Is there a good web front end application / interface for solr

Discussion:

Memory Makers

2011-10-24 19:56:03 UTC

Greetings guys,

Is there a good front end application / interface for solr?

Features I'm looking for are:
configure query interface (using non programatic features)
configure pagination
configure bookmarking of results
export results of a query to a csv or other format (JSON, etc.)

Is there any demand for such an application?

Thanks.

Erik Hatcher

2011-10-25 09:49:22 UTC

Permalink

Blacklight - http://projectblacklight.org/

It's a full featured application fronting Solr. It's Ruby on Rails based, and powers many library front-ends but is becoming much more general purpose for other domains. See examples here: https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/wiki/Examples

Also, the forensics domain has used it as well, as mentioned in the slides and talk I attended at Lucene Revolution earlier this year: <http://www.lucidimagination.com/blog/2011/06/01/solr-and-law-enforcement-highly-relevant-results-can-be-a-crime/>

Often the decision for an application layer like this is determined by the programming language and frameworks used. Blacklight is "opinionated" (as any other concrete implementation would be) in this regard. If it fits your tastes, it's a great technology to use.

Erik

Post by Memory Makers
Greetings guys,
Is there a good front end application / interface for solr?
configure query interface (using non programatic features)
configure pagination
configure bookmarking of results
export results of a query to a csv or other format (JSON, etc.)
Is there any demand for such an application?
Thanks.

Memory Makers

2011-10-25 09:53:26 UTC

Permalink

Looks very interesting -- actually I looked at it a while back but in a
different context -- for a non RoR person how much of a learning curve is it
to set up?

Thanks.

Post by Erik Hatcher
Blacklight - http://projectblacklight.org/
It's a full featured application fronting Solr. It's Ruby on Rails based,
and powers many library front-ends but is becoming much more general purpose
https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/wiki/Examples
Also, the forensics domain has used it as well, as mentioned in the slides
and talk I attended at Lucene Revolution earlier this year: <
http://www.lucidimagination.com/blog/2011/06/01/solr-and-law-enforcement-highly-relevant-results-can-be-a-crime/
Often the decision for an application layer like this is determined by the
programming language and frameworks used. Blacklight is "opinionated" (as
any other concrete implementation would be) in this regard. If it fits your
tastes, it's a great technology to use.
Erik

Erik Hatcher

2011-10-25 10:02:00 UTC

Permalink

You could be up and running with Blacklight by following the quickstart instructions in only a few minutes, but Ruby and RoR know-how will be needed to go further with the types of customizations you mentioned. Some things will be purely in configuration sections (but still within Ruby code files) and done easily, but some other customizations will require deeper knowledge.

With only a few minutes (given the prerequisites already installed) to give it a try, might as well give it a go :) The Blacklight community is very helpful too, so ask on their e-mail list for assistance, or tap into the #blacklight IRC channel.

Erik

Post by Memory Makers
Looks very interesting -- actually I looked at it a while back but in a
different context -- for a non RoR person how much of a learning curve is it
to set up?
Thanks.

Memory Makers

2011-10-25 10:03:41 UTC

Permalink

Kool -- I was hoping to avoid adding another language :-( python/java/php
were going to be it for me -- but I guess not.

Thanks.

Post by Erik Hatcher
You could be up and running with Blacklight by following the quickstart
instructions in only a few minutes, but Ruby and RoR know-how will be needed
to go further with the types of customizations you mentioned. Some things
will be purely in configuration sections (but still within Ruby code files)
and done easily, but some other customizations will require deeper
knowledge.
With only a few minutes (given the prerequisites already installed) to give
it a try, might as well give it a go :) The Blacklight community is very
helpful too, so ask on their e-mail list for assistance, or tap into the
#blacklight IRC channel.
Erik

Post by Memory Makers
Looks very interesting -- actually I looked at it a while back but in a
different context -- for a non RoR person how much of a learning curve is

Post by Memory Makers
to set up?
Thanks.

Post by Erik Hatcher
Blacklight - http://projectblacklight.org/
It's a full featured application fronting Solr. It's Ruby on Rails

based,

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
and powers many library front-ends but is becoming much more general

purpose

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/wiki/Examples
Also, the forensics domain has used it as well, as mentioned in the

slides

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
and talk I attended at Lucene Revolution earlier this year: <

http://www.lucidimagination.com/blog/2011/06/01/solr-and-law-enforcement-highly-relevant-results-can-be-a-crime/

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
Often the decision for an application layer like this is determined by

the

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
programming language and frameworks used. Blacklight is "opinionated"

(as

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
any other concrete implementation would be) in this regard. If it fits

your

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
tastes, it's a great technology to use.
Erik

Robert Stewart

2011-10-25 11:24:41 UTC

Permalink

It is really not very difficult to build a decent web front-end to SOLR using one of the available client libraries (such as solrpy for python).

I recently build pretty full-featured search front-end to SOLR in python (using tornado web server and templates) and it was not difficult at all to build from scratch - it may have even been more work to learn and customize backlight. I also wanted to avoid adding yet another language - since lots of other back-end code was already in python...

Post by Memory Makers
Kool -- I was hoping to avoid adding another language :-( python/java/php
were going to be it for me -- but I guess not.
Thanks.

