Typo3 Solr

Apache Solr for TYPO3

Source: https://github.com/dirnbauer/webconsulting-skills

Compatibility: Target TYPO3 14.3 and match EXT:solr, server and configset using the official Version Matrix and actual package metadata. Stable EXT:solr 14 is available; recheck compatible stable releases at execution time. All custom PHP examples use TYPO3 v14 conventions (PHP 8.2+, constructor promotion, #[AsEventListener] where shown).

TYPO3 API First: Always use TYPO3's built-in APIs and EXT:solr's TypoScript/PSR-14 events before creating custom implementations. Do not reinvent what EXT:solr already provides.

Sources

This skill is based on the following authoritative sources:

1. EXT:solr Documentation
2. EXT:tika Documentation
3. Version Matrix
4. GitHub: TYPO3-Solr/ext-solr
5. GitHub: main branch (14.0.x-dev)
6. Apache Solr Reference Guide
7. Solr Dense Vector Search
8. Solr Text to Vector (LLM)
9. typo3-solr.com
10. hosted-solr.com
11. ddev-typo3-solr
12. Mittwald Solr Docs
13. helhum/dotenv-connector

1. Architecture Overview

EXT:solr connects TYPO3 CMS to an Apache Solr search server, providing full-text search, faceted navigation, autocomplete, and (on supported Solr 9.x builds) dense-vector / semantic features where enabled.

graph LR
    subgraph typo3 [TYPO3 CMS]
        Editor[Editor creates/edits content]
        Monitor[Monitoring detects changes]
        Queue[Index Queue]
        Scheduler[Scheduler Worker]
        Plugin[Search Plugin]
    end
    subgraph solr [Apache Solr Server]
        Core[Solr Core]
        Schema[Schema / Configset]
    end
    Editor --> Monitor
    Monitor --> Queue
    Queue --> Scheduler
    Scheduler -->|HTTP POST documents| Core
    Plugin -->|HTTP GET query| Core
    Core --> Plugin

Document Lifecycle

sequenceDiagram
    participant E as Editor
    participant T as TYPO3
    participant M as Monitor
    participant Q as Index Queue
    participant S as Scheduler
    participant Solr as Solr Server

    E->>T: Create/edit record
    T->>M: DataHandler triggers PSR-14 event
    M->>Q: Add/update queue item
    Note over Q: tx_solr_indexqueue_item
    S->>Q: Poll for pending items
    Q->>S: Return items to index
    S->>Solr: POST document (JSON)
    Solr-->>S: 200 OK
    S->>Q: Mark item as indexed

Component Overview

2. Version compatibility matrix (upstream)

Target for this skill: TYPO3 v14.x with the EXT:solr release row that matches your Core on the official Version Matrix. Older rows are reference only for legacy sites.

Stable 14.0.1 was published on 2026-09-03 and requires Core ^v14.3.0 and PHP ^8.2. Use compatible stable constraints; the old beta-only guidance is retired.

TYPO3 v14 Readiness

The Version Matrix targets TYPO3 14.3 + EXT:solr 14.0 + Apache Solr 10.0.0 + ext_solr_14_0_0 (Solr 9.10.1 belongs to EXT:solr 13.1/12.1). Upstream development is on main:

• main requires typo3/cms-core: ^v14.3.0 (see composer.json on main)
• branch alias dev-main -> 14.0.x-dev
• Composer reality check: Packagist lists stable 14.0.0 and 14.0.1. Prefer stable; a development fork/branch needs a specific reason and explicit approval, not a stale assumption that v14 is unreleased.

Resolve against the selected local project's lock:

ddev composer require apache-solr-for-typo3/solr:^14.0

Verify the chosen lock, server, Java and configset together. Do not infer Docker-image availability from a Composer release, and do not move an incompatible v14 project back to EXT:solr 13.1.

CVE-2025-24814 Migration

Apache Solr 9.8.0+ disables loading jar files via lib directive in configsets. CVE-2025-24814 is a remote-code-execution class issue: if an attacker can replace or supply a configset file that Solr treats as trusted, Solr may load attacker-controlled JARs from that configset (including via the lib directive), which can lead to arbitrary code execution. The stricter default blocks that classpath loading from configsets. The solr-typo3-plugin must be moved from /configsets/ext_solr_*/typo3lib/ to /typo3lib/ at the Solr server root. Docker users: use the EXT:solr container image 13.0.1+ (image tag, not TYPO3 Core) so this migration runs automatically.

3. Installation & Setup

Composer

composer require apache-solr-for-typo3/solr

DDEV Setup

The recommended local development setup uses the ddev-typo3-solr addon:

ddev add-on get ddev/ddev-typo3-solr
ddev restart

Solr image version: the DDEV Solr add-on defaults SOLR_BASE_IMAGE to solr:9.10, and the generated compose file is .ddev/docker-compose.typo3-solr.yaml. For explicit control, override via .ddev/.env.typo3-solr (for example: ddev dotenv set .ddev/.env.typo3-solr --solr-base-image="solr:9.10.1") and rebuild the Solr service.

