[ANN] Lux XML search engine

[Michael Sokolov <msokolov@safaribooksonline.com>]

I'm pleased to announce the first public release of Lux (version 0.9.1), 
an XML search engine embedding Saxon 9 and Lucene/Solr 4. Lux offers 
many features found in XML databases: persistent XML storage, 
index-optimized querying, an interactive query window, and some 
application support features - it is possible to build applications 
written exclusively in XQuery and XSLT using Lux. I call it a search 
engine, though, to indicate this is not a replacement for a 
full-featured database. I hope existing Solr/Lucene users dealing with 
XML documents will find Lux adds a unique and compelling query capability.

Lux grew out of the need to provide an XML-aware query capability for 
documents stored in and indexed by Solr/Lucene; it is currently in use 
at my workplace, both as an ad hoc query tool for developers and as part 
of our content ingestion process. We believe that others may find it 
useful as well, and are providing it under an open source license in the 
hope that wider exposure will lead to a longer, healthier life.

Lux is built on a production quality code base.  It has been rigorously 
tested, and all known critical defects have been resolved. However, it 
is in a fairly early stage of development (it's about a year old).  This 
means there are features users will miss.  Some of them we already know 
about (see the Plans page on the web site or the issue tracker), but the 
relatively narrow distribution so far means there are certainly more to 
be found.  I encourage you to report these on the mailing list (see 
below): this is a unique opportunity to influence the direction Lux 
takes in the future.

Lots more information, including downloads and setup instructions, is 
available at http://luxdb.org, source code is at 
http://github.com/msokolov/lux, issues are tracked at 
http://issues.luxdb.org/, and please let us know what you think using 
the (brand new) mailing list at luxdb@luxdb.org, archived at 
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/luxdb. (Please note 
the mailing list is hosted as a google group, which makes it a bit 
tricky to sign up with a non-gmail address, but you can.  To do that, 
just tack your email address on to this link: 
http://groups.google.com/group/luxdb/boxsubscribe?email=)

-Mike Sokolov

PS: apologies for cross-posting; there is some overlap among the 
readership of these groups, I know -- but they are not identical, and 
we'll keep any followup to a single list -- or on the luxdb list.