Can you pass softcommit on update URL to SOLR?

Question

I want to send an update to solr with a softcommit.

Something like this:

http://xxx:8983/solr/corename/update?softcommit=true

I am working in C# so this is what the code looks like:

public void PostToSolr( string solrXML, SolrCommitType commitType )
    {
        string uri = solrConfig.UpdateURL;  //something like  "http://xxxx:8983/solr/corename/update";

        switch( commitType )
        {
            case SolrCommitType.SOFT:
                uri = uri + "?softcommit=true";
                break;

            case SolrCommitType.HARD:
                uri = uri + "?commit=true";
                break;
        }

        HttpWebResponse response = null;
        WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create( uri );

        try
        {

            request.ContentType = "application/xml";
            request.Method = "POST";
            using( var rs = request.GetRequestStream( ) )
            {
                byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes( solrXML );
                rs.Write( byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length );
            }

            // get response
            response = request.GetResponse( ) as HttpWebResponse;

            HttpStatusCode statusCode = response.StatusCode;

            if( statusCode != HttpStatusCode.OK )
            {
                throw new Exception( String.Format( "HttpStatusCode={0}.", statusCode.ToString( ) ) );
            }
        }
        catch( Exception ex )
        {
            throw new Exception( String.Format( "Uri={0}. Post Data={1}", uri, solrXML ), ex );
        }
        finally
        {
            if( null != response )
            {
                response.Close( );
                response = null;
            }

            request = null;
        }
    }

When I post to SOLR with a softcommit the updated document is not immediately visible. In the solr config I have setup autosoftcommit to occur every minute and so eventually the updated document does become visible.

How can I send a new document via the update and make it immediately visible without doing a commit and re-open the searcher? Is there a way to force a softcommit? Or does softcommits only happen according to the policy set in the config file?

Answer 1

All you need to do is use the parameter softCommit (camel case), this would solve the problem. A sample request would be:

curl http://localhost:8983/solr/collection1/update?softCommit=true -H "Content-Type: text/xml" --data-binary '<add><doc><field name="id">testdoc2</field></doc></add>'

it could be used after documents are added just to commit what isn't commited yet as you tried but using camel case softCommit boolean parameter.

From documentation:

softCommit = "true" | "false" - default is false - perform a soft commit - this will refresh the 'view' of the index in a more performant manner, but without "on-disk" guarantees. Solr (!) 4.0