[Xapian-discuss] [Python workshop] Do you know people who might be interested? Build a search engine Tue Nov 17 6:30-9:30pm 23st&6ave

[Roy Hyunjin Han]

Dear Xapian community,

Thank you to the developers and community for creating a supporting such a
great search engine library!  I wrote a tutorial on building a search
engine using Xapian and Pylons (link below) and am featuring Xapian in a
workshop this Tuesday, November 17 from 6:30-9:30pm on 23rd street and 6th
avenue.  Do you know people who might be interested?  Please let them know!
It will be a good workshop.  

The accompanying tutorial is published at
http://invisibleroads.com/tutorials/xapian-search-pylons.html and I
attached a flyer in case you would like to post a few at your workplace. 
You are welcome to forward this email too.

I've been working hard to prepare for it but I haven't been telling enough
people and I need your help!

Thanks,
RHH


Build and deploy your own document search engine web application from start
to finish using Xapian and Pylons on WebFaction
Tuesday November 17 2009 6:30-9:30pm
NYC Seminar and Conference Center (71 W 23rd St @ 6th Ave, New York, NY)
11/12 slots available for $30 each
Register at http://invisibleroads.com
Contact service at invisibleroads.com


Description
-----------------------------
You will work in pairs to create a web-based search engine from scratch.
Pairs rotate every thirty minutes so you will work with six different
people. Work at your own pace and learn how to build web applications using
the Pylons framework.


Tutorial format
-----------------------------
Students work in pairs that rotate after every module. There are six
thirty-minute modules, each with exercises that focus on a different aspect
of the development process. The instructor walks around and answers
questions.


Intended audience
-----------------------------
Beginner to intermediate Python developers


Prerequisites
-----------------------------
Students should be comfortable with Python and have some exposure to web
application development.


Requirements
-----------------------------
Please bring a laptop with the following packages installed. If you do not
bring a laptop, it is possible that you will be able to share with a
partner but this is not guaranteed. Note that if you are using Linux, it is
better to use the operating system's package installer as much as possible.

* Python = 2.5
* IPython = 0.10
* Pylons = 0.97
* jQuery = 1.3.2
* Firebug = 1.4
* Xapian = 1.0.16


Lesson plan
-----------------------------
The complete tutorial is available at
http://invisibleroads.com/tutorials/xapian-search-pylons.html

Command-line experimentation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
0:00-0:30 Xapian basic operations

* Check that students have properly installed Xapian's Python bindings
* Exercise: Index a set of documents
* Exercise: Return documents matching a query

0:30-1:00 Xapian advanced operations

* Exercise: Order documents by date using documentID
* Exercise: Order documents by date using value
* Exercise: Filter documents by number using value
* Exercise: Highlight and extract the parts of a document that match query
terms

Web application development
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1:00-1:30 Search

* Check that students have properly installed Pylons
* Exercise: Create a simple search page

1:30-2:00 Search extras

* Exercise: Add highlighting and relevant text extracts
* Exercise: Add link to download document

Deployment on WebFaction
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2:30-3:00 Deployment

* Exercise: Compile Xapian on WebFaction
* Exercise: Install Pylons as a custom application listening on a port
* Exercise: Deploy application
* Discuss options for local deployment using Apache as a proxy
* Discuss using crontab to index more documents

Instructor experience
-----------------------------
Roy Hyunjin Han creates satellite-based geospatial planning tools for the
Earth Institute at Columbia University and office automation tools for the
CUNY Technology Commercialization Office. He built a system that finds
houses in satellite images, various geospatial web applications to support
infrastructure planning, a web-based document search engine, mail agents to
query databases remotely, a testing framework for an airline reservation
system and a workflow management web application. He holds a Masters in
Computer Science and Machine Learning from Columbia University and a
Bachelors in Mathematics and Neuroscience from New York University.

* 2009 PyCon tutorial on Working with Geographic Information Systems in
Python
* 2008 PyCon tutorial on Automating Windows Applications with win32com


-- 
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Empowering people to create since 2008