Understanding Approaches For An Awesome Drupal Search Implementation

Search has become an expectation of most websites. It can help visitors quickly find what they need, which improves the user experience. But, there are several ways search can be implemented. Finding the right solution is nuanced, but can yield an elegant and effective result.

This presentation shares the various considerations of search, including integrated search, federated search, and the offerings of various complementary third-party services. We’ll explore the criteria for common features like search widgets, result listings, faceting, suggestions, spell checking, and more.

Understanding a common set of requirements and agreeing on a high-level approach can help determine the right technological approach. We’ll explore search backends like Drupal’s out-of-the-box database, SOLR, or ElasticSearch. Each technology has benefits and drawbacks within the context of storage, schematics, querying, and algorithms.

We will compare integration and user interface needs with a tightly coupled Drupal-based solution and a decoupled approach using a tool like React. Other optional but complementary technologies will be presented, including the Scrapy web crawler and integration with analytics.

Attendees should expect to gain broad insights into both technical and conceptual needs that can help inform thoughtful choices when integrating search and Drupal.