SI4T : Overview

Getting Started

If you are thinking of integrating a front-end (ie web application) search engine in your SDL Tridion project, you are in the right place. Probably you already have a search engine in mind, but if not we recommend looking at Apache Solr.

Firstly you will need to set up the Framework - a Generic method of configuring and publishing indexing instructions from SDL Tridion

Next you will need to implement an indexer for your search engine. This is the bridge between the framework and the specifics of the search engine you have selected. For Solr, you can use the ready-made Solr indexer. For other search engines, you will need to do a bit of coding (you can use the Solr indexer as an example).

Next publish your content to get it into the index

Finally, you will need to implement some query logic in your web app code. It is not our goal to provide this here as it is very technology and project requirement dependent, however there are some examples:

• A Solr query library for .NET - also available on NuGet
• An example Controller and View for ASP.NET MVC - also available on NuGet

Full list of SI4T Projects and Resources

• http://si4t.github.io/SI4T - The Core, Generic SI4T Framework, including TBBs and Storage Extensions
• http://si4t.github.io/Solr - Indexer implementation for Apache Solr, to be used in conjunction with the above framework
• A brief overview of the project can be found in this presentation
• SI4T articles on www.tridiondeveloper.com
• SI4T questions on tridion.stackexchange.com
• SI4T packages in NuGet

Thanks to Content Bloom and SDL for help getting this project started!