On 10/17/2016 8:01 AM, Matthew Roth wrote: > Is there a documented or preferred path to have a PDF response writer? > I am using solr 5.3.x for an internal project. I have an XSL-FO > transformation that I am able to return via the XSLT response writer. > Is there a documented way to produce a PDF via solr? Alternatively, I > was thinking of passing the response through an eXist-db instance [0] > we have running. However, a pdf response writer would be ideal.
Solr responses are designed to be processed by a program making a search query, not read by an end user. Solr is middleware. There are multiple formats (json, xml, javabin) because we do not know what kind of program will consume the response. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middleware PDF is an end-user format for display and print, not a middleware response format. Creating content like that is best handled by other pieces of software, not Solr. For best results that fit your needs perfectly, that software is likely to be something you write yourself. The Solr project has absolutely no idea how you will define your schema, or how you would like the data in a Solr response transformed, integrated, and formatted in a PDF. Designing the feature you want would be something best handled as an software project separate from Solr. The software would take a Solr response and turn it into a PDF. It doesn't fit into Solr's core usage, so making it a part of Solr is not a good fit and unlikely to happen. No matter where the development for a general feature like that happens, it would likely take weeks or months of work just to reach alpha quality. After that, it would take weeks or months of additional work to reach release quality ... and even then it probably wouldn't produce the exact results you want without extensive and complicated configuration. Handling complicated configuration is itself very complicated, which is one reason why development would take so long. Thanks, Shawn
