Drupal Search API — search that actually works
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Search is often the most-used feature of a site — and the most often done poorly. Here is how to set it up properly in Drupal.
Drupal Core includes a basic search function built on MySQL full-text search. This works for a few hundred pages. But when a site has thousands of content items, multilingual content, complex filters and autocomplete suggestions — a different solution is needed.
Search API module
Search API (opens in a new tab) is Drupal's de facto standard for advanced search. It decouples the search index from the database and allows using external search engines.
Search API provides:
- Indexing — define which content types and fields are indexed
- Server abstraction — the same configuration works with Solr, Elasticsearch or database search
- Views integration — search results displayed via Drupal Views, with filters and sorting
- Facets support —
search_api_solrwith thefacetsmodule delivers filtered category search
Apache Solr
Apache Solr (opens in a new tab) is a Java-based search server with the closest Drupal integration.
When to use Solr:
- Large content volume (10,000+ documents)
- Multilingual search with language-specific stemming
- Complex faceted search (filters, ranges, relevance tuning)
- Fast autocomplete suggestions
The official search_api_solr module handles indexing, queries and language stemming automatically.
Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch (opens in a new tab) is an alternative to Solr — more powerful for real-time search and large-scale data analysis.
When to use Elasticsearch:
- Real-time search (logs, events, dynamic content)
- Geographic queries (nearby locations)
- Complex data analytics and aggregations
Drupal has an elasticsearch_connector module, though it is less actively maintained than the Solr integration.
Database server — the simpler option
Search API also supports using Drupal's own database as the search backend. This does not scale to thousands of documents, but for smaller sites it is a simpler solution without an external server.
Typical search requirements
| Need | Solution |
|---|---|
| Simple text search, small site | Search API + Database server |
| Fast search + filters, medium site | Search API + Solr |
| Real-time indexes, large data | Search API + Elasticsearch |
| Autocomplete suggestions | Search API + Solr + search_api_autocomplete |
If search is a critical feature of your site, the search architecture is worth designing before development starts — retrofitting it later is costly. Describe your requirements.
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