Get object hit when searching array in Elasticsearch - arrays

Question

I am trying to get an object out of a JSON array that is stored in elasticsearch. The layout is like this:
[
object{}
object{}
object{}
]
What I need for when I do a search and it hits on one of these objects, to get the specific object it matches to. Currently, using the java API I am searching with:
QueryBuilder qb = QueryBuilders.boolQuery()
.should(QueryBuilders.matchQuery("text", "pottery").boost(5)
.minimumShouldMatch("1"));
SearchResponse response = client.prepareSearch("stuff")
.setTypes("things")
.setSearchType(SearchType.DFS_QUERY_THEN_FETCH)
.setQuery(qb)
.setPostFilter(filter)//.setHighlighterQuery(qb)
.addField("places.numbers")
.addField("name")
.addField("city")
.setFrom(0).setSize(60).setExplain(true)
.execute()
.actionGet();
But this will just return the whole object that I hit or when I tell it to return the field "places.numbers" it will only return the first object in the "palces" array, not the one that was matched in the query.
Thank you for any help!

Answer 1

There are a couple of ways to handle this. I would probably do it with a nested type and inner hits, given what you've shown in your question, but it could also probably be done with the parent/child relationship.
Here is an example with nested docs. I set up a simple index like this:
PUT /test_index
{
"mappings": {
"parent_doc": {
"properties": {
"parent_name": {
"type": "string"
},
"nested_docs": {
"type": "nested",
"properties": {
"nested_name": {
"type": "string"
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
Then added a couple of simple documents:
POST /test_index/parent_doc/_bulk
{"index":{"_id":1}}
{"parent_name":"p1","nested_docs":[{"nested_name":"n1"},{"nested_name":"n2"}]}
{"index":{"_id":2}}
{"parent_name":"p2","nested_docs":[{"nested_name":"n3"},{"nested_name":"n4"}]}
And now I can search like this, using "inner_hits":
POST /test_index/_search
{
"query": {
"nested": {
"path": "nested_docs",
"query": {
"match": {
"nested_docs.nested_name": "n3"
}
},
"inner_hits" : {}
}
}
}
which returns:
{
"took": 4,
"timed_out": false,
"_shards": {
"total": 1,
"successful": 1,
"failed": 0
},
"hits": {
"total": 1,
"max_score": 2.098612,
"hits": [
{
"_index": "test_index",
"_type": "parent_doc",
"_id": "2",
"_score": 2.098612,
"_source": {
"parent_name": "p2",
"nested_docs": [
{
"nested_name": "n3"
},
{
"nested_name": "n4"
}
]
},
"inner_hits": {
"nested_docs": {
"hits": {
"total": 1,
"max_score": 2.098612,
"hits": [
{
"_index": "test_index",
"_type": "parent_doc",
"_id": "2",
"_nested": {
"field": "nested_docs",
"offset": 0
},
"_score": 2.098612,
"_source": {
"nested_name": "n3"
}
}
]
}
}
}
}
]
}
}
Here's the code I used to test it:
http://sense.qbox.io/gist/ef7debf436fec2a10097ba2106d5ff30ff8d7c77