Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and AJAX
Did you consider using an existing open-source project to provide the AJAXy UI to your index? VuFind and Blacklight are among the candidates. That's where I'd start, if I were in your position. -- Mike. On 28 February 2011 03:34, Yitzchak Schaffer wrote: > Hello all, > > We are working on creating a public-facing biographical index. We're planning > on using Solr with faceting, and building an AJAXy search frontend. We have > experience with symfony for overall framework, so we have begun the project > using that. > > The only robust-looking material I was able to find on Solr with AJAX tonight > was > > https://github.com/evolvingweb/ajax-solr/wiki > > Can anyone offer any alternate projects or approaches? I'm just getting my > feet wet in both advanced JS/frontend dev techniques, and Solr. > > Thanks! > > -- > Yitzchak Schaffer > Systems Manager > Touro College Libraries > 212.742.8770 ext. 2432 > http://www.tourolib.org/ > >
Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and AJAX
I've done a lot of ajax/Solr stuff with jquery and Cocoon. I typically deal with large XML datasets, so Cocoon is an ideal application for me to use. Ajax calls are made to Cocoon pipelines that are transformations of Solr XML search results processed by Saxon against XSLT. It's quite fast, even for facet pagination. I've also done some work with TermsComponent to deliver autosuggest for controlled vocabulary terms, like LCSH, which are stored in a Solr index. Beyond the typical use of Ajax to load HTML content dynamically, I've built an OpenLayers front end that is dynamically generated from Ajax calls to a Cocoon pipeline that queries Solr and returns results in the form of KML. Ethan Gruber American Numismatic Society On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 5:01 AM, Mike Taylor wrote: > Did you consider using an existing open-source project to provide the > AJAXy UI to your index? VuFind and Blacklight are among the > candidates. That's where I'd start, if I were in your position. > > -- Mike. > > > > On 28 February 2011 03:34, Yitzchak Schaffer > wrote: > > Hello all, > > > > We are working on creating a public-facing biographical index. We're > planning on using Solr with faceting, and building an AJAXy search frontend. > We have experience with symfony for overall framework, so we have begun the > project using that. > > > > The only robust-looking material I was able to find on Solr with AJAX > tonight was > > > > https://github.com/evolvingweb/ajax-solr/wiki > > > > Can anyone offer any alternate projects or approaches? I'm just getting > my feet wet in both advanced JS/frontend dev techniques, and Solr. > > > > Thanks! > > > > -- > > Yitzchak Schaffer > > Systems Manager > > Touro College Libraries > > 212.742.8770 ext. 2432 > > http://www.tourolib.org/ > > > > >
Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and AJAX
As an addendum to my previous email about ajax/solr/openlayers, here's a post detailing the work: http://numishare.blogspot.com/2011/02/american-numismatic-society-collection.html Ethan On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 9:10 AM, Ethan Gruber wrote: > I've done a lot of ajax/Solr stuff with jquery and Cocoon. I typically > deal with large XML datasets, so Cocoon is an ideal application for me to > use. Ajax calls are made to Cocoon pipelines that are transformations of > Solr XML search results processed by Saxon against XSLT. It's quite fast, > even for facet pagination. I've also done some work with TermsComponent to > deliver autosuggest for controlled vocabulary terms, like LCSH, which are > stored in a Solr index. > > Beyond the typical use of Ajax to load HTML content dynamically, I've built > an OpenLayers front end that is dynamically generated from Ajax calls to a > Cocoon pipeline that queries Solr and returns results in the form of KML. > > Ethan Gruber > American Numismatic Society > > > On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 5:01 AM, Mike Taylor wrote: > >> Did you consider using an existing open-source project to provide the >> AJAXy UI to your index? VuFind and Blacklight are among the >> candidates. That's where I'd start, if I were in your position. >> >> -- Mike. >> >> >> >> On 28 February 2011 03:34, Yitzchak Schaffer >> wrote: >> > Hello all, >> > >> > We are working on creating a public-facing biographical index. We're >> planning on using Solr with faceting, and building an AJAXy search frontend. >> We have experience with symfony for overall framework, so we have begun the >> project using that. >> > >> > The only robust-looking material I was able to find on Solr with AJAX >> tonight was >> > >> > https://github.com/evolvingweb/ajax-solr/wiki >> > >> > Can anyone offer any alternate projects or approaches? I'm just getting >> my feet wet in both advanced JS/frontend dev techniques, and Solr. >> > >> > Thanks! >> > >> > -- >> > Yitzchak Schaffer >> > Systems Manager >> > Touro College Libraries >> > 212.742.8770 ext. 2432 >> > http://www.tourolib.org/ >> > >> > >> > >
Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and AJAX
