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Welcome to the Getting Started Tutorial

  • Install
Tip

Make sure that the Aspire version you download matches your tutorial version. The released binaries must match the training versions.

  • You will install Aspire, an Aspire connector application, and an Aspire publisher application (that simply writes to a file instead of to a search engine for indexing).
  • You'll get Get an idea of how to install Aspire applications using the System Admin UI (no programming knowledge needed).

To build Aspire distributions from scratch using Maven prototypes and Maven component repositoriesuse Aspire as a componentized pipeline processing system (without the Connector Framework), see the Aspire Quick Start with Distribution Archetype quick start tutorialFramework Pages.

Note

There are other tutorials for each type of connector Connector application you might want to install ; located under the section for each Connector.

On this page:

  • Download quick start distribution

  • Start MongoDB

  • Edit Aspire config

  • Start Aspire

  • Browse to content source management

  • Add content source

  • Initiate full crawl
    Tip

    Make sure that the Aspire version you download matches your tutorial version. The released binaries must match the training versions.


    Anchor
    TutorialPrereqs
    TutorialPrereqs

    Step 1:

    Prerequisites

    Before

    1. Before you begin, you must

    be registered

    register to use Aspire (go

    to http://aspire.searchtechnologies.com/) if you haven't already done that

    to How to Access Aspire for more details).

    • You will need your user
    registration
    • registration name
    and
    •  and password
    in
    •  in order to complete this tutorial.
    Note

    Review the Prerequisites to Connectors and Content Processing.

    AnchorquickstartquickstartStep 2: Download the Aspire quick start distribution
    1. Download and unpack https://wiki.searchtechnologies.com/binaries/.
    2. Select the most recent Aspire binary (aspire-distribution-X.X.zip). For purposes of this tutorial, we'll use "aspire-quick-start" as the directory name to which you unpack Aspire.

    Note: This is the best way to evaluate Aspire with or without premium connectors. If you are actually building a distribution, the preferred method is to use the Distribution Archetype, which requires downloading a Maven client.

    2. After registering, you'll require a valid License file. See Aspire Licensing for more details.

    Panel
    titleOn this page

    Table of Contents
    maxLevel1

    3. You will need to install MongoDB. See Installing and Configuring a Crawl Status Database for more details.

    • MongoDB is used to hold the crawl state for the Aspire Connector Framework.
    Note

    Future releases (currently expected for 3.2) will allow for other databases to be used.


    Step 1: Download with Pre-Built Binaries


    You must be registered to access the binaries download page. Go to How to Access Aspire , to check the Aspire Registration process.

    A pre-built distribution of Aspire can be downloaded from Aspire Binaries .

    This distribution contains pre-built binaries for a functioning Aspire installation which works for both Windows and Linux.

    After downloading Aspire, extract the contents of the zip or tar file into a directory.


    The download will create a directory structure similar to that described in Directory Structure.

    Anchor
    StartMongo
    StartMongo
    Step

    3

    2: Start MongoDB


    1. If you haven't installed MongoDB yet, do it now: Installing and Configuring MongoDB 3.Xa Crawl Status Database
    2. Make sure your MongoDB server is running by executing:
    Code Block
    themeFadeToGrey
    > mongo
    MongoDB shell version: 3.2.4
    connecting to: test
    >

    Error

    If a "NETWORK  Failed to connect to 127.0.0.1:27017" error occurs, then it is not running.

    Start it by executing:

    For Windows:

    Open a terminal and CD to your MongoDB installation folder and execute:

    Code Block
    themeFadeToGrey
    C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\3.2\bin> mongod

    For Linux:

    Code Block
    themeFadeToGrey
    $ sudo service mongod start

    Anchor
    editConfig
    editConfig
    Step

    4

    3: Edit the Aspire config/settings.xml

    file

    File


    1. Go to the directory where you unpacked Aspire (such as "aspire-quick-start").
    2. Go to the configuration directory /config
    3. Open the settings.xml file with a text or XML editor. 
    4. Look for the maven repository tag. 
    5. You need to replace the username and password that displays the YOUR-REGISTERED-USERNAME and YOUR-REGISTERED-PASSWORD in the settings.xml file with the username and password you used to register for Aspire.
    Code Block
    languagexml
    firstline46
    linenumberstrue
    <repositories>
        
