Step 1: Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need to be registered to use Aspire (go to http://aspire.searchtechnologies.com/) if you haven't already done that.

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

Step 2: Download the Aspire quick start distribution

Download and unpack https://wiki.searchtechnologies.com/binaries/. 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. The preferred method if you are actually building a distribution is to use the Distribution Archetype, which requires also downloading a Maven client.

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

Step 3: Start MongoDB

If you haven't installed MongoDB yet, do it now: Install MongoDB 3.X

Make sure your MongoDB server is running by executing:

> mongo
MongoDB shell version: 3.2.4
connecting to: test
>

If it returns a "NETWORK  Failed to connect to 127.0.0.1:27017" error, it means it is not running, start it by executing:

Windows

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

C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\3.2\bin> mongod

Linux

$ sudo service mongod start

Step 4: Edit the Aspire config/settings.xml file

Go to the directory where you unpacked Aspire (such as "aspire-quick-start") and go to the configuration directory /config. Open the settings.xml file with a text or XML editor. Look for the maven repository tag. You need to replace the user name and password that displays with the user name and password you used to register for Aspire.

<repositories>
    
	<defaultVersion>3.2</defaultVersion>
    
	<repository type="distribution">
		<directory>bundles/aspire</directory>
	</repository>

	<repository type="maven">
		<remoteRepositories>
			<remoteRepository>
				<id>stPublic</id>
				<url>http://repository.searchtechnologies.com/artifactory/public/</url>
				<user>YOUR-REGISTERED-USERNAME</user>
				<password>YOUR-REGISTERED-PASSWORD</password>
			</remoteRepository>
		</remoteRepositories>
	</repository>
</repositories>

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

Also uncomment the following section and point to the server where you installed MongoDB, in this case we have MongoDB running in the host called mongodb-host:

  <!-- noSql database provider for the 3.2 connector framework -->
  <noSQLConnectionProvider sslEnabled="false" sslInvalidHostNameAllowed="false">
    <implementation>com.searchtechnologies.aspire:aspire-mongodb-provider</implementation>
    <servers>mongodb-host:27017</servers>
  </noSQLConnecitonProvider>

Step 5: Start up Aspire

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

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

   1. Windows

      > startup.bat

   2. Linux or OS X

      $ startup.sh

Example output:

Removing Felix-Cache and AppBundle-Cache directories
 

 
************************************************************************
*
* ASPIRE BOOTLOADER
*
* Bundle id : 10
*
* Location  : file:bundles/boot/aspire-bootloader-3.2.jar
*
.
.
.
.
2014-02-04T20:38:43Z INFO [/Workflow]: Installed component: /Workflow/WfManager
2014-02-04T20:38:43Z INFO [aspire]: Successfully started appBundle: /Workflow (location: com.searchtechnologies.aspire:app-workflow-manager)
AUTOSTART: No applications to start

3. Use the standard administration interface (http://localhost:50505) to install pre-packaged applications such as connectors and search engine publishers. 

Errors

4. If you see an error like this:

2014-11-19T10:20:35Z INFO [BOOTLOADER]: Fetching: com.searchtechnologies.aspire:aspire-application:3.2
2014-11-19T10:20:43Z ERROR [BOOTLOADER]: Cannot get file from repository (https://repository.searchtechnologies.com/artifactory/public/) - check the component is properly deployed. File: https://repository.searchtechnologies.com/artifactory/public/com/searchtechnologies/aspire/aspire-application/3.2/aspire-application-3.2.jar
org.apache.maven.wagon.authorization.AuthorizationException: Access denied to: https://repository.searchtechnologies.com/artifactory/public/com/searchtechnologies/aspire/aspire-application/3.2/aspire-application-3.2.jar
       at org.apache.maven.wagon.providers.http.LightweightHttpWagon.fillInputData(LightweightHttpWagon.java:119)
       at org.apache.maven.wagon.StreamWagon.getInputStream(StreamWagon.java:116)
       at org.apache.maven.wagon.StreamWagon.getIfNewer(StreamWagon.java:88)
       at org.apache.maven.wagon.StreamWagon.get(StreamWagon.java:61)
       at org.sonatype.aether.connector.wagon.WagonRepositoryConnector$GetTask.run(WagonRepositoryConnector.java:511)
       at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:895)
       at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:918)
       at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

and Aspire exits:

ERROR: Failed to load Aspire application
Shutting down OSGI

5. Check that you have the correct username and password in the config/settings.xml file. See General Settings for details.

More Information

For more information on how to start, stop, install as service, see Launch Control

Step 6: Browse to the content source management page

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.

Step 7: Add a new content source

Step 7a: Add a New FileSystem Content Source

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. 1. 1. From the Aspire 3 Home page, click on "Add Source" button.
      2. Click on "File System Connector".

Step 7b: Specify Basic Information

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

1. 1. 1. Enter a content source name in the "Name" field. 
         1. 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 pulldown list and select one of the following: Manually, Periodically, Daily,Weekly or Advanced.
         1. 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 pulldown list to select one of the following: Start, Stop, Pause, or Resume.
         1. This is the action that will be performed for that specific schedule.
      4. Click on the Crawl pulldown list and select one of the following: Incremental, Full, Real Time, or Cache Groups.
         1. 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 ? * *)

Step 7c: Specify the Connector Information

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

1. 1. 1. Enter the folder path you want to crawl.
         1. 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: Specify Workflow Information

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. This 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. 1. 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 this steps click on the Save then Done and you'll be sent back to the Home Page.

Step 8: Initiate the full crawl

Now that the content source is set up, the crawl can be initiated.

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

During the Crawl

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

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

Step 9: Congratulate yourself! (and shutdown)

Congratulations!!

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

To shutdown Aspire, go to the Debug Console page (http://localhost:50505/aspire) and click on the "Shutdown" button (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 the Return or Enter key. Either way will shut down Aspire.

Cheers!

The Aspire Development Team