Has anyone taken the sfLucenePlugin and made it work in Symfony 1.3 or 1.4?
The plugin requires pake functions and the new config class to be adjusted but looks like it could be done if persistent.
I have seen the Jobeet tutorial for implementing Zend Lucene but am not keen to lose all of the .yml functionality that sfLucene provides.
I'm using sfLucenePlugin in project based on symfony 1.4.
I'm using Doctrine branch of sfLucenePlugin from svn. Also I've fixed erroneous calls to sfLoader::loadHelper() (here's patch). After that, it works like a charm.
Combining sfLucenePlugin and Propel ORM only works under sf1.0 and sf1.1 - the newer versions for 1.2+ have abandoned Propel for Doctrine.
This is in line with most symfony developers, but with Propel 1.5 making serious improvements there is now a need for a good plugin for Propel and Lucene under sf1.3+.
Sadly, the lead developer on plugins that did this has not kept up development on these projects, I suspect due to being too busy to contribute. However, there is a plugin that might help you out: rsLucenePlugin: http://www.symfony-project.org/plugins/rsLucenePlugin.
This plugin mimics the older sfLucenePlugin for Propel, although it is claimed "It's working with symfony 1.4 and PHP 5.3". I have not tried it myself (I prefer the control of integrating ZSL a la the Jobeet tutorial) but I imagine it should work with sf1.3, and PHP 5.2. It is fairly basic, but solves the Propel problem.
Crucially for you, the YAML configurations you mention are very similar to the format you will be familiar with, so it should be a good starting point.
As with all symfony plugins, if you find it particularly useful I urge you to let the developer know directly, as it could make the difference between its maintenance and its abandonment - sfLucenePlugin is easily one of the most useful plugins for symfony so it's sad to see its demise...