Configure .ddev/typo3-solr/config.yaml:

config: 'vendor/apache-solr-for-typo3/solr/Resources/Private/Solr/solr.xml'
typo3lib: 'vendor/apache-solr-for-typo3/solr/Resources/Private/Solr/typo3lib'
configsets:
  - name: 'ext_solr_14_0_0'
    path: 'vendor/apache-solr-for-typo3/solr/Resources/Private/Solr/configsets/ext_solr_14_0_0'
    cores:
      - name: 'core_en'
        schema: 'english/schema.xml'
      - name: 'core_de'
        schema: 'german/schema.xml'

Auto-initialize cores on boot in .ddev/config.yaml:

hooks:
  post-start:
    - exec-host: ddev solrctl apply

Useful DDEV commands:

Docker (Production)

services:
  solr:
    # Resolve the matching stable server/configset image and record its digest first.
    image: ${SOLR_IMAGE:?Set a reviewed compatible image tag or digest}
    ports:
      - "8983:8983"
    volumes:
      - solr-data:/var/solr
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  solr-data:
    driver: local

The image ships default cores for all languages. Persistent data is stored at /var/solr (owned by UID 8983).

Standalone Solr

Deploy the configset from EXT:solr into your Solr installation:

cp -r vendor/apache-solr-for-typo3/solr/Resources/Private/Solr/* $SOLR_INSTALL_DIR/server/solr/

Create cores via core.properties files, solrctl, or the Solr Admin API. Payload shape differs by Solr major (v8 vs v9 “v2” APIs) — treat any one-liner curl as illustrative and follow the Solr version you run.

# Illustrative only — confirm against your Solr admin API docs / use bin/solr or ddev solrctl for local setups
curl -sS -X POST "http://localhost:8983/solr/admin/cores?action=CREATE&name=core_en&configSet=ext_solr_14_0_0"

Managed Hosting: Mittwald

Mittwald provides a managed Solr service via their container platform. Use the Terraform module:

module "solr" {
  source         = "mittwald/solr/mittwald"
  solr_version   = "9"
  solr_core_name = "typo3"
  solr_heap      = "2g"
}

Access Solr at http://typo3-solr:8983 inside the container. For local debugging:

mw container port-forward --port 8983

Managed Hosting: hosted-solr.com

hosted-solr.com by dkd provides pre-configured Solr cores optimized for EXT:solr. As of the live pricing page, the Small plan is 10,00 EUR/month (2 Solr indexes, 4.000 documents; VAT note on site). After creating a core, configure it in your TYPO3 site config using the provided host, port, and path.

TYPO3 Site Configuration

In config/sites/<identifier>/config.yaml:

solr_enabled_read: true
solr_host_read: solr
solr_port_read: '8983'
solr_scheme_read: http
solr_path_read: /
solr_core_read: core_en

For DDEV, use the DDEV hostname and HTTPS port:

solr_host_read: <project>.ddev.site
solr_port_read: '8984'
solr_scheme_read: https

Environment Configuration (helhum/dotenv-connector)

Never hardcode Solr connection details. Use helhum/dotenv-connector for per-environment configuration:

composer require helhum/dotenv-connector

.env (gitignored):

SOLR_HOST=solr
SOLR_PORT=8983
SOLR_SCHEME=http
SOLR_PATH=/
SOLR_CORE_EN=core_en
SOLR_CORE_DE=core_de

.env.example (committed to VCS):

SOLR_HOST=solr
SOLR_PORT=8983
SOLR_SCHEME=http
SOLR_PATH=/
SOLR_CORE_EN=core_en
SOLR_CORE_DE=core_de

In config/system/additional.php, override site config values programmatically or use a post-processing approach. For simple setups, keep .env values and reference them in deployment scripts that generate site config YAML per environment.

4. EXT:tika -- When You Need It (and When Not)

EXT:tika integrates Apache Tika for metadata extraction, language detection, and text extraction from over 1,000 file formats.

graph TD
    Question{"Do you index files?<br/>(PDF, DOCX, XLSX)"}
    Question -->|Yes| NeedTika[Install EXT:tika + EXT:solrfal]
    Question -->|No| SkipTika[Skip -- EXT:solr handles<br/>pages and records natively]
    NeedTika --> TikaServer["Run Tika Server 3.2.3+<br/>(Docker recommended)"]

Three backends (choose one):

When you NEED EXT:tika:

• File indexing via EXT:solrfal (search inside PDFs, Word documents, etc.)
• Automatic FAL metadata enrichment (EXIF, XMP, document properties)
• Language detection on uploaded files

When you DON'T need it:

• Only indexing pages and structured records (news, events, products) via Index Queue
• EXT:solr handles page content and record fields natively without Tika

Version: EXT:tika 13.1 (the current v13 release) requires Apache Tika Server/App 3.2.3+. A v14-compatible EXT:tika release is not yet available on the official Version Matrix — track Packagist and GitHub for updates. For Apache Tika and Solr security advisories, verify on Apache Solr security / vendor advisories.

See SKILL-SOLRFAL.md for complete file indexing setup.

Detailed Reference

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