I've done a lot of ajax/Solr stuff with jquery and Cocoon.  I typically deal
with large XML datasets, so Cocoon is an ideal application for me to use.
Ajax calls are made to Cocoon pipelines that are transformations of Solr XML
search results processed by Saxon against XSLT.  It's quite fast, even for
facet pagination.  I've also done some work with TermsComponent to deliver
autosuggest for controlled vocabulary terms, like LCSH, which are stored in
a Solr index.

Beyond the typical use of Ajax to load HTML content dynamically, I've built
an OpenLayers front end that is dynamically generated from Ajax calls to a
Cocoon pipeline that queries Solr and returns results in the form of KML.

Ethan Gruber
American Numismatic Society

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 5:01 AM, Mike Taylor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Did you consider using an existing open-source project to provide the
> AJAXy UI to your index?  VuFind and Blacklight are among the
> candidates.  That's where I'd start, if I were in your position.
>
> -- Mike.
>
>
>
> On 28 February 2011 03:34, Yitzchak Schaffer <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > We are working on creating a public-facing biographical index. We're
> planning on using Solr with faceting, and building an AJAXy search frontend.
> We have experience with symfony for overall framework, so we have begun the
> project using that.
> >
> > The only robust-looking material I was able to find on Solr with AJAX
> tonight was
> >
> > https://github.com/evolvingweb/ajax-solr/wiki
> >
> > Can anyone offer any alternate projects or approaches? I'm just getting
> my feet wet in both advanced JS/frontend dev techniques, and Solr.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > --
> > Yitzchak Schaffer
> > Systems Manager
> > Touro College Libraries
> > 212.742.8770 ext. 2432
> > http://www.tourolib.org/
> >
> >
>