link if you are using Aspire for Elasticsearch


The following tutorial gets you started with Aspire in 20 minutes or less. This tutorial is for Aspire 3 (Alder). This tutorial will take you through installing Aspire, an Aspire connector application, and an Aspire publisher application (that simply writes to a file instead of to a search engine for indexing). It will give you an idea of how you install Aspire applications using the System Admin user interface (no programming knowledge needed).

There is another quick start tutorial to learn how to build Aspire distributions from scratch using Maven prototypes and Maven component repositories. Quick Start with Distribution Archetype

Additionally, there are also tutorials for each type of connector application you might wish to install; those are located under the section for each Connector.

 

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 1: Install Java


The version of Java you should use depends on the Aspire version you are targeting to:

  • Aspire 3 and up requires to run at Java 1.7 and above.

Note that we recommend installing the Java JDK (Java Development Kit), just in case you want to create your own Aspire Components in the future. But really, only the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) is absolutely required.

  1. Download and install the latest version of the Java JDK appropriate for the system that will run Aspire: http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
    • If you have a 64 bit machine, we recommend installing the 64 bit version of Java. That will allow you to create large-memory instances of Aspire.
      • The Aspire framework itself does not use up that much memory (100mb or so). But some applications may store big hash tables to improve performance, so it's best to have the 64 bit JVM (Java Virtual Machine), just in case you need it someday.
  2. Test that you can access the "java" command from your console.
    1. Open up a new DOS command-shell (go to the Start menu, enter "cmd" in the "Run" or "Search for Programs" field, and then execute the cmd.exe program).
    2. At the prompt, enter the following, then press the Enter key: java -version
    3. Success is indicated when version information is returned.

 

 > java -version
 java version "1.7.0_79"
 Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_79-b15)
 Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.79-b02, mixed mode)

Step 2: Download the 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 Aspire Directory Structure.

Step 3: Edit the Aspire 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>

Once you've entered your user name and password, save and close the file. Make sure you save it so it remains a .xml file

 

Step 4: Start Up Aspire


First, make sure you have access to the internet so that Aspire can download components. Next, still in the Aspire directory you created, change to the /bin directory and type "startup" to launch Aspire.

Note that "startup" is a batch script (on Windows) or a shell script (on Unix) that can be modified as necessary if you need more memory or need to set other system properties.

Aspire may take a few seconds to load all of the necessary components. You will see feedback to the command prompt during the startup.

If you are downloading Aspire Community, ignore the error message about being unable to download the com.searchtechnologies.aspire:aspire-dcm-enterprise component. The aspire-dcm-enterprise component is available only with Enterprise systems (and is used for Distributed Processing).

Step 5: Launch Aspire and open the Content Source Management Page


Launch Aspire (if it's not already running). See:

Browse to: http://localhost:50505. For details on using the Aspire Content Source Management page, please refer to Aspire Admin UI.

 

Step 6: Add a New Content Source


 

 

Step 6a: Add 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 page, click on "Add Source" button.
  2. Click on "File System Connector".

 

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. 
    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, PeriodicallyDaily, 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, StopPause, 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, FullReal 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 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.
    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 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. 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. 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.

 

You can add more schedules by clicking in the Add New option, and rearrange the order of the schedules.
If you want to disable the content source just unselect the the "Enable" checkbox. This is useful if the folder will be under maintenance and no crawls are wanted during that period of time.
Real Time and Cache Groups crawl will be available depending of the connector.

 

Step 7: Initiate the Full Crawl


Content Source

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

Statistics

During the crawl, you can do the following:
  • 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 8: Congratulate yourself! (and shutdown)


Congratulations!!

Shutdown

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