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Advanced searching with Views and ApacheSolr

Robert DouglassDecember 12, 2008

Do It With Drupal

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The search box

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The search box

It has revolutionized the Internet by taking an

impossibly large result set and making it manageable.

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The search box

Ye Ol’ Internets

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The search boxDrupal

Drupal

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The search boxDrupal ponies

Drupal

ponies

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Drupal ponies bacon

The search box

Drupal

ponies

bacon

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The search boxDrupal ponies bacon

Jeff Eaton

Drupal

ponies

bacon

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The search box

You are forced to guess in advance what might be available,

and how it describes itself.

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The search box

Please be descriptive.

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The search box

And

inventive.

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The search box

Sorry, that doesn’t exist.

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Drupal’s search box

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Drupal’s search box

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Drupal’s search box

Not exactly the emphasis of our site.

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Drupal’s search box

Why can’t Drupal’s search be as good as Google?

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Drupal’s search box

Tip: set your scoring factors to zero.

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Drupal’s search box

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Drupal’s search box

Why can’t Drupal’s search be as fast as Google?

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Drupal’s search box

Hint: node_load()

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The advanced search box

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Advanced search box

Attempts to reduce the result set by using meta data.

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Advanced search box

Is somewhat better than the naked search box.

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Advanced search box

The person searching has guidance on how to

reduce the results.

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Advanced search box

You can still end up with zero results, though.

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Advanced search box

You still have to guess about how to find what you’re looking for.

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Advanced search box

People don’t want to have to do that much work!

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Advanced search box

The best recipe for “advanced” search forms

is Views, with a search filter.

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Advanced search box

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Advanced search box

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Advanced search box

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Advanced search box

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Advanced search box

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Advanced search box

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Advanced search box

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Advanced search box

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Views and search !lters

Why can’t Views with search filters be as fast as Google?

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Views and search !lters

Hint: node_load()

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Views and search !lters

And you can still come to a zero result search query.

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Meet faceted search

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Meet faceted search

Faceted search reverses the search paradigm.

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Meet faceted search

Instead of thinking of a super-specific search to cut through

too many results,

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Meet faceted search

you start with the most general search that describes what you’re

looking for.

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Meet faceted search

From there you narrow the set down.

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Meet faceted search

You get guidance from the facets.

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Meet faceted search

You never come to a dead-end with zero results.

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Meet faceted search

If you sense that you are refining in the wrong direction

you can back up.

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Meet faceted search

Or you can remove a criterion and broaden the search.

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Meet faceted search

Search becomes multi-dimensional.

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Meet faceted search

Search becomes interactive.

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Meet faceted search

Search becomes iterative.

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Meet faceted search• Start broad and general• Narrow on facets• Sort• Back up (remove facetes)• Narrow again• Victory!

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Meet faceted search

Your idea of the search goal often changes in the midst of searching.

Faceted search does more to inspire you into new directions.

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

Next generation search for Drupal.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Lucene / Solr / Drupal

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Meet ApacheSolr

Java = faster than PHP + MySQL

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Meet ApacheSolr

Solr is a separate server.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Database Solr Server

Webserver +

PHP

SQL

POST

to indexGET

to search

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Meet ApacheSolr

ApacheSolr is a Drupal module that integrates Drupal with Solr.

http://drupal.org/project/apachesolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

http://drupal.org/project/apachesolr

• Robert Douglass

• Jacob Singh

• Peter Wolanin

• Frank Febbraro

• Mike J. O’Connor

• Alejandro Garza

• Thomas Seidl

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Meet ApacheSolr

ApacheSolr has native faceted search.

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr• Content types• Authors• Taxonomy terms• Languages• CCK field values• Site (for multisite search)

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Meet ApacheSolr

ApacheSolr has sortable search results.

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

ApacheSolr can index attached files.

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Meet ApacheSolr

ApacheSolr can recommend content.

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Meet ApacheSolr

By evaluating the similarity of texts, Solr determines what

content has similarities.

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Meet ApacheSolr

The ApacheSolr "More Like This" module

provides content recommendation blocks on node view pages.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Solr evaluates the title, body, taxonomy terms, author name, etc.

for similarity.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Content recommendationis a great tool for

making your site sticky and leading site visitors

to the next item of interest.

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

ApacheSolr is highly configurable.

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

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Meet ApacheSolr

ApacheSolr can search across multiple websites.

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???

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Meet ApacheSolr

Why can’t ApacheSolr be as fast as Google?

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Meet ApacheSolr

It can be!!!

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Meet ApacheSolr

Hint: No node_load()

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Meet ApacheSolr

ApacheSolr will soon be available as a hosted solution

from Acquia.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Acquia’s hosted solution is a way to scale your website.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Move server load from your servers to ours.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Move sysadmin load from your organization to ours.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Move uptime and monitoring worries from your team to ours.

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Meet ApacheSolr

Questions?