=== Index-Time Search-as-You-Type
The first step to setting up index-time search-as-you-type is to((("search-as-you-type", "index time")))((("partial matching", "index time search-as-you-type"))) define our
analysis chain, which we discussed in <
==== Preparing the Index
The first step is to configure a ((("partial matching", "index time search-as-you-type", "preparing the index")))custom edge_ngram token filter,((("edge_ngram token filter"))) which we
will call the autocomplete_filter:
[source,js]
{ "filter": { "autocomplete_filter": { "type": "edge_ngram", "min_gram": 1, "max_gram": 20 } }
}
This configuration says that, for any term that this token filter receives, it should produce an n-gram anchored to the start of the word of minimum length 1 and maximum length 20.
Then we need to use this token filter in a custom analyzer,((("analyzers", "autocomplete custom analyzer"))) which we will call
the autocomplete analyzer:
[source,js]
{ "analyzer": { "autocomplete": { "type": "custom", "tokenizer": "standard", "filter": [ "lowercase", "autocomplete_filter" <1> ] } }
}
<1> Our custom edge-ngram token filter
This analyzer will tokenize a string into individual terms by using the
standard tokenizer, lowercase each term, and then produce edge n-grams of each
term, thanks to our autocomplete_filter.
The full request to create the index and instantiate the token filter and analyzer looks like this:
[source,js]
PUT /my_index { "settings": { "number_of_shards": 1, <1> "analysis": { "filter": { "autocomplete_filter": { <2> "type": "edge_ngram", "min_gram": 1, "max_gram": 20 } }, "analyzer": { "autocomplete": { "type": "custom", "tokenizer": "standard", "filter": [ "lowercase", "autocomplete_filter" <3> ] } } } }
}
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Search_as_you_type.json
<1> See <
<2> First we define our custom token filter.
<3> Then we use it in an analyzer.
You can test this new analyzer to make sure it is behaving correctly by using
the analyze API:
[source,js]
GET /my_index/_analyze?analyzer=autocomplete
quick brown
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Search_as_you_type.json
The results show us that the analyzer is working correctly. It returns these terms:
qququiquicquickbbrbrobrowbrown
To use the analyzer, we need to apply it to a field, which we can do
with((("update-mapping API, applying custom autocomplete analyzer to a field"))) the update-mapping API:
[source,js]
PUT /my_index/_mapping/my_type { "my_type": { "properties": { "name": { "type": "string", "analyzer": "autocomplete" } } }
}
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Search_as_you_type.json
Now, we can index some test documents:
[source,js]
POST /my_index/my_type/_bulk { "index": { "_id": 1 }} { "name": "Brown foxes" } { "index": { "_id": 2 }}
{ "name": "Yellow furballs" }
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Search_as_you_type.json
==== Querying the Field
If you test out a query for `brown fo'' by using ((("partial matching", "index time search-as-you-type", "querying the field")))a simplematch` query
[source,js]
GET /my_index/my_type/_search { "query": { "match": { "name": "brown fo" } }
}
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Search_as_you_type.json
you will see that both documents match, even though the Yellow furballs
doc contains neither brown nor fo:
[source,js]
{
"hits": [ { "_id": "1", "_score": 1.5753809, "_source": { "name": "Brown foxes" } }, { "_id": "2", "_score": 0.012520773, "_source": { "name": "Yellow furballs" } } ]
}
As always, the validate-query API shines some light:
[source,js]
GET /my_index/my_type/_validate/query?explain { "query": { "match": { "name": "brown fo" } }
}
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Search_as_you_type.json
The explanation shows us that the query is looking for edge n-grams of every
word in the query string:
name:b name:br name:bro name:brow name:brown name:f name:fo
The name:f condition is satisfied by the second document because
furballs has been indexed as f, fu, fur, and so forth. In retrospect, this
is not surprising. The same autocomplete analyzer is being applied both at
index time and at search time, which in most situations is the right thing to
do. This is one of the few occasions when it makes sense to break this rule.
We want to ensure that our inverted index contains edge n-grams of every word,
but we want to match only the full words that the user has entered (brown and fo). ((("analyzers", "changing search analyzer from index analyzer"))) We can do this by using the autocomplete analyzer at
index time and the standard analyzer at search time. One way to change the
search analyzer is just to specify it in the query:
[source,js]
GET /my_index/my_type/_search { "query": { "match": { "name": { "query": "brown fo", "analyzer": "standard" <1> } } }
}
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Search_as_you_type.json
<1> This overrides the analyzer setting on the name field.
Alternatively, we can specