Django Haystack update index faster

Question

I've been using Django Haystack for a while now and it's great! I have a rather heavy site with data which needs to be updated from time to time (15 to 30 mins). When using the `python manage.py update_index` it takes lots of time to update the data. Is there a way to speed this up? Or maybe update only changed data if possible.. I'm currently using Django Haystack 1.2.7 with Solr as backend and Django 1.4. Thanks!!! EDIT: Yes I've tried reading that part of the documentation but what I really need is a way to speed the indexing up. Maybe update only recent data instead of updating all. I've found `get_updated_field` but don't know how to use it. In the documentation it's only mentioned why it's used but no real examples are shown. EDIT 2: ``` start = DateTimeField(model_attr='start', null=True, faceted=True, --HERE?--) ``` EDIT 3: Ok i've implemented the solution bellow but when i tried rebuild_index (with 45000 data) it almost crashed my computer. After 10 mins of waiting an error a…

Accepted Answer

`get_updated_field` should return a string that contains the name of the attribute on the model that contains the date that the model was updated (haystack docs). A DateField with auto_now=True would be ideal for that (Django docs).

For example, my UserProfile model has a field named updated

models.py

```
class UserProfile(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User)
    # lots of other fields snipped
    updated = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
```

search_indexes.py

```
class UserProfileIndex(SearchIndex):
    text = CharField(document=True, use_template=True)
    user = CharField(model_attr='user')
    user_fullname = CharField(model_attr='user__get_full_name')

def get_model(self):
        return UserProfile

def get_updated_field(self):
        return "updated"
```

Then when I run `./manage.py update_index --age=10` it only indexes the user profiles updated in the last 10 hours.

Django Haystack update index faster

Solution

Problem