What could search look like on d.o. and g.d.o
Robert Douglas, Peter Wolanin and I are scheming up what we hope to be a jaw dropping presentation of ApacheSolr + Drupal integration at DrupalCon DC. We’re going to show a prototype of d.o. and g.d.o hooked up the Apache Solr search server. We all know that d.o. and g.d.o. are notoriously hard to search through.
For instance, take this query:
http://drupal.org/search/node/views (searching for views).
Umm… I would expect to be able to get to http://drupal.org/project/views here, but somehow this isn’t happening. Okay, so I know I can always use the hidden advanced search and check off “project”. Okay, now I’ve submitted:
http://drupal.org/search/node/views+type%3Aproject_project
Okay, so it is understandable that d.o. is a massive organism unto itself, and it will be challenging to get any search engine (and the Drupal core one isn’t shabby at all) to be able to think for users. However, we’ll be proposing a new way to do a user interface for your site with faceted search (here’s an example):
http://robshouse.net/search/apachesolr_search/drupal
Facets allow us to see what we will get before we click, so we can drill down into what we are looking for AND know there is something there before we go there. So we will have a facet block for node type, which will show something like Projects(12), so the user knows there are 12 projects which were found for the keyword views. After that, perhaps there will be another facet for Usage or download count which will allow them to further drill down to what they are after.
I hope this presentation will launch a discussion around search based information architecture in our community, and I sincerely hope you all attend.
Please stop for a moment to read the proposal (and vote on it if you think it will be as awesome as we do):
http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/more-search-how-apachesolr-changes-way-you-build-sites
Related Content
AcquiaBlog
2010 has been an inflection point for the Acquia partner program. We are doing more business than ever with partners, including case studies with Palantir.net, Blink Reaction, and IBM Global Services.
Bryan House
It is that phase of my life! I'm just turning 30 in a month, working with Drupal for 7 years and just had my third Acquia anniversary a week ago. Time to look back and evaluate how things went, all the good and bad things; even better if the wisdom can be shared with others. This was part of my thinking when I submitted the session titled "Come for the software, stay for the community" for Drupalcon Copenhagen.
Gábor Hojtsy
It sounded like a really simple request: "Is it easy to add a search filter for 'My posts'?". In other words, add a search result facet for posts by the current (logged in) user through the Apache Solr Search Integration module APIs?
But then the wheels start turning - we want not just one blind link, but a real facet link that tells us how many results we'll get. Also, if we are filtering by 'My posts' then we probably have an equal use case for the opposite filter 'Posts not by me'. So we really need a facet block with two links and facets counts.
Peter Wolanin
