README

Welcome to the Google Search Appliance Connector Manager project!

The Google Search Appliance Connector Framework enables Google
Search Appliances to search and serve documents stored in non-Web
repositories, such as enterprise content management systems.
An enterprise content management (ECM) system provides a central
repository for large numbers of documents.

The Connector Manager is the central part of the connector framework
for Google Search Appliances.   It is responsible for hosting and
running connectors built with this framework.  The connector manager
also manages all communications between search appliances and
connectors.

A connector communicates with an ECM system in response to requests
from the connector manager.  To manage your connectors, you'll run the
connector manager on any application server that provides a servlet
interface, such as Apache Tomcat.  The Google Search Appliance
communicates with the connector manager running on your application
server using a servlet interface.

The Connector Manager itself manages creation, instantiation,
scheduling and monitoring of connectors that supply content and
provide authentication and authorization services to the Google Search
Appliance.  The connector manager calls the SPI methods at stated
intervals to perform the tasks of authentication, authorization, and
traversal of content at the repository.


Some important disclaimers:

  * This system depends on a Google Search Appliance 5.0 release.
  * Connectors developed for this framework will NOT work with previously
    released Google Search Appliances!

Documentation Links

  * Documentation for the Google Search Appliance Connectors
    http://code.google.com/apis/searchappliance/documentation/connectors/index.html
  * Google Connector Developer's Guide
    http://code.google.com/apis/searchappliance/documentation/connectors/200/connector_dev/cdg_about.html
  * Documentation for Google Search Appliance
    http://code.google.com/apis/searchappliance/documentation/index.html