NHibernate-based Full-Text Search

Question

I want to integrate full-text search into a .NET application with [Fluent] NHibernate-based data access. So far Lucene.NET and NHibernate Search combination appears to be the most reasonable option there. However, there are several projects built on top of Lucene which are said to mitigate Lucene complexity and add new features (e.g. Solr or ElasticSearch) as well as some .NET wrappers around those libraries. So, what are the [best] options for my project?

Answer 1

If you already have a nhibernate data access, you should go with nhibernate search, as it integrates very nicely, and learning curve is not too steep.

Solr and Elasticsearch are more system independant (restful api for example), but will need more plumbing work.

And you have a lot of resource here : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/nhibernate.search

Answer 2

Since you're on .NET, Solr and Hibernate Search can't really be of help and would probably require you to get another server dedicated for search only. I'm not familiar with NHibernate Search et al, but as .NET ports go, its most likely quite behind the real Java thing.

If its feasible for you to change your data-access layer, checkout RavenDB. It is written in C#/.NET on top of Lucene, so you get a fast schema-less document DB and a full-text search engine packed as one.