Apache Solr for TYPO3 - The Search for Your Website

Your website is full of great content. But what good is it if visitors can't find it? What's missing? Search - but not just any search. You need a tool, like a hosted solr server, that is smart, fast and flexible. Yes! You are right. I'm talking about Apache Solr here. If you add Solr to your TYPO3  website, you get a powerful, smart and super-fast search. It displays filters and suggestions and can even look inside documents.

Read on to see how easy it is to add TYPO3 Solr and improve your search!

Apache Solr is an open source software that is often used for search and data analysis functions in websites, enterprise systems and big data applications. Here are the reasons why hosted TYPO3 solr is an excellent solution, especially with the available ext typo3 extensions.

• Flexible data support: With Solr, structured, semi-structured or unstructured data from various sources can be indexed and searched.
• Powerful functions: Solr offers built-in features such as faceted search, autocomplete, spell check and geo-based search that significantly improve the user experience.
• Multilingual support: Solr can be used with many programming languages, including Java, Python, Ruby, C#, PHP and many more.
• Open source: Solr is completely free to use and is continuously developed by a dedicated community.

Thanks to these strengths, TYPO3 Solr is used in a wide range of applications - from product searches in e-commerce websites to analyzing logs and social media data.

If your website has a lot of content - like pages, news, documents or products - then you definitely need a solr server like Apache TYPO3 Solr. It makes searching your website faster, smarter and improves the user experience. Here's why Apache Solr is so important for TYPO3:

1. Faster search for large websites

TYPO3 websites can become very large over time. Solr is made to handle large amounts of content, which is especially important for businesses. It can search thousands of entries in seconds.

2. Smarter results

Solr understands what people are searching for and provides autosuggest as they type to increase usability. It shows auto suggest as you type, corrects small spelling mistakes with error correction, and even recognizes different terms with the same meaning. For example, if someone types"photo" but your site uses"image", TYPO3 Solr will still find the right one.

3. Easier for visitors

Solr allows visitors to filter search results by date, category or keyword using this search engine, so they can find what they're looking for faster. These benefits improve the overall user experience.

4. Customizable to your needs

Every website is different. TYPO3 Solr can be set up to display results exactly how you want them. You can specify what to search, what to ignore and how to display the results.

5. Better than the standard search

TYPO3 comes with a simple default search, but it's limited. TYPO3 Solr is faster, more flexible and offers significantly more functions. It can be perfectly integrated into TYPO3 via a TYPO3 extension called EXT:solr.

Apache Solr for TYPO3 works seamlessly with TYPO3 - thanks to a TYPO3 Solr extension and a range of helpful tools and extensions. These make setup, content indexing and customization easier for both developers and editors.

1 EXT:solr

This is the main Solr extension that connects Apache Solr to TYPO3. It offers features like:

• Faceted search (filtering by category, keyword, date, etc.)
• Support for synonyms
• Spell check, suggestions and other advanced search functions

This Solr extension is open source and widely used in the TYPO3 community. It supports multi-site and multilingual search and integrates well with TYPO3 content types.

2. solr file_indexer

This add-on makes it possible to index not only file names or titles, but the actual content of files. With support from Apache Tika, it can read text from over 1,200 file formats, including PDFs, Word documents and Excel files. This allows users to search directly in the document content, which encourages development involvement in search optimization.

3 DDEV Apache Solr for TYPO3

This is a tool for development environments. It allows developers to quickly set up a working Solr+TYPO3 environment locally with DDEV (a popular container-based development tool). Ideal for testing, developing and speeding up project setup.

Apache TYPO3 Solr makes searching your TYPO3 website better and faster. How to set it up and use it:

1. Installation and setup of TYPO3 Solr

Step 1: Add Solr extension

• You need to install the EXT:solr extension in TYPO3.
• With the TYPO3 Extension Manager (in the TYPO3 backend):
  • Go to TYPO3 Extension Manager.
  • Click on "Get Extensions".
  • Search for solr.
  • Click on Install.
• With Composer (if you use TYPO3 Composer):

• Execute this command in the project directory:

  composer require apache-solr-for-typo3/solr

• Then go to TYPO3 Extension Manager and activate the extension.

Step 2: Set up the TYPO3 Solr extension

• Go to your root page in the page tree and add the static TypoScript of TYPO3 Solr in the TYPO3 template settings.

• Add these two markers in the website template around your main content:

  <!--TYPO3SEARCH_begin--> 
  Your main content here 
  <!--TYPO3SEARCH_end-->

• Activate indexing via the following TypoScript:

  config { index_enable = 1 }

• If you are using TYPO3 version 9.5 or higher:
  • Go to the Sites module.
  • Set the base URL of your website (e.g. https:// example. com/).
  • Enter the Solr core name in the configuration of the respective language.

2. Index the content of the website

• As soon as Solr is installed and set up:
  • Go to the Empty caches menu in the TYPO3 backend.
  • Click on Initialize Solr connections.
• To check if everything is working:
  • Open the Reports module
  • Go to Status report to see if TYPO3 Solr is connected.
• To keep content up to date:
  • Use the Scheduler module
  • Create a job that indexes content regularly (e.g. every hour).

3. Customize the search in TYPO3 Solr

You can customize the appearance and behavior of the search:

• Customize the search templates to match the design of your website.
• Use TypoScript to, for example:
  • Display filters
  • Sort results
  • Add further options such as categories

When you integrate TYPO3 Solr into your website, search becomes easier, faster and more helpful for your visitors. Here's what it can do to provide important information

1. Faceted Search

This allows users to narrow down the indexed_search results available to them using filters such as category, date, author or keywords. For example, if you are looking for news, you can filter by year or topic. This makes finding suitable content faster and clearer.

2. Support for Synonyms

Solr understands different search terms and supports indexed search to find words with the same meaning. So if someone searches for "photo" but your content uses the word "image", Solr will still show the correct results. This makes the search smarter and more accurate.

3. Auto-Complete and Auto-Correct

As users type in the search bar, Solr displays real-time suggestions based on popular or matching terms. TYPO3 Solr automatically corrects small typos and still delivers the right results - like a helpful assistant, supported by powerful software, directly in the search field.

4. High Speed

Nobody likes to wait. TYPO3 Solr delivers search results almost instantly - even with thousands of pages, documents or products. Maintenance keeps your website fast and your visitors happy.

5. Search Within Documents (with Apache Tika)

Do you have PDFs, Word files or Excel documents on your TYPO3 website? A Solr server uses a tool called Apache Tika to read the content of these files. Solr uses a tool called Apache Tika to read and index the content of these files. This allows users to search the actual document text - not just the file name or title.

The implementation of Apache TYPO3 Solr brings real added value to your website. It improves search speed, makes it easier for users to find content, and can handle large amounts of data without sacrificing performance. With its flexibility and strong integration with TYPO3, Solr is a smart choice for websites that want better performance, better TYPO3 SEO and a better user experience.

If you want to take your website search to the next level, now is the perfect time to get started with TYPO3 Solr.

Get started with TYPO3 Solr today - and experience the difference!