In addition to yonik's point about the LocalParams wiki page (and please let us know if you aren't sure of the answers to any of your questions after reading it) I wanted to clear up one thing...
: Let's start with that not-nested query example. Can you in fact use it as : above, to force dismax handling of the 'q' even if the qt or request handler Quick side note: "qt" determines the ReequestHandler -- if it's "dismax" then you get the DisMaxRequestHandler which in recent versions of solr is just a thin subclass of the SearchHandler subclass where the default value of "defType" (which is used to pick a QParser) is "dismax" instead of "lucene" ... i tried to explain this in a recent blog... http://www.lucidimagination.com/blog/2010/05/23/whats-a-dismax/ ... the key thing to note is that "defType" is a param that is specific to SearchHandler -- if you use "qt" to pick some other third party RequestHandler, it's not neccessarily going to do *anything* and the nested params syntax may not work at all. : default is something else? The documentation is confusing: "In standard Solr : search handlers, the default type of the main query only may be specified via : the defType parameter. The default type of all other query parameters will : remain "lucene <http://wiki.apache.org/solr/SolrQuerySyntax#lucene>"." : : I _think_ it's trying to say that I _can_, even in a standard search handler, : force dismax with {!dismax}, I just can't change the type of _other_ query : parameters -- rather than saying that I _can't_ use {!dismax} to force dismax : type of 'q' in a "standard search handler". Yes? You're right, it is confusing -- the point is tha defType changes the "default QParser type" for the "q" param -- but it doesn't change it for any other param. I've improved the wording, but the key to keep in mind is that that is completley orthoginal to using the local params syntax that you asked about. What that documentation is trying to illustrate is that in this request... defType=XXX&q=AAA&fq=BBB ...the "XXX" QParser will be used to parse the value "AAA" -- but the stock "lucene" QParser will be used to parse the "fq" param Regardless of the value of defType, if you put the local params syntax ({!foo}) at the begining of a query param, you can force that param to be parsed the way you wish... defType=XXX&q={!foo}AAA&fq={!bar}BBB ...in that example, neither the XXX or "lucene" QParsers are ever used. -Hoss
