Being able to display search results using the Views module provides a huge amount of flexibility with respect to what is listed, what it looks like, and more. In this tutorial we'll look at using the Search API Views module, included in the Search API project, to create a view that allows users to search our Solr index and display the results as a table, or really, in any other way that Views can display content. We'll also cover some special considerations regarding access control and entity relationships that we need to keep in mind when using Views to display search results.
The biggest difference between creating a view that lists a bunch of nodes, and one that displays search results is that you need to use your Search API index as the base table from which you're building your view. Then, by default, the view only has access to the fields that are in the Solr index. This allows you to build the entire view without having to query the database. Or you can use the Views module's ability to define relationships to other buckets of content to query the database and pull in additional information. There's a huge amount of flexibility.
When building views from the Solr index you can optionally expose one or more filters. Essentially creating a form that allows someone to construct a search query. This can be as simple as exposing a keyword text field, or as complex as you would like to get. We'll look at using exposed filters to create a form that users can perform a search with and create a more complete search experience. We'll also look at how you can move those exposed filters into a block that can be displayed on the home page of our site, allowing us to replace the functionality provided to the Drupal core Search module with Views and Solr.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to create a view that displays search results using the Search API Views module.
Additional resources
Rich Snippets in Google Search, Part 1
Blog postRich snippets can draw attention to your Google search results and increase your click-through rate (CTR). So what are rich snippets, and how do they alter Google search results?
This week we continue learning how to integrate Drupal with Apache Solr by looking at how to install Apache Solr on both development and production servers, and how to connect Solr to Drupal with the Search API module.
In order for Solr to provide search results we need to first send our Drupal content to the Solr server so that it can be indexed. In this tutorial we'll look at connecting the Search API module with the Solr server and creating an index that maps content in Drupal to data types in Solr. We'll also look at how the various configuration options effect the Solr index.
After creating a Search API index configuration we'll look at running the indexer, essentially queuing all the content on our site for indexing, and then telling Drupal to send the documents on our site to the Solr server for indexing. This can be done either via the UI or with Drush. You can choose to index content as it's created, or for sites with higher rates of new content you can send it to the indexer in periodic batches. Whichever you choose, making sure that you've got a system in place for periodically sending items queued for indexing to Solr is a critical step.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to send content from Drupal to Solr for indexing, and verify that the content is showing up in the Solr server's index.
If you're installing Solr on a production server there are some additional considerations you'll want to be aware of. The most important thing is that instead of just running the Solr application directly you'll likely want to run it inside of a J2EE server container like Tomcat or Jetty. In this tutorial we'll look a installing Solr on Ubuntu using the same process that we would recommend for a production installation. We'll do this by starting with a Vagrant VM with nothing but Ubuntu installed and walk through the steps required to get Solr up and running.
The steps are going to be similar, but different depending on your OS of choice, and it would be impossible for us to cover them all. So here's a general outline of what you'll want to do:
- Install Java. Note, you need the full JDK for Solr not just the JRE.
- Install a J2EE application server like Tomcat or Jetty.
- Download the version of Apache Solr you want to use.
- Configure your J2EE application server to run Apache Solr.
- Configure your system to automatically start/stop your application server.
We'll be following along with the instructions provided in this excellent blog post by Ben Chavet over on Lullabot.com, though some of the commands will be a little different since software versions have changed, etc. If you prefer to follow along with written instructions, or want to have the list of commands next to you when it comes time to set things up for real, give that post a read.
A note about security. We will NOT be going over how to restrict access to the Solr instance on the Ubuntu server as that's outside the scope of this tutorial. However, it's important that you do so. At a minimum you'll want to configure your firewall to prevent access to the Solr host from anything other then the web server where you Drupal site lives.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to list the requirements and considerations that need to be evaluated when installing Solr on a production server.
Things you might want to copy/paste if you're following along:
Content of Tomcat context file - /usr/local/tomcat/conf/Catalina/localhost/solr.xml :
<Context docBase="/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/solr.war" debug="0" crossContext="true">
<Environment name="solr/home" type="java.lang.String" value="/usr/local/tomcat/solr" override="true" />
</Context>
Content of the Solr definition file - /usr/local/tomcat/solr/solr.xml :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<solr persistent="false">
<cores adminPath="/admin/cores">
<core name="drupal" instanceDir="drupal" />
</cores>
</solr>
Additional resources
Solr is an application that runs on it's own, independent of Drupal. So before we can integrate our Drupal site with the Solr server we first need to install Solr and get it running. In this tutorial we'll walk through the requirements for installing Solr and then look at a quick and easy way to get it running on our localhost for development purposes. This setup is best for when you're working on a site locally, but have it hosted elsewhere and someone else is managing your Solr install for you.
The basic process is to download the Solr application, unpack it somewhere on your localhost, and then run the start.jar file that comes with the example application: java -jar start.jar. To ensure it's working you can connect to the Solr web UI on your localhost at http://localhost:8983/solr/.
