* @return SearchIndexField|false New definition or false if not mergeable.
*/
public function merge( SearchIndexField $that );
+
+ /**
+ * A list of search engine hints for this field.
+ * Hints are usually specific to a search engine implementation
+ * and allow to fine control how the search engine will handle this
+ * particular field.
+ *
+ * For example some search engine permits some optimizations
+ * at index time by ignoring an update if the updated value
+ * does not change by more than X% on a numeric value.
+ *
+ * @param SearchEngine $engine
+ * @return array an array of hints generally indexed by hint name. The type of
+ * values is search engine specific
+ * @since 1.30
+ */
+ public function getEngineHints( SearchEngine $engine );
}