ColdFusion 10 Solr cfsearch after cfindex returning results only sometimes

Question

This is my first foray into using cfsearch. I have the below code working on my dev server with ColdFusion 10, and a collection I previously created.

The only way I can get this to return consistent results is to place a "sleep" between the cfindex and cfsearch. Otherwise the search returns no results 90% of the time and on occasion some or all results. My query only has 3 records and the collection has been optimized.

It is important to refresh the collection as this is a business directory that will be changing frequently.

<form action="search.cfm" method="get">
<input type="text" name="searchFor">
<input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>

<cfquery name="qryData" datasource="#session.DataSource#">
    SELECT biz_id, biz_name, biz_city, biz_state, biz_county
    FROM biz
   WHERE user_level > 0 AND user_level < 99
</cfquery>
<cfindex collection="mySearch" action="refresh" body="biz_name,biz_city,biz_state,biz_county" key="biz_id" query="qryData">

<cfset sleep(100)>

<cfsearch name="search" collection="mySearch" criteria="#url.searchFor#" maxrows="100">
<cfdump var="#search#">

Answer 1

The Solr server will need a moment of time to commit the changes you've made to the index.

In general it's a very bad idea to do the <cfindex> and the <cfsearch> in the same request, even more so if you do it for every search request that's being made.

If you need frequent updates to the index, create a scheduled task that runs every so often and keeps the index up to date:

<cfquery name="qryData" datasource="#session.DataSource#">
    SELECT biz_id, biz_name, biz_city, biz_state, biz_county
    FROM biz
   WHERE user_level > 0 AND user_level < 99
</cfquery>

<cfindex 
   collection="mySearch" 
   action="refresh" 
   query="qryData"
   key="biz_id" 
   body="biz_name,biz_city,biz_state,biz_county" 
>

And then run your search separately.

<form action="search.cfm" method="get">
  <input type="text" name="searchFor">
  <input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>

<cfsearch name="search" collection="mySearch" criteria="#url.searchFor#" maxrows="100">
<cfdump var="#search#">

Note that ColdFusion 10 supports the deltaimport action which might be more efficient than doing a full refresh.