OpenCms 8.5: Using Apache Solr to retrieve content

Rüdiger Kurz, Alkacon Software GmbH, Germany

OpenCms 8.5 integrates Apache Solr. And not only for full text search, but as a powerful query engine as well.

Imagine you want to show a list of "all resources of type news, that have changed since yesterday, where property X has the value Y" on your web page. Sure, there are API methods in OpenCms to load resources based on the type, on the date of change, or on the value of a specific property. But for many common use case combinations, there is no single API call. This means if you create a collector, you often end up sorting out the results of the initial API query in code.

In this session, Rüdiger will show how Apache Solr has been integrated in OpenCms 8.5. He will explain how to create improved front-end full text search functions with advanced options like faceting and spell check suggestions. And he will explain how to use Solr to directly read resources from the OpenCms VFS, allowing query combinations that combine resource attributes, properties and content in a powerful new way.

Rüdiger Kurz, Akacon Software GmbH, Germany

Rüdiger has a background in computer science from the FH Wolfenbüttel. He has been developing web projects in Java for several years before joining Alkacon.

Today Rüdiger is an OpenCms core developer and consultant at Alkacon Software. He is also commissioned to represent Alkacon Software in the IKS project, an EU founded research project about the future of the semantic web in CMS systems.