Question

I am using Spring MVC for my project and would like to use Apache Solr to perform the database search. Could anybody guide me how to configure Apche Solr with Spring or can i use hibernate search? or any better approach.

Thanks & Regards
Vijay

Answer 1

I haven’t used Hibernate search so can’t comment but I have written a number of Spring MVC webapps that use SOLR.

There are quite a few ways to integrate SOLR…

• You could run a stand alone instance of SOLR and then use an AJAX approach to build your search pages.
• You could write a simple Java Service that calls SOLR via its REST web service interface (e.g., using Spring’s RestTemplate – JSON output is easier to marshall).
• Or you could use a more native approach and implement a Service/DAO using SolrJ.

I’ve used the last two approaches mentioned… Webservices is slightly easier to get up and running but SolrJ is more powerful. I’ve also used the embedded SOLR with SolrJ which simplifies deployment as there is only a single war file to deploy and manage.