Uncovered - The black art of Solr search

Speakers: 
tlyngej

Turns out it’s not too hard!

Why this session:

Often when I add a search function to a site using Apache Solr I sometimes think: Who actually knows how simple and easy this is? Many developers/site builders are of the belief that this is some kind of black art, which couldn't be more wrong.

So what I want to contribute back to the community is an understanding of how Solr works, why/how it differs from Drupal Core Search module, and which benefits Solr has.

The focus of this presentation will be site builders. No code, and only a minimal amount of command line skill is required.

We’ll also look at results from benchmarks which conclusively prove the performance benefit that can be obtained.

My experience:

I've used Solr in a variety of different projects over the past 4 years. Most recently at www.rmg.co.uk where Solr is also being used to search non-Drupal content.

Presentation:

The presentation will include:

  • Basic introduction to what Solr is
  • How to set up the Search Api module
  • A demo of more complex features
  • The performance gain achieved using Solr, showing time saved per search.

It will not cover:

  • Solr configuration (apart the basics to get started)
  • Security
  • External Solr hosting services
Schedule info
Track: 
Site Building
Experience level: 
Intermediate
Drupal Version: 
Drupal 7.x

Comments

Nick_vh commented

Careful with your benchmarks as sometimes it's caching that will give you the benefit of the doubt.

If you are using Search API. Make sure you use Search API DB vs Search API Solr. Also make sure you measure the difference between a Search API page with entity_loads and a page where the results come straight from Solr.

Also, make sure you get the xhprof data so you know how much time is spend in Drupal vs Solr and how to improve that. I'd also suggest you take some data from using the Apache Solr Module.

Looking forward to your session!