In general, you don't make your Solr interface itself accessible to the world, you protect it behind a firewall. So if you do that, you won't have javascript talking directly to Solr. It'll be talking to some middleware application that talks to Solr. Although interestingly, that URL you mention DOES have the JS talking to Solr "directly", so I guess that's an option too. But note that package even warns: "The manager takes as a parameter either solrUrl – if talking to Solr directly – or proxyUrl – if talking to Solr through a proxy. (Usually, you want to talk to the instance through a proxy, for security. We will go over writing proxies for AJAX Solr in another tutorial. Here, we communicate with the instance directly.)" So even that one isn't recommending _really_ exposing your Solr to the world, but instead proxying it, presumably because the proxy would allow requests to only certain parts of Solr, I dunno. But I dunno, I guess it could work. Personally I generally don't like writing interfaces that _only_ work via javascript, which is what that approach would result in. I prefer writing an interface that works with plain HTML, with some AJAX on top, but degrading fine if there is no JS. But that's not the approach you are talking about taking, and apparently you are not alone! On 2/27/2011 10:34 PM, Yitzchak Schaffer wrote: Hello all, We are working on creating a public-facing biographical index. We're planning on using Solr with faceting, and building an AJAXy search frontend. We have experience with symfony for overall framework, so we have begun the project using that. The only robust-looking material I was able to find on Solr with AJAX tonight was https://github.com/evolvingweb/ajax-solr/wiki Can anyone offer any alternate projects or approaches? I'm just getting my feet wet in both advanced JS/frontend dev techniques, and Solr. Thanks! -- Yitzchak Schaffer Systems Manager Touro College Libraries 212.742.8770 ext. 2432 http://www.tourolib.org/
Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and AJAX
I definitely second the idea that you don't want to expose your Solr instance directly to the world -- it only takes one bored vandal to wipe your Solr index. We have a Java servlet sitting between our AJAX calls and Solr. In the typical case, it just builds the Solr base URL (picking the right core, ensuring that all requests go to a /select handler) and passes the rest of the URL parameters straight to Solr. Of course, once you have the middleware in place, it's easy to add in extra stuff like transforming the results into other formats, doing more fine-grained access control (we check IP addresses and automatically add filter queries to restrict search results to the items available to the user's IP), etc. -Esme -- Esme Cowles "Men feared witches and burnt women." -- Louis Brandeis, Whitney v. California, concurring On Feb 28, 2011, at 5:53 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: > In general, you don't make your Solr interface itself accessible to the > world, you protect it behind a firewall. > > So if you do that, you won't have javascript talking directly to Solr. > It'll be talking to some middleware application that talks to Solr. > > Although interestingly, that URL you mention DOES have the JS talking to > Solr "directly", so I guess that's an option too. But note that package > even warns: "The manager takes as a parameter either solrUrl – if > talking to Solr directly – or proxyUrl – if talking to Solr through a > proxy. (Usually, you want to talk to the instance through a proxy, for > security. We will go over writing proxies for AJAX Solr in another > tutorial. Here, we communicate with the instance directly.)" So even > that one isn't recommending _really_ exposing your Solr to the world, > but instead proxying it, presumably because the proxy would allow > requests to only certain parts of Solr, I dunno. > > But I dunno, I guess it could work. Personally I generally don't like > writing interfaces that _only_ work via javascript, which is what that > approach would result in. I prefer writing an interface that works with > plain HTML, with some AJAX on top, but degrading fine if there is no JS. > But that's not the approach you are talking about taking, and apparently > you are not alone! > > On 2/27/2011 10:34 PM, Yitzchak Schaffer wrote: >> Hello all, >> >> We are working on creating a public-facing biographical index. We're >> planning on using Solr with faceting, and building an AJAXy search frontend. >> We have experience with symfony for overall framework, so we have begun the >> project using that. >> >> The only robust-looking material I was able to find on Solr with AJAX >> tonight was >> >> https://github.com/evolvingweb/ajax-solr/wiki >> >> Can anyone offer any alternate projects or approaches? I'm just getting my >> feet wet in both advanced JS/frontend dev techniques, and Solr. >> >> Thanks! >> >> -- >> Yitzchak Schaffer >> Systems Manager >> Touro College Libraries >> 212.742.8770 ext. 2432 >> http://www.tourolib.org/ >>
Re: [CODE4LIB] Solr and AJAX
On 2011-02-28 17:53, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: But I dunno, I guess it could work. Personally I generally don't like writing interfaces that _only_ work via javascript, which is what that approach would result in. I prefer writing an interface that works with plain HTML, with some AJAX on top, but degrading fine if there is no JS. But that's not the approach you are talking about taking, and apparently you are not alone! In truth I had AJAX on my brain from another (gracefully degrading) area of the project, and it was late at night; but upon later brain reboot, I realized that AJAX is not necessary for what we want to do. And regarding Mike Taylor's earlier comment about VuFind and Blacklight, I'll have a look at how much we can peel off of VuFind. I don't think we're equipped to consider a non-PHP solution at this point. -- Yitzchak Schaffer Systems Manager Touro College Libraries 212.742.8770 ext. 2432 http://www.tourolib.org/
