Google open-sourced (Apache license) the framework it uses for getting content from a number of document repositories into a Google Search Appliance (their hardware+software solution for enterprise search).
My suggestion is that Solr could also make use of these connectors simply by opening a port that honours the wire-protocol that is used to feed content into a Google Search Appliance (architecture overview is here: http://tinyurl.com/4puke8 ). You can see how connectors push data in the "sendData" method in "GsaFeedConnection" in the connector manager framework (source here: http://tinyurl.com/49cehd ). Before a connector starts pushing content it needs to be configured and the Google Search Appliance admin screens are used to set this up. The GSA appliance has some form of conversation with connectors to understand what properties need setting and to set them but this again could be added with Solr providing an equivalent admin screen driven by the same information provided by connectors. The other form of conversation conducted is around authentication when query results are about to be presented to users. This isn't something I have any time to work on but it seems like an interesting project so I thought I'd mention it in case anyone here has the time or interest in pursuing it. It would open Solr up to some new environments by making use of existing connectors provided by some large commercial organisations. Cheers, Mark
