Using multiple dictionaries with Solr Suggester - configuration

Question

I'm using the Suggester component for autocomplete. I have a variety of types of suggestions that I would like to offer, such as locations, company names, products, and dictionary words.
These lists vary in size and volatility, so keeping them all in the same text file is not the most convenient.
I'm using text files because I want the ability to add weights to the terms suggested.
Is it possible to use multiple text files? I tried the following:
<!-- WFSTLookup suggest component -->
<searchComponent class="solr.SpellCheckComponent" name="suggestword">
<lst name="spellchecker">
<str name="name">suggestword</str>
<str name="classname">org.apache.solr.spelling.suggest.Suggester</str>
<str name="lookupImpl">org.apache.solr.spelling.suggest.fst.WFSTLookupFactory</str>
<str name="storeDir">suggestword</str>
<str name="buildOnCommit">false</str>
<!-- Suggester properties -->
<bool name="exactMatchFirst">true</bool>
<str name="sourceLocation">../data/words.txt</str>
<str name="sourceLocation">../data/cities.txt</str>
</lst>
But the second list, the cities, are apparently undetected, after restarting the tomcat and rebuilding the dictionary. Can this be done? If not, how would you recommend managing different dictionaries?

Answer 1

For SOLR 5.2, see Multiple Dictionaries section at https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/solr/Suggester
In solrconfig.xml, define your multiple suggest dictionaries with their corresponding source files, for example:
<searchComponent name="suggest" class="solr.SuggestComponent">
<lst name="suggester">
<str name="name">words_suggester</str>
<str name="lookupImpl">FuzzyLookupFactory</str>
<str name="dictionaryImpl">FileDictionaryFactory</str>
<str name="sourceLocation">words.txt</str>
<str name="storeDir">words_dict</str>
<str name="suggestAnalyzerFieldType">string</str>
</lst>
<lst name="suggester">
<str name="name">cities_suggester</str>
<str name="lookupImpl">FuzzyLookupFactory</str>
<str name="dictionaryImpl">FileDictionaryFactory</str>
<str name="sourceLocation">cities.txt</str>
<str name="storeDir">cities_dict</str>
<str name="suggestAnalyzerFieldType">string</str>
</lst>
...
</searchComponent>
From my testing, it seems like different storeDir must be used for each FileDictionaryFactory-based suggester (otherwise they override each other).
Then, use them in the "/suggest" request handler, for example:
<requestHandler name="/suggest" class="solr.SearchHandler" startup="lazy">
<lst name="defaults">
<str name="suggest">true</str>
<str name="suggest.count">10</str>
<str name="suggest.dictionary">words_suggester</str>
<str name="suggest.dictionary">cities_suggester</str>
...
</lst>
<arr name="components">
<str>suggest</str>
</arr>
</requestHandler>