This document is intended as a "getting started" guide. It has three audiences: first-time users looking to install Apache Lucene in their application or web server; developers looking to modify or base the applications they develop on Lucene; and developers looking to become involved in and contribute to the development of Lucene. This document is written in tutorial and walk-through format. The goal is to help you "get started". It does not go into great depth on some of the conceptual or inner details of Lucene.

Each section listed below builds on one another. More advanced users may wish to skip sections.

• About the command-line Lucene demo and its usage. This section is intended for anyone who wants to use the command-line Lucene demo.
• About the sources and implementation for the command-line Lucene demo. This section walks through the implementation details (sources) of the command-line Lucene demo. This section is intended for developers.
• About installing and configuring the demo template web application. While this walk-through assumes Tomcat as your container of choice, there is no reason you can't (provided you have the requisite knowledge) adapt the instructions to your container. This section is intended for those responsible for the development or deployment of Lucene-based web applications.
• About the sources used to construct the demo template web application. Please note the template application is designed to highlight features of Lucene and is not an example of best practices. (One would hopefully use MVC architecture such as provided by Jakarta Struts and taglibs, but showing you how to do that would be WAY beyond the scope of this guide.) This section is intended for developers and those wishing to customize the demo template web application to their needs.