Note: When using Solr with Drupal and the Search API module we currently need to use the most recent 4.x version of Solr, despite the fact that there is a 5.x version that just came out. At the time these tutorials where recorded the Search API module had not yet been updated to work with Solr >= 5.x. The general installation instructions for localhost development however are not likely to change much at all between Solr 4 and 5 so even if you're using Solr 5 this should still be relevant information.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to run Solr on your localhost and verify that it is working.
Additional resources
In this tutorial we'll walk through downloading and installing the Search API module, the Search API Solr module, and their dependencies. Then we'll look at using the Search API Solr configuration files with our Solr server. These configuration files are specially crafted to help with indexing data contained in a Drupal site and allow Solr to have a better understanding of Drupal's entities, fields, and the data that they contain. For example, mapping a Drupal Field API body field on a page node type to the appropriate field type in Solr.
The gist of this tutorial is, locating the Solr configuration files in the search_api_solr/solr-conf/ directory, talking a little bit about what each one does, and then demonstrating how to copy those files into the configuration for your Solr server so that Solr will start using them.
After looking at the various configuration files, and then placing them into our Solr instance, we'll connect Drupal to our Solr server by creating a new Search API server configuration within Drupal's UI. This will allow us to confirm that our Apache Solr server, and Drupal, will be able to talk to one another.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to configure Solr to work with Drupal, connect the two, and verify that the connection is working.
Additional resources
The entire Drupalize.Me team, along with most of Lullabot, was in Los Angeles last week for DrupalCon, and we had a blast. In podcast episode 64 Addi gathered a few Lullabots together to talk about DrupalCon highs and lows, along with our top session picks (and a link to all of the DrupalCon session videos).
This week we start our new series on improving Drupal's search with Apache Solr.
When it comes to integrating Apache Solr with Drupal there are currently two different modules that can be used, Search API, and the Apache Solr module. While both are valid options, for this series we've chosen to focus on the Search API module because amongst other things it's generally more flexible, and based on conversations with people in the community who are working on Solr integration it is currently seeing more focused development efforts and will likely superseded the Apache Solr module sometime in the future.
This tutorial provides some background information on the Search API module and why we've chosen to use it. We'll look at how the Search API module bridges the gap between Solr and Drupal, and explain some of the commonly used terms we'll encounter in the module's UI and codebase.
By the end of this lesson you should be able to explain the Search API module's terminology, requirements, and position in the Drupal ecosphere, as well as be able to make a good case for why someone should choose the Search API module as a starting point for creating better search tools in Drupal.
Additional resources
Apache Solr is a world class search application built on top of the Lucene indexer. Before we start trying to integrate Solr with Drupal lets talk about what Solr is, and what makes it so good, as well as how Solr differs from the Drupal core database-backed Search module. This tutorial is a short presentation explaining Solr, Lucene, and things to consider when choosing Solr as a search technology.
Lucene is an open-source search indexer written in Java and governed by the Apache foundation. It is the underlying library that handles storing indexed content, and does so in a way that makes it extremely flexible. By treating each record as a document made up of any number of different fields Lucene is capable of storing just about anything you throw at it, as long as the resource can be broken up into fields and the textual data can be extracted from those fields. This makes it a good choice for indexing web based content where you might be dealing with HTML, PDF, XML, Microsoft Word, and all kinds of other document formats.
Solr, is an HTTP API for interacting with the Lucene application that makes it easier to create custom search applications. Like Lucene it is also open source, written in Java, and governed by the Apache foundation. Solr's extensive use of XML configuration files allows you to modify almost everything about how Solr works without having to write any Java. This makes it a great choice for anyone that's familiar with PHP but doesn't have Java experience.
When compared with Drupal core's Search module, or any MySQL full-text search tool, Solr has some distinct advantages. Including:
- Best-in-class stemming and tokenization
- Scalability; it's designed to scale both vertically and horizontally as needed
- Built-in support for facets, geospatial searches, and other advanced query options
In addition to these advantages, using Solr for your search can dramatically improve your Drupal site's performance by eliminating costly full-text queries, which can quickly turn MySQL into a bottleneck for sites with even a modest amount of content.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to explain the advantages that Solr provides over Drupal core's search module and why it's a good choice for building ultra-fast, and accurate, search applications.
Additional resources
One of the best ways to improve both the speed, and relevancy, of search results for a Drupal site is to stop using the Drupal core search module and start using Apache Solr. Solr is a Java-based application that provides an API for interacting with Apache Lucene via HTTP to facilitate the creation of excellent applications for performing full-text content searches, with a special focus on internet-based search applications. The quick pitch for why you should use Solr is it's insanely fast, especially when compared with Drupal's default Search module, and it can be scaled to handle millions of search queries per second and huge piles of data.
