Tying Google Search into Nuxeo Enterprise CMS

Open source enterprise content management (ECM) vendor Nuxeo (news, site) announced the Nuxeo GSA Connector that enables Google Search Appliance to index and search Nuxeo ECM content. Organizations using Nuxeo and Google’s search appliance can now have the ECM content in same search results as other content indexed by search appliance and actually get closer to living up to the “enterprise search” moniker.

Enterprise Search and ECM

Google Search Appliance (GSA) provides Google search capabilities to enterprise content. GSA connects to many content sources, like the popular SharePoint 2010, out-of-the-box, but alas, Nuxeo was not among that list. However, no longer does content stored in Nuxeo’s open source ECM have to be AWOL from search results with the release of the new Nuxeo GSA Connector.

The Nuxeo GSA Connector requires Nuxeo DM 5.4.0.1 or Nuxeo DM 5.4.1 and includes:

• Google Enterprise Connector Manager: Allows GSA to search and serve documents from the Nuxeo repository.
• Nuxeo Google Search Appliance connector type: Allows user to configure the connection and define the content to index.

Using Nuxeo’s GSA Connector is transparent to end-users. Once an administrator has installed the connector, Nuxeo ECM documents appear in the search results of their local Google website. When users select the document, the document is served from Nuxeo.

Nuxeo GSA administration
 

Nuxeo has integrated security with the connector. The connector applies the access rights from Nuxeo ECM to the search results. The first time search results include Nuxeo documents, the platform displays a login window. Users must log in to see Nuxeo results and can only see documents they can access in Nuxeo ECM. The credentials are saved for future searches.

Organizations invested in open source should also take note that the source code for the connector is open and available under the LGPL license. Complete documentation for the connector is available on the Nuxeo site.

Getting the Connector

The new open source Nuxeo GSA Connector is available in the Nuxeo Marketplace. Nuxeo Connect subscribers can download and install it directly in Nuxeo DM via the in-product Update Center. Non-Connect subscribers can sign up for a trial. Users that decide to try out the connector should be aware that the package does not support hot reloading. They should follow the Nuxeo GSA Connector documentation for installation instructions.

As enterprise content grows in size and becomes more diverse, organizations continue to struggle to provide a unified view of all information assets. Nuxeo’s move to provide a connector to GSA gets some of these organizations just a little closer to that goal.