If only parametric searches are requirements then do I need Solr?

[jaya437]

1. If the requirement is to perform searches using only key-value pair – i.e. policy-number, claim number, reference no (other metadata elements) – via the new Viewer (ignoring Alfresco share) and via the search APIs, then do we need SOLR indexing?
2. If the requirement is not to perform Full-Text Indexing and Faceting – then do we require SOLR indexing?
3. If the requirement for future is not to use Alfresco Share – but move onto ADF – then do we require SOLR indexing for ADF and including the above 2 search scenarios?

Can Alfresco Content Services on its own (without SOLR) be able to hand metadata based queries against the Database? If yes, then do we require SOLR indexing?

[heiko_robert · Accepted solution]

Please check Transactional metadata query. Unfortunately there is no generic support in Alfresco Search Services for metadata only search without a solr index. In principle you could implement your own search controls in a ADF UI which exclusivly uses the db search work around as described in the link above but keep in mind that search will have more limitations as you would expect because alfresco doesn't use always the datatype in the database as expected from the property definition like date or time which will limit use cases on text (and maybe integer/double) only.

We implemented this for a customer using share and replaced the search fields / search webscripts with custom search controls supporting key/value which fits perfectly for their use case but I would not recommend to follow that route for more generic use cases because you will loose a lot of functionallity and expected behavior.

[heiko_robert · Accepted solution]

Please check Transactional metadata query. Unfortunately there is no generic support in Alfresco Search Services for metadata only search without a solr index. In principle you could implement your own search controls in a ADF UI which exclusivly uses the db search work around as described in the link above but keep in mind that search will have more limitations as you would expect because alfresco doesn't use always the datatype in the database as expected from the property definition like date or time which will limit use cases on text (and maybe integer/double) only.

We implemented this for a customer using share and replaced the search fields / search webscripts with custom search controls supporting key/value which fits perfectly for their use case but I would not recommend to follow that route for more generic use cases because you will loose a lot of functionallity and expected behavior.

[jaya437]

Thank you for reply

My usecase matches the one you have mentioned in response.

I understand that TMDQ doesn't support features like Faceting, and queries with predicates like CONTAINS and SCORE.

If my serch requirements are limited to:

• search documents on a specific aspect for a given key value pair (metadata on the node).
  • example search: "SELECT * FROM avcmolicyNumberAspect where avcmolicyNumber = '560836027CCI '"

In the above case, a TMDQ will be executed against database. If my search requirements doesn't need other features, do I still need to implement Solr? I hope I have tried my best to simplify the question.

Thank you in advance.

Regards

Jayakumar Reddy M

ECM Solutin Designer at TCS

Contact me on: jaya437@gmail.com

[jaya437]

Do I need Solr if my search requirements are simple and doesn't need fancy stuff.

[afaust · Accepted solution]

For that particular type of search query you will not have to set up a SOLR service in your Alfresco deployment. CMIS queries are best supported by TMQ, even for data types like dates and query conditions like ranges (larger-less-than expressions), wich Alfresco FTS can only support via SOLR.

[jaya437]

Thank you for all your responses!

When we rely on TMDQ for search requirements(we understood the limitations with TMDQ), do we need to apply any additional indexes on database tables.

Thanks

Jay