Yii2 Elasticsearch extension - how do I handle type mapping?

Question

I want to be able to store a json object in my ES index. Here's an example of what I'm trying to store (this a serialized model, a request body that is sent to ES):

"{"id":218,"name":"Test2","category_id":1,"address":"Pushkin street","phone":null,"site":null,"location":{"lat":64,"lon":70},"city":"Heaven","description":"Super company","tags":["#test1","#test2"]}"

When I try to store it (via the extension, of course), here's the error that ES returns:

"{"error":{"root_cause":[{"type":"mapper_parsing_exception","reason":"failed to parse [location]"}],"type":"mapper_parsing_exception","reason":"failed to parse [location]","caused_by":{"type":"illegal_argument_exception","reason":"unknown property [lat]"}},"status":400}"

It seems that I am unable to do so without having a specific type mapping, like in the docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/1.4/mapping-object-type.html

However, I don't seem to find a way to provide that mapping inside the model. The extension's documentation doesn't really say anything about it. So, my question is: do I need it at all, and if I do, how?

Appreciate all feedback.

Answer 1

I'll assume your model is \yii\elasticsearch\ActiveRecord. You'll need to describe its attributes:

public function attributes()
{
  return [
    'name',
    'category_id',
    'address',
    'phone',
    'site',
    'location',
    'city',
    'description',
    'tags'
  ];
}

Don't forget to configure index() and type(). In the following example type is my_address.

Then you'll need to create an index with proper field mapping. Here's what your mapping should look like:

"mappings" : {
  "my_address" : {
    "properties" : {
      "name" : { "type" : "string"},
      "category_id" : { "type" : "integer"},
      "address" : { "type" : "string"},
      "phone" : { "type" : "string"},
      "site" : { "type" : "string"},
      "location" : { "type" : "geo_point"},
      "city" : { "type" : "string"},
      "description" : { "type" : "string"},
      "tags" : { "type" : "string"}
    }
  }
}

Note three things:

1. Location is of type geo_point.
2. Tags are declared as string. This will also allow them to be arrays of strings.
3. I didn't include the id field. If it's unique, I suggest you just set your yii model's id to the necessary value ($model->primaryKey = '123'). Otherwise your ES model will have its internal id set to something like AVDXmfJ3Ou7LzqD1DDMj and also have an id field which is not very convenient.

I encourage you to take a closer look at the mappings - they are very important when it comes to configuring how exactly the strings are being analyzed.

UPDATE: You don't really describe the mapping anywhere in your model. Do it in a migration - similar to creating tables in SQL.