📚 Moodle + OpenSolr Integration Guide

Get Global Search working in Moodle LMS using the mighty power of OpenSolr
No servers? No problem. OpenSolr gives you a fully hosted Solr instance so you can focus on what matters — teaching, not taming Java demons.

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🧰 What You’ll Need

Before Moodle and OpenSolr can become besties, you’ll need:

• An active OpenSolr account
• Your Solr endpoint details:
• Solr Hostname
• Port
• Solr Path/Core
• Username & Password (provided by Opensolr)
• Access to your Moodle site’s admin interface (preferably with a cup of coffee)

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🚀 Step-by-Step Integration

Step 1: Prepare Your Solr Core in OpenSolr

1. Log in to the OpenSolr dashboard.
2. Create a new Solr Index — name it something like moodle_index.
3. Use the Moodle-provided schema.xml for best compatibility:
4. Find it here:
   /your/moodle/path/search/engine/solr/schema.xml
5. Upload the schema to your OpenSolr core (via the control panel or API).
6. No need to Restart / Reload the Opensolr index, but you can also do that if you must, from the Opensolr Control Panel.

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Step 2: Enable Global Search in Moodle

1. Moodle Admin Panel → Site administration > Advanced features
2. Check ✔️ Enable global search
3. Save changes (and breathe)

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Step 3: Enable Solr Search Engine

1. Moodle Admin Panel → Site administration > Plugins > Search > Manage global search engines
2. Enable the Solr engine

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Step 4: Configure Solr Settings in Moodle

Go to:
Site administration > Plugins > Search > Solr

Now fill in the juicy bits:

Moodle Field	What to Enter
Hostname	The OpenSolr host (e.g., search.opensolr.com)
Port	Usually 443 if using HTTPS
Index name	The name of your OpenSolr index (e.g., moodle_index)
Username	Your OpenSolr username
Password	Your OpenSolr password
Use SSL	Yes (you should!)

Click Save changes, and Moodle will try to handshake with Solr like two polite British gentlemen.

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Step 5: Test & Index Content

1. After saving, Moodle will test the connection.
2. Navigate to: Site administration > Search > Index data
3. Click Start indexing
4. Watch your content go zooming into Solr

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🧪 Optional: Trigger Indexing via CLI

If your cron is still on vacation:

php admin/tool/task/cli/schedule_task.php --execute=\core\task\search_index_task

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✅ You’re Done!

Now Moodle’s search box is powered by OpenSolr — lightning fast, globally scalable, and no server maintenance nightmares.

If Moodle search was a sleepy librarian before, now it’s a caffeinated research assistant.

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Need help? Holler at: [email protected]