2);
   });
 
+  test('a query searchd cannot parse finds nothing, as live does', async () => {
+    // /).split( : PHP ran the query through the mysql CLI, got no rows on the syntax error and
+    // showed 0 results
+    const bad = Object.assign(new Error("index 'sgindex': syntax error, unexpected ')'"), { code: 'ER_PARSE_ERROR' });
+    const connect = vi.fn(async () => ({ query: vi.fn(async () => { throw bad; }), end: vi.fn(async () => {}) }));
+    const client = new SphinxClient({ host: 'sphinx' }, connect);
+    await expect(client.search(') split(')).resolves.toEqual([]);
+    await expect(client.query('SELEC')).rejects.toThrow('syntax error');
+  });
+
   test('createSphinxClient is null without a host', () => {
     expect(createSphinxClient({ host: '' })).toBeNull();
     expect(createSphinxClient({ host: 'sphinx', port: 9306 })).toBeInstanceOf(SphinxClient);