    	<defaultVersion>3.2</defaultVersion>
        
    	<repository type="distribution">
    		<directory>bundles/aspire</directory>
    	</repository>
    
    	<repository type="maven">
    		<remoteRepositories>
    			<remoteRepository>
    				<id>stPublic</id>
    				<url>http<url>https://repository.searchtechnologies.com/artifactory/public/</url>
    				<user>YOUR-REGISTERED-USERNAME</user>
    				<password>YOUR-REGISTERED-PASSWORD</password>
    			</remoteRepository>
    		</remoteRepositories>
    	</repository>
    </repositories>
    Tip

    If you encounter Parsing Error:  org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Content is not allowed in prolog

    This error is caused by the presence of a byte-order mark (BOM) at the start of your XML file. You can see the BOM using "od -c <filename>". Remove the BOM by copying and pasting the entire file contents to a new file in a text editor (since the BOM does not copy to the clipboard).


    6. After you've entered your username and password, Save and close the file. Make sure you save it so it remains an .xml file!7.

    You may also need to edit the settings if you are running MongoDB on a separate machine.

      • If this is the case, Modify the following section and point to the server where you installed MongoDB. In this case, MongoDB is running in the host called mongodb-host:

    Excerpt Include
    MongoDB Settings
    MongoDB Settings


    Anchor
    StartupAspire
    StartupAspire
    Step

    5

    4: Start

    up

    Aspire


    First, make sure you have access to the internet so that Aspire can download components from our Maven repository.

    To start Aspire, follow these steps:

    1. Open a terminal and cd to the bin/ directory inside the downloaded Aspire Distribution.
    2. Execute the startup script
    • Windows
    Code Block
    themeFadeToGrey
    > aspire.bat


    Linux

    Code Block
    themeFadeToGrey
    $ aspire.sh


    OS X (this command must be executed from Aspire home directory)

    Code Block
    themeFadeToGrey
    $ bin/aspire.sh

    Error

    If you are unable to start Aspire and an error occurs, try accessing a URL via the browser and logging in with your registered username/password. For example:


    Excerpt Include
    Aspire Quick Start with Distribution Archetype
    Aspire Quick Start with Distribution Archetype
    nopaneltrue


    Anchor
    browseCSM
    browseCSM
    Step

    6

    5:

    Browse to the content source management page

    Launch the Aspire Content Source Manager


    1. Browse to: http://localhost:50505 if you are running Aspire locally or change the host to the server hosting Aspire.

    For details on using the Aspire Content Source Management page, please refer to Admin UI Audit Logs.


    Anchor
    addSource
    addSource
    Step

    7

    6: Add a

    new content source

    New Content Source


    Step

    7a

    6aAdd a New FileSystem Content Source

    Add Source Menu

    To specify exactly what File System folder to crawl, we will need to create a new "Content Source".

    To create a new content source:

    1. From the Aspire 3 Home Content Source Manager Home page, Add Source.
    2. Click File System Connector.
    Step 7b
    Info
    If you want to disable the content source just clear the the Enable checkbox. This is useful if the folder will be under maintenance and no crawls are wanted during that period of time.

    Step 6b: Specify Basic Information

    General Configuration

    In the General tab in the Content Source Configuration window, specify basic information for the content source:

    1. Enter a content source name in the "Name" field. 
      • This is any useful name which you decide is a good name for the source. It will be displayed in the content source page, in error messages, etc.
    2. Click on the Scheduled pull-down list and select one of the following: Manually, PeriodicallyDaily,Weekly or Advanced.
      • Aspire can automatically schedule content sources to be crawled on a set schedule, such as once a day, several times a week, or periodically (every N minutes or hours).For the purposes of this tutorial, you may want to select Manually and then set up a regular crawling schedule later.
    3. Click on the Action pull-down list to select one of the following: Start, StopPause, or Resume.
      • This is the action that will be performed for that specific schedule.
    4. Click on the Crawl pull-down list and select one of the following: Incremental, FullReal Time, or Cache Groups.
      • This will be the type of crawl to execute for that specific schedule.

