In the last years, the idea of building applications that can be used remotely by mean of the Web, has coined a new concept called "Software as a Service". Such applications, have the advantage of a remote web deployment that can be instantaneously be used by potentially any consumer in internet or of the cost reduction that a Web-based deployment provides.

1. Building SaaS solutions with
Apache Solr
Alberto Mijares, Canoo Engineering AG
alberto.mijares@canoo.com, 26/05/2011
Twitter: @lemaiol

2. Bullet point time!
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3. What I Will Cover
§ Practical applications of Apache Solr and
Apache Lucene: how to increase the time
spent by a user in an website and do
website “cross-selling”.
§ Use case: how Canoo helped Axel Springer
Switzerland to increased the page
impressions, user permanence time and
traffic in their financial online newspapers.
§ Key concepts:
• How to achieve this using Lucene & Solr
• How to profit from a SaaS business model
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4. Who I am
§ Alberto Mijares
§ Canoo Engineering AG
§ Background in web applications and standards:
• Participated in W3C Semantic Web interest
group (SWEO)
• Led web standards compliance tools
development in the past (Web Accessibility and
Mobile Web)
• Led enterprise information retrieval projects in
the recent past
• Actually coaching Google Web Toolkit projects’
development
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5. Who is Canoo
§ People:
• Dirk Koenig: Groovy founder
• Andres Almiray: Griffon project lead and Java
Champion
• Hamlet D’Arcy: Groovy committer and enthusiast
• … almost 40 more top software engineers
§ Products:
• WebTest: framework for web functional testing
• RIA Suite (aka ULC): Java based RIA framework
• FindIT: information retrieval and search tools
• WMTrans: language analysis tools
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6. Canoo FindIT
http://www.canoo.com/videos/FindIT.html
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7. Stop “bullet-pointing”!
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8. The facts
Axel Springer group is a market leader
Bilanz, Handelszeitung and Stocks
In Switzerland financials are important!
Financial language is German
Online media is the future
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9. The facts
Axel Springer group is a market leader
Bilanz, Handelszeitung and Stocks
In Switzerland financials are important!
Financial language is German
Online media is the future
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10. The gap
Make the online versions more profitable
Make all newspapers “market leaders”
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11. The gap
Make the online versions more profitable
Make all newspapers “market leaders”
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12. The how
Workshop
“Related articles”
“Cross-selling”
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13. The how
Workshop
“Related articles”
“Cross-selling”
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14. The analysis
Use Lucene’s “More like this”
Integrate back the suggestions
Implement a selection mechanism
Find a funding model
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15. The analysis
Use Lucene’s “More like this”
Integrate back the suggestions
Implement a selection mechanism
Find a funding model
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16. The issues
“More like this” was “experimental”
Without “semantics” not always makes sense
Indexing full pages produces noise
Works out-of-the-box only in English
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17. The issues
“More like this” was “experimental”
Without “semantics” not always makes sense
Indexing full pages produces noise
Works out-of-the-box only in English
18

18. The key
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19. The key
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20. The functional requirements
Discover and index articles
Extract only content
Simple and flexible query service
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21. The functional requirements
Discover and index articles
Extract only content
Simple and flexible query service
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22. The funding model
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23. The business model
SaaS
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24. The “other” requirements
Lucene-based analysis pipeline
Web oriented platform
Multi-application platform
Reliable, fast and scalable
Plan B?
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25. The “other” requirements
Lucene-based analysis pipeline
Web oriented platform
Multi-application platform
Reliable, fast and scalable
Plan B?
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26. The search
Wraps Lucene in a nice way
It is mature and Open Source
Supports scheduling, REST API, DIH,…
Scalability out-of-the-box
Well documented and has professional support
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27. The search
Wraps Lucene in a nice way
It is mature and Open Source
Supports scheduling, REST API, DIH…
Scalability out-of-the-box
Well documented and has professional support
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28. The plan
From POC to PROD in “80 days”
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29. The plan
From POC to PROD in “80 days”
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30. The results
Google analytics
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31. The results
Google analytics
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32. The conclusions
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33. The Q&A
Thanks!
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34. Sources
§ Links
• http://people.canoo.com/share
• http://www.canoo.com
• http://www.canoo.net
• http://www.leo.org
• http://www.bilanz.ch
• http://www.handelszeitung.ch
• http://www.stocks.ch
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35. Contact
§ Alberto Mijares
• alberto.mijares@canoo.com
• Twitter: @lemaiol
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36. Architecture
Platform: Apache Solr 1.4.1
Architecture:
Intern access Extern access
Solr container Web container
Requests
Springer Solr Springer WebApp
Customer 2 Solr Customer 2 WebApp
Customer 3 Solr Customer 3 WebApp