Supercharged Website Search: Get Instant, Relevant Results
Monday, Oct 22 3:15 - 4:00
Presented by Adam GouldDoing search right is difficult. You can rely on the built-in search in your CMS, use a 3rd-party engine, such as Google Custom Search, or try rolling your own. Unless you choose the third option, chances are you don’t have a lot of control over the way your data is indexed and retrieved.
At Jamestown Community College, we weren’t satisfied with Drupal’s default search and decided to look for something better. We built a custom solution based on Elasticsearch, a REST-based, open-source, full-text search engine. In this presentation, you will learn how we used Elasticsearch to deliver relevant results across several different search features in our website, including a search-as-you-type instant search box on our homepage, a feature on our academics page that helps students find a program to match their interests, and our general site-wide search. You will also get an overview of indexing and querying in Elasticsearch and learn how to integrate these features into Drupal.
About
Adam Gould
Web DeveloperAdam Gould has been developing websites and applications since high school. He obtained a degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and worked for several years in the software industry in New York City. In a series of loosely-planned events, he decided to move back to his hometown, Jamestown, NY, where he eventually began working for the local community college as a Web Developer. He has been there for over 5 years now, developing new web-based systems that help his college serve their students and stay innovative.