Since Solr is a third party application we need a way to bridge the gap between Solr and Drupal. Really, there are two parts to this puzzle: getting the data out of Drupal and into Solr so it can be processed and indexed, and passing a search query from Drupal to Solr in order to retrieve, and display, search results. For that, we'll use the Search API module, and the Search API Solr module.
In order to demonstrate a real-world use case we'll pretend that we're the owner of a website that contains a database of fish species. As the database has grown over time we've begun to feel the limits of Drupal's MySQL full-text search and want to improve our search tools. Using Solr will allow for better matches in full-text search, faster searches, and a lot of additional functionality like partial word matches, spell checking, facets, and more.
In this series we'll cover:
- What Apache Solr is and why you should consider using it
- Installing Solr and configuring it to work well with Drupal content
- The contributed Search API module
- The contributed Search API Solr module
- Configuring Drupal to send content to Solr for indexing
- Retrieving search results from Solr and displaying them in Drupal on both a stand-alone page and with the Views module
- Using Solr field boosting to influence result relevancy
- Using the contributed Facet API module with Solr to allow for faceted search results
- Configuring stop words, synonyms, and promoted search results in Solr
This series is for anyone that wants to improve the quality of the search functionality of their Drupal-powered site. There is some system administration required to install Solr, but it's pretty straightforward. Almost everything else is done via configuration in Drupal's, or Solr's, user interface and by editing simple XML configuration files. So, no PHP, or module development experience required. We do however assume that you're already familiar with basic Drupal administration.
Additional resources
Before we can start building a search application we need some sample data that we can index and use for testing, not to mention a site we can use to test this all out on. In this tutorial we'll walk through installing Drupal 7 and importing some sample data.
In order for this to work I built a Drupal 7 site with a content type named Fish, and then imported a whole bunch of descriptions of various fish from Wikipedia. You should be able to use the provided database dump in order to get up and running with a sample Drupal site pre-populated with some sample data.
If you're not planning on following along and building the fish finder application in the Search API and Solr series, or are planning on implementing Solr search on your own site instead you can probably skip this tutorial. Just note that the rest of the tutorials in the series assume you've got a working Drupal 7 site with some content.
By the end of this tutorial you should have a working Drupal 7 site with sample content running on your localhost for playing with while watching the rest of the series.
Drupalize.Me on Your TV
Blog postOne thing people like to do with online learning is work and watch at the same time. Members have let us know that they want to be able to watch our videos on their TVs while using their computers to work along with the trainer. Luckily Drupalize.Me has several options to make this happen.
Debugging is a discipline that requires patience, and a fervent attention to detail. In the often times fast paced world of software development, when we're faced with deadlines, and an ever growing list of new features to add, and bugs to resolve, it can be a difficult to slow down and proceed in a meticulous, measured fashion. When it comes to solving difficult problems though, this fastidious approach is exactly what's required to locate, and resolve, a problem's root cause.
This week we're wrapping up our Introduction to Domain Access for Drupal 7 series and adding a handy tutorial to our existing free Command Line Basics series.
In addition to different content, you may also want to differentiate your domains in how they look and change some of the basic site settings to make them appear more as separate sites. In this tutorial we'll use the Domain Config and Domain Theme modules (included in the Domain Access package) to let us do just this. We'll change our settings on one of the sites to set the homepage node to the About page we created earlier. Then we'll make the Alumni site look quite different by giving it a new theme. Through this process you will understand things you need to watch out for when configuring Domain Access sites, and how to be appropriately cautious with your settings.
To really make Domain Access work the way you need it, you need to make sure you set up your roles, users, and permissions correctly. We've been setting things up on our site as the administrator, but so far our site is not configured for other people to be involved. In this tutorial we're going to configure the permissions so that we have authenticated users who can create and edit content on particular domains. We'll also have several editors. Two of the editors can only manage content on their particular domains, while one editor will have access to all content across all three domains.
In the process of setting this up we'll review the Domain Access permissions documentation, then dive into configuring them. We will also look at how we can set a default domain for a role, even though we won't need that for this use case. To test things out, we'll create some content as different users and see how the editors can or can not interact with that content.
To get things moving in this lesson, we are starting off having already created a number of users, and adding an editor role to the site. We don't walk through this process in the lesson, so if you need a refresher for creating roles and users, you can watch Hands-On: Creating Roles and Users from the Using Drupal series.
Additional resources
Domain Access Permissions (drupal.org handbook)
With the basics of our three domains set up, you're ready to build out your sites. We've covered the main steps to get you started, but you'll find that there are a lot more options available to you as you build. Which additional modules you use will depend heavily on your particular needs. In this tutorial we'll talk about the other modules that are included in the Domain Access package, which we haven't used in this series. We'll also look at a list of other contributed modules that work with Domain Access to extend its feature set even further.
Additional resources
Domain Access modules (drupal.org handbook)
Domain Access related contributed modules (drupal.org handbook)