Step-by-step introduction to Apache Lucy.

Explore Apache Lucy's basic functionality by starting with a minimalist CGI search app based on Lucy::Simple and transforming it, step by step, into an "advanced search" interface utilizing more flexible core modules like and .

Chapters

• - Build a bare-bones search app using Lucy::Simple.

• - Rebuild the app using core classes like and in place of Lucy::Simple.

• - Experiment with different field characteristics using subclasses of .

• - Examine how the choice of subclass affects search results.

• - Augment search results with highlighted excerpts.

• - Unlock advanced search features by using Query objects instead of query strings.

Source materials

The source material used by the tutorial app -- a multi-text-file presentation of the United States constitution -- can be found in the sample directory at the root of the Lucy distribution, along with finished indexing and search apps.

sample/indexer_simple.c  # simple indexing executable
sample/search_simple.c   # simple search executable
sample/indexer.c         # indexing executable
sample/search.c          # search executable
sample/us_constitution   # corpus

sample/indexer.pl        # indexing app
sample/search.cgi        # search app
sample/us_constitution   # corpus

Conventions

The user is expected to be familiar with OO Perl and basic CGI programming.

The code in this tutorial assumes a Unix-flavored operating system and the Apache webserver, but will work with minor modifications on other setups.

See also

More advanced and esoteric subjects are covered in .