Is there a way to modify the Solr query that gets generated by the Sitecore Content Search API before it gets sent to the search server?

Question

I'm looking to add some parameters to my Solr query that's not currently supported by the Search API (hit highlighting to be specific). Is there a way (like a pipeline processor or something) to intercept the query and modify it before it gets sent over to Solr?

Answer 1

Depending on your version there's a way to replace the component that writes the URL and makes the connection to Solr. If you didn't feel like building out a Linq provider (and I don't recommend it), this could be a last resort hook into the process.

I was looking at this a little while ago as a candidate for adding support for Solr Cloud redirection and authenticated Solr endpoints, but I haven't completed that work yet. I think some of these features are in the works at Sitecore now anyway.

The widget in question is wired in at:

<sitecore>
  <contentSearch>
    <indexConfigurations>
      <solrHttpWebRequestFactory type="HttpWebAdapters.HttpWebRequestFactory, SolrNet" />
    </indexConfigurations>
  </contentSearch>
</sitecore>