    After selecting a Scheduled, specify the details, if applicable:

      • Manually: No additional options.
      • Periodically: Specify the "Run every:" options by entering the number of "hours" and "minutes."
      • Daily: Specify the "Start time:" by clicking on the hours and minutes drop-down lists and selecting options.
      • Weekly: Specify the "Start time:" by clicking on the hours and minutes drop-down lists and selecting options, then clicking on the day checkboxes to specify days of the week to run the crawl.
      • Advanced: Enter a custom CRON Expression (e.g. 0 0 0 ? * *)

    Info
    You can add more schedules by clicking in the Add New option. Note that you can separately schedule full crawls, incremental crawls, and user-group cache (used for group expansion with document-level security) downloads.
    Note
    Step 7c
    Real Time and Cache Groups crawl will be available depending of the connector.

    Step 6c: Specify the Connector Information

    Connector Config

    In the Connector tab, specify the connection information to crawl the File System folder.

    1. Enter the folder path you want to crawl.
      • For Windows: Use the following format D:\folder\folder1\ 
      • For Linux: Use the following format /home/user/folder/folder1/
    2. Check on the other options as needed:
      1. Index Containers?: Index containers as items. If unchecked, only files will be indexed.
      2. Scan Recursively?: Scan through subfolder's child nodes.
      3. Scan Excluded Item: It will scan sub items of container that have been excluded
      4. Include/Exclude patterns: Enter regex patterns to include or exclude files/folders based on URL matches.

    Step

    7d

    6d: Specify Workflow Information

    Workflow

    In the Workflow tab, specify the workflow steps for the jobs that come out of the crawl. Drag and drop rules to determine which steps should an item follow after being crawled. These rules could be where to publish the document or transformations needed on the data before sending it to a search engine.

    See Workflow for more information.

    1. For the purpose of this tutorial, drag and drop the Publish To File rule found under the Publishers tab to the onPublish Workflow tree.
      1. Specify a Name and Description for the Publisher.
      2. Click Add.

    After completing these steps, click Save and Done and you'll be sent back to the Home page.

    info

    You can add more schedules by clicking in the Add New option, and rearrange the order of the schedules.

    Info
    If you want to disable the content source just clear the the Enable checkbox. This is useful if the folder will be under maintenance and no crawls are wanted during that period of time.
    Note
    Real Time and Cache Groups crawl will be available depending of the connector.


    Anchor
    initiateCrawl
    initiateCrawl
    Step

    8

    7: Initiate the full crawl


    Content Source

    Now that the content source is set up, you will see a box (called a 'card') on the crawl can be initiatedmain page which shows your new content source. You can use the buttons in this box to initiate a crawl.

    1. Click Full crawl (left most black circle) to initiate the crawl.

    During the Crawl

    Statistics

    During the crawl, you can do the following:
    • Click Refresh on the Content Sources page to view the latest status of the crawl.
      The status will show RUNNING while the crawl is going, and CRAWLED when it is finished.

    • Click Complete to view the number of documents crawled so far, the number of documents submitted, and the number of documents with errors.

    Important:  If there are errors, you will get a clickable Error that will take you to a detailed error message page.

    Checking the Output

    Because you are publishing the results to a file, you can see the published jobs in the file you specified when installing the "Publish To File" component. Typically this will be in the "logs" directory, in the "publishToFile.jobs" file (which can be usually be found under the "Publish_To_File" sub-directory).


    Step

    9: Congratulate yourself! (and shutdown)

    8: Shut Down Aspire


    Congratulations!! You have completed the 20-minute quick start. We hope it was a fun experience. 

    Shutdown

    1. To shut down Aspire, go to the Debug Console page (http://localhost:50505/aspire).
    2. Click Shutdown (that's the red button to the right of the server name). 

    Or, you could go to the Aspire console window (where you started Aspire with "bin\startup") and type shutdown and then press 

    1. Type shutdown.
    2. Press Return or Enter