Our team built a high-performing, ultra fast search interface for a client Drupal site using React, Apache Solr, and the Drupal Search API module.
This project allowed the client to leverage some of the well-established benefits of decoupling Drupal's content from the presentation layer, while also avoiding many of the challenges that complete decoupling involves.
Insights you'll get from this talk:
—Explanation of the architecture decisions and the tradeoffs needed to build this interface
—Gotchas with Apache Solr and the Search API default configuration
—Best practices for including React in your Drupal project
—Considerations for how the same technique could be used to improve other aspects of a Drupal site
Further Details for the Session Selection Committee:
I work for Savas Labs (https://savaslabs.com/) a digital agency based out of Durham, NC. I work remotely from Boston, which is where I grew up.
Here is a link to the actual end product that we delivered: https://www.eomega.org/search
It was a really interesting and exciting project that leveraged several technologies (Drupal, React, Apache Solr). This case study presentation will provide a technical overview of how we were able to build this search app.
The team has given this presentation at three other conferences:
Drupal Camp Atlanta 2018 ( Nov 8 - 10, 2018)
Drupal Camp Asheville 2018 (July 14, 2018)
Design4Drupal 2018 in Boston (June 27, 2018)
This presentation is useful because it (1) demonstrates a really great user experience that is possible with partial decoupling of Drupal, and (2) it provides the technical underpinnings so attendees can implement similar solutions for their own clients and use cases.