If content is king on the web, search is his right hand man

Any site with quality content must allow visitors to access it in a variety of ways. Since visitors frequently ignore existing navigation trails, no matter how well designed, they need a way to find what they want by entering general or specific natural language parameters. To not drive visitors away, search results must filter-able and relevant and page response times must be minimal.

Increasingly, organizations developing and upgrading high-traffic sites are turning for search to Apache Solr, an open source search platform from the Lucene project. Among the high-traffic sites running Solr are Netflix, CNET Reviews, Zappos, Internet Archive, and NASA's Planetary Data System. In terms of maturity, features, and performance, Solr can match proprietary search engines while also providing the cost benefits and flexibility of open source.

Along with an array of caching technologies, Solr Search is one of the main tools Achieve Internet uses in its Performance & Scalability practice area. By configuring and integrating these tools with Drupal using a tested methodology, Achieve Internet is able to provide high-performance, always-up web search solutions.

Rich in features, not in price

Apache Solr can provide the features that web visitors expect and that administrators need. Solr functionality includes:

Apache Solr is available for free via the Apache License, Version 2.0 and its code can be examined, extended, and modified.

Standards, flexibility, speed

Apache Solr can be housed in its own server or in a cloud, which allows for fine-tuned and dedicated search hardware. During a web configuration, data from the site, in XML format, is sent to Solr via HTTP. Solr creates its own database for the site and indexes the data, which can be updated according to a schedule or triggered when changes are made.

The data can then be queried by the web server using HTTP GET. Solr uses the Lucene Java search library to search its own database and its response format is configurable. It can return results in XML, PHP, JSON and other formats. The results tell the web server what to push to the browser.

Plays well with Drupal

Both Drupal and Apache Solr benefit from the long tail, since developers flock to open source projects that adhere to development standards and offer flexible interfaces. Since they are natural partners, a good deal of the framework for integrating Apache Solr with Drupal has already been established and is readily available. There are over a dozen Solr-focused Drupal modules, including ones for use with Ubercart and Solr Statistics.

Additionally, intregration will be even easier in the future. More modules are in development, most notably Views 3. Views is a popular Drupal module for accessing and displaying content. The new version will enable the building of Solr queries, including exposed queries that take user inputs, via the popular and highly-usable Views interface.

With a large support base for each product individually, and for both in combination, Apache Solr / Drupal integrations will continue benefit from high levels community participation and support.

Achieve Solr Search

With expertise in both technologies, Achieve Internet is a leading provider of Solr/Drupal integration services for the enterprise. Achieve has implemented successful Solr solutions on Drupal sites for several clients, including DC Comics, NBC Universal, and Drupal itself.

The Achieve Approach, which ensures the clear identification of goals and milestones and enables effective communication, iterates over for main steps: Discover, Architect, Develop, Deploy. For Solr deployments, this approach ensures that clients get the functionality, scalability, quality, and performance they need when it comes to search.

And search is important, because all the content in the world will not matter if visitors can't find it.

Contact us today to Achieve Solr Search.

  • faceting searching – filter searches on fields, including date ranges
  • settings to push certain content as results – useful if, for example, an eCommerce site wants products to appear higher on the results list
  • file content searching – allows for searching within .doc and other file types
  • ability to omit (or include) certain html elements from indexing
  • configurable “related content” recommendation algorithm – Solr can find and select content that's appropriate for the user's context and profile
  • a rich set of site statistic tools – allows website administrators to review and report on the most popular queries, query response time, and etc.