# Learning

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/learning/3276>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 30, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/learning/3276 "2010-08-30T19:08:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Henrik](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/henrik/32/3324_2.png) [@Henrik](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Henrik)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/learning/3276/1 "2010-08-30T19:08:00Z")

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Hello there!

I'm quite new to search engine theory, so I can't quite decipher  
exactly what Elastic does just by reading the API (although the videos  
make the basics look deceptively easy!).

I need a gentler introduction than APIs so to speak. Do you happen to  
know of any good places/resources where I could start reading up?

Cheers!

Henrik

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**Author:** ![egaumer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/egaumer/32/2365_2.png) [@egaumer](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/egaumer)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/learning/3276/2 "2010-08-30T19:12:59Z")

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Excellent book on Information Retrieval available online for free.

> **[01bool.pdf](https://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-book/pdf/01bool.pdf)**
>
> 178.19 KB

[http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-book/pdf/01bool.pdf](http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-book/pdf/01bool.pdf)-Eric

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 3:08 PM, Henrik [henrik.eneroth@gmail.com](mailto:henrik.eneroth@gmail.com) wrote:

> Hello there!
> 
> I'm quite new to search engine theory, so I can't quite decipher  
> exactly what Elastic does just by reading the API (although the videos  
> make the basics look deceptively easy!).
> 
> I need a gentler introduction than APIs so to speak. Do you happen to  
> know of any good places/resources where I could start reading up?
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Henrik

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**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/learning/3276/3 "2010-08-30T19:17:39Z")

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Hi Henrik

> I'm quite new to search engine theory, so I can't quite decipher  
> exactly what Elastic does just by reading the API (although the videos  
> make the basics look deceptively easy!).

It is deceptively easy 🙂

> I need a gentler introduction than APIs so to speak. Do you happen to  
> know of any good places/resources where I could start reading up?

We're a bit short on introductory tutorials still. You could take a  
look at this presentation for a summary of the Elasticsearch's features:

[http://clintongormley.github.com/ElasticSearch.pm/ElasticSearch\_YAPC-EU\_2010/index.html](http://clintongormley.github.com/ElasticSearch.pm/ElasticSearch_YAPC-EU_2010/index.html)

That presentation talks about the Perl API, but if that is not your  
language, don't worry about that. You can talk to an Elasticsearch  
server from the command line using curl, or you can use the Java API, or  
whatever floats your boat really.

After that, I suggest you just try stuff out, eg:

1. start an elasticsearch server
2. create an index
3. index a document
4. retrieve the document by ID
5. search for the document

You will find that it is surprisingly easy to get started.

When you have more specific questions, come and ask them here, or on the  
IRC channel.

And yes, we will write some tutorials when time affords.

hth

clint

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/learning/3276/4 "2017-07-06T04:20:05Z")

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