Searching and figuring out the required data from a huge data collection is a basic requirement. Apache Solr is an open source platform which is being used for content or JSON based searching thus making it easier for us to get the required data . This awesome platform makes searching from large documents faster and secured.
Using this open source API we can index the content using a post request. Then if we send a request with all query parameters and the word for which we are searching it responds with all the contents containing the word which were indexed by us in a fraction of second. It supports indexing with all kinds of documents(.pdf,.doc,.xl.odc and many more).
Following are some of the search features available in Solr.
- Full text search
This is the content based search. We can add our data in Json format or documents or any files with contents to be indexed in the solr core. When we perform a full text search, i.e when we make a request with any word from the documents indexed, it will return the details or data which contains the word that we searched for. This is possible just with a http request. It also supports wild card searches(using ? symbol for single word etc) and fuzzy searches (searching for words with similar spelling ).
- Faceted search
This is a filter based search. This feature in solr makes it even more user friendly. Using this we can make it even more faster. We are narrowing the search by restricting it with certain filters. This feature can also be used to provide auto suggestions i.e it can list all words starting with a particular prefix. Using faceted search one can also view aggregated overview of the various fields indexed i.e we can get the metadata like the time at which the data was indexed and number of documents which match the given word etc.
WHAT MAKES IT FASTER?
We store large amount of data into solr. But what makes it return the result more faster makes it interesting. The secret behind this is INVERTED INDEXING. This is like searching from an index from the back of the book. The content files and json data which are indexed by us is parsed and stored with an inverted index making it easier to retrieve it during search. Using facets will make it even more faster narrowing down the results .
COMPARING SOLR WITH A DATABASE
Typically considering a database and solr , we store data in a location and we get the desired results out of a query.What makes Solr more efficient than database? We can have an inverted index in a database too but then as all of us knew we are storing a data in a structured format in our database as rows and columns.
When we have all our data structured and if it can be represented in a relational way, we can take a database search whereas what if your data is unstructured? What if certain contents cannot be stored as rows and columns? A Solr is a way to do it. Solr has a main advantage, it deals with unstructured data. The unstructured data are properly indexed and stored in the solr core and those can be easily retrieved with a query.
Solr is a free open source, user friendly ,secure,efficient, and a fast way to perform searching with large number of documents and contents.
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