Post by Memory Makers
Looks very interesting -- actually I looked at it a while back but in a
different context -- for a non RoR person how much of a learning curve is

Post by Memory Makers
to set up?
Thanks.

Post by Erik Hatcher
Blacklight - http://projectblacklight.org/
It's a full featured application fronting Solr. It's Ruby on Rails

based,

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
and powers many library front-ends but is becoming much more general

purpose

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
https://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/wiki/Examples
Also, the forensics domain has used it as well, as mentioned in the

slides

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
and talk I attended at Lucene Revolution earlier this year: <

http://www.lucidimagination.com/blog/2011/06/01/solr-and-law-enforcement-highly-relevant-results-can-be-a-crime/

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
Often the decision for an application layer like this is determined by

the

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
programming language and frameworks used. Blacklight is "opinionated"

(as

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
any other concrete implementation would be) in this regard. If it fits

your

Post by Memory Makers

Post by Erik Hatcher
tastes, it's a great technology to use.
Erik

Erik Hatcher

2011-10-25 11:40:56 UTC

Permalink

Post by Robert Stewart
It is really not very difficult to build a decent web front-end to SOLR using one of the available client libraries

Or even just not using any client library at all (other than an HTTP library). I've done a bit of proof-of-concept/prototyping with a super light weight (and of course Ruby!) approach with my Prism tinkering: <https://github.com/lucidimagination/Prism>

Yes, in general it's very straightforward to build a search UI that shows results, pages through them, displays facets, and allows them to be clicked and filter results and so on. Devil is always in the details, and having saved searches, export, customizability, authentication, and so on makes it a more involved proposition.

If you're in a PHP environment, there is VUFind... again pretty library-centric at first, but likely flexible enough to handle any Solr setup - <http://vufind.org/>. For the Pythonistas, there's Kochief - http://code.google.com/p/kochief/

Being a Rubyist myself (and founder of Blacklight), I'm not intimately familiar with the other solutions but the library world has done a lot to get this sort of thing off the ground in many environments.

Erik

Fred Zimmerman

2011-10-25 12:34:15 UTC

Permalink

what about something that's a bit less discovery-oriented? for my particular
application I am most concerned with bringing back a straightforward "top
ten" answer set and having users look at it. I actually don't want to bother
them with faceting, etc. at this juncture.

Fred

Post by Robert Stewart

Post by Robert Stewart
It is really not very difficult to build a decent web front-end to SOLR

using one of the available client libraries
Or even just not using any client library at all (other than an HTTP
library). I've done a bit of proof-of-concept/prototyping with a super
light weight (and of course Ruby!) approach with my Prism tinkering: <
https://github.com/lucidimagination/Prism>
Yes, in general it's very straightforward to build a search UI that shows
results, pages through them, displays facets, and allows them to be clicked
and filter results and so on. Devil is always in the details, and having
saved searches, export, customizability, authentication, and so on makes it
a more involved proposition.
If you're in a PHP environment, there is VUFind... again pretty
library-centric at first, but likely flexible enough to handle any Solr
setup - <http://vufind.org/>. For the Pythonistas, there's Kochief -
http://code.google.com/p/kochief/
Being a Rubyist myself (and founder of Blacklight), I'm not intimately
familiar with the other solutions but the library world has done a lot to
get this sort of thing off the ground in many environments.
Erik

Memory Makers

2011-10-25 12:48:27 UTC

Permalink

Well https://github.com/evolvingweb/ajax-solr is fairly decent for that --
haven't used it in a while but that is a minimalist client -- however I find
it hard to customize.

MM.

Post by Fred Zimmerman
what about something that's a bit less discovery-oriented? for my particular
application I am most concerned with bringing back a straightforward "top
ten" answer set and having users look at it. I actually don't want to bother
them with faceting, etc. at this juncture.
Fred

Post by Robert Stewart

Post by Robert Stewart
It is really not very difficult to build a decent web front-end to SOLR

clicked

Post by Robert Stewart
and filter results and so on. Devil is always in the details, and having
saved searches, export, customizability, authentication, and so on makes

Post by Robert Stewart
a more involved proposition.
If you're in a PHP environment, there is VUFind... again pretty
library-centric at first, but likely flexible enough to handle any Solr
setup - <http://vufind.org/>. For the Pythonistas, there's Kochief -
http://code.google.com/p/kochief/
Being a Rubyist myself (and founder of Blacklight), I'm not intimately
familiar with the other solutions but the library world has done a lot to
get this sort of thing off the ground in many environments.
Erik

Erik Hatcher

2011-10-25 12:51:13 UTC

Permalink

Well, if what you want is straightforward like this, why not just use and tweak the templates that come with Solr's VelocityResponseWriter?

Have a look at /browse from a recent Solr distro to see what I mean. It's very easily customizable.

Prism is my tinkering to pull the (Velocity, or otherwise) templating to another tier, yet keeping the templates very lean and clean for this type of purpose, so maybe you can find some value in using Prism, though admittedly it's just a quick (and somewhat dirty) hack at this point.

Erik

Post by Robert Stewart

Post by Robert Stewart
It is really not very difficult to build a decent web front-end to SOLR