Integrating Apache Solr with Alfresco WCM for Faceted Search and Navigation of Next-Generation Web Sites

Vagif JalilovRivet Logic

About Rivet Logic• Award-winning professional services focused on:

– Enterprise Content Management– Web Content Management– Collaboration and Social Communities

• Using Leading Open Source Software

Business Case for Alfresco & Solr• Large scale sites• Need for real-time updates• Full-text search• Faceted search

Technical Challenges for Search• Accurately index each page

– Solution: Assembly of relevant content to index• Targeted, real-time indexing

– Solution: Trigger indexing from publishing mechanism

Possible Index Solutions• Spidering/Crawling

– Follow navigational & cross-links– Parse HTML and fetch relevant content– Spider full (or partial) site each time

• Real-time Indexing– Triggered by FSR deployment– Process only change-set (incremental updates)– Assemble relevant page content

Source Control• Source code & libs• View templates• Site navigation• Web content

CMS (Alfresco)• Binary Content

Typical Web Application

Source Control• Source code & libs• (View templates)

CMS (Alfresco)• Binary Content• Web Content• Site Navigation• (View templates)

“Managed” (Riveted) Web Application

Page Composition

Section-html.xml

Related-links.xml

Supporting-items.xml

Meta-content.xml

Page-metadata.xml

dynamic

dynamic

Content Delivery

(http://crafterrivet.org)

Alfresco WCM Lifecycle

Indexing Architecture

Solr Customizations• Custom Solr

– Schema.xml• Fields (Type, Indexed/Stored)• Unique key

– Solrconfig.xml• “dismax” type request handler to define queried fields• ExtractingRequestHandler (indexing RT docs)

Custom Solr Schema <field name="page_url" type="string" indexed="true" stored="true"

required="true"/> <field name="page_title" type="text" indexed="true" stored="true"/> <field name="page_category" type="string" indexed="true"

stored="true"/> <field name="page_type" type="string" indexed="true"

stored="true"/> <field name="page_last_modified" type="date" indexed="true"

stored="true"/> <field name="page_text" type="text" indexed="true" stored="true"/> <field name="page_file_size" type="int" indexed="false"

stored="true"/> </fields>

<uniqueKey>page_url</uniqueKey>

ExtractingRequestHandler <!-- Solr Cell: http://wiki.apache.org/solr/ExtractingRequestHandler --> <requestHandler name="/update/extract"

class="org.apache.solr.handler.extraction.ExtractingRequestHandler" startup="lazy">

<lst name="defaults"> <str name="fmap.content">page_text</str> <str name="fmap.title">page_title</str> <str name="uprefix">ignored_</str> </lst> </requestHandler>

<dynamicField name="ignored_*" type="ignored"/>

ContentStreamUpdateRequest up = new ContentStreamUpdateRequest("/update/extract");up.addFile(new File(filePath));SolrServer solrServer = new CommonsHttpSolrServer(solrServerUrl);solrServer.request(up);solrServer.commit();

Custom RequestHandler <!-- DisMaxRequestHandler allows easy searching across multiple

fields for simple user-entered phrases. It's implementation is now just the standard SearchHandler with a default query type of "dismax". see http://wiki.apache.org/solr/DisMaxRequestHandler --> <requestHandler name=”solrDemoDismax" class="solr.SearchHandler" > <lst name="defaults"> <str name="defType">dismax</str> <str name="qf"> page_title^5.0 page_text^1.0 </str> </lst> </requestHandler>

Compilation• Compiler Engine processes all instructions• Dispatches to appropriate Page Type Compiler

Content Deployment & Solr Update

Compiler Instructions<updates deploy-root=”/path/to/content/root"> ...

<update>/solutions/security/article.xml</update><delete>/products/widget/top-section.xml</delete>...

</updates>

Compilation Types1. Web Pages (HTML)2. Rich Text (PDF)

Web Page Compilation & Indexing

Indexer Instructions

HTML Indexer Instruction<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?><add> <doc> <field name="page_url">/solutions/content-mgmt/overview.html</field> <field name="page_title">Increase productivity and streamline workflow

throughout the enterprise</field> <field name="page_description">Commercial enterprises and government agencies

face significant challenges as they strive to meet a rapidly growing need to manage thousands ...</field>

<field name="page_category”>Solutions</field> <field name="page_type">Web Page</field> <field name="page_last_modified">2009-12-18T15:03:57Z</field> <field name="page_text">Rivet Logic addresses many of today's workplace

challenges with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions that enable organizations to transform traditional content repositories and static intranets into dynamic, collaborative work environments through open source functionality. Through ...</field>

</doc> </add>

Rich Text Compilation & Indexing

Rich Text Indexer Instruction<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?><add> <doc> <field

name=”page_file">/docroot/static/about-us/press-releases/2010/rl_crafter_studio.pdf</field>

<field name=”page_url”>/about-us/press-releases/2010/rl_crafter_studio.pdf</field>

<field name="page_title”>Rivet Logic launches Crafter Studio for user friendly Web content authoring and publishing.</field>

<field name="page_category">News</field> <field name="page_type">Press Release</field> <field name="page_last_modified">2007-12-19T08:00:00Z</field> <field name="page_file_size”>135</field> </doc></add>

Compiler Configuration

Compiler Configuration<compiler-config>

<page-types><page-type

name="Solution Page”compiler="com.rivetlogic.index.compile.ArticleCompiler"><uri-pattern pattern=".*/page-content/solutions/.*(article|

page-metadata|meta-content).xml$" /><properties>

<property field=“page_type” value=“Web Page”/><property field=“page_category”

value=“Solutions”/></properties>

</page-type><page-type

name="Press Release Page”

compiler="com.paetec.index.model.compile.PressReleaseCompiler"><uri-pattern pattern=".*/press-releases/.*/(press-release|

meta-content).xml$" /><properties>

<property field=“page_type” value=“Press Release”/>

<property field=“page_category” value=“News”/></properties>

</page-type><page-types>

<compiler-config>

Search UI• Full text search• Faceted search on category & type• Pagination or search result clustering• Keyword highlighting in search results• Track user queries

Search Results Page

Clustered Results

Summary• Requirements:

– Real time updates– Full editorial control– Faceted search

• Solution– Alfresco CMS– Alfresco plugin for Solr indexing– Compile updates & index– Serve in UI (ft search + facets)

Q & A• Thank you for attending :-)• Questions, comments…

Appendix

Search Model/API