Indexing in Apache Solr is the process of adding documents to the Solr index so that they can be searched and retrieved. When you index a document, Solr analyzes its contents and stores the data in a structured format that allows for efficient searching.
The indexing process involves several steps:
1. Document ingestion: The first step in indexing is to ingest the document into Solr. This can be done using a variety of methods, such as the Solr API, a client library, or a data import handler.
2. Analysis: Once a document has been ingested, Solr analyzes its contents to extract the relevant data. This includes breaking the text into individual words, applying text analysis techniques such as stemming and stopword removal, and identifying fields within the document.
3. Tokenization: Solr breaks the text into individual tokens, which are the basic units of search in Solr. Each token represents a single word, number, or other piece of data that can be searched.
4. Indexing: Once the document has been analyzed and tokenized, Solr adds it to the index. The index is a structured data store that allows for efficient searching of the document’s contents. Each token is associated with the document that contains it, along with metadata such as the field name and document ID.
By indexing documents in Solr, you can build a powerful search application that allows users to quickly and accurately find the information they need. Solr provides a wide range of indexing options and configuration settings, allowing you to customize the indexing process to suit your specific needs.