Volkman Software

Drupal search with Solr and SearchStax.

When a Drupal site's search returns the wrong pages, misses obvious matches or breaks after an upgrade, I find out why and fix it. I also build search from scratch with Search API, Apache Solr and SearchStax.

Taking on new projects now, directly or through agencies.

Problems I fix

The right page is on page two

Relevance tuning: which fields count most, exact phrases over scattered words, newer content over old, and the content types people are actually looking for.

No results for obvious searches

Misspellings, plurals, abbreviations and acronyms. Stemming, synonyms, spelling suggestions and fuzzy matching so close-enough searches still find things.

Facets that don't add up

Filters with wrong counts, missing options or ones that empty the results, and facet setups that are hard to use.

Content missing from the index

Pages that don't appear after they're published or edited, indexing that stalls, and access rules that hide content from people who should see it, or show it to people who shouldn't.

Search broke in an upgrade

Moving search to Drupal 10 or 11, from Drupal 7's search modules to Search API, or to a newer Solr version and configset.

Slow searches and indexing

Queries, facets and indexing jobs that take too long, and Solr settings that don't fit the site's size.

How a search project runs

  1. Collect real searches. From search logs and from the people who use the site: what they typed and which page they expected.
  2. Find the cause. The Search API setup, the Solr schema and analysis chain, and how content gets indexed.
  3. Fix and measure. Change one thing at a time and check the same searches before and after, so every change is shown to help.
  4. Hand over. Configuration in code, and notes on what changed and why, so your team or agency can carry on.

Solr and SearchStax

I work with self-hosted Apache Solr and with SearchStax, both Managed Search (hosted Solr) and Site Search, including configsets, schema changes and Drupal sites on Acquia.

For agencies

If your agency runs Drupal sites and search is the part nobody wants to touch, I can take it on, white-label or alongside your team, working in your repositories and process.

Background

I've been on Drupal.org since 2009 and am one of the maintainers of Fuzzy Search, a Drupal 7 module that matches partial and misspelled keywords. More about Volkman Software.

Get in touch

Tell me what's wrong with your search, or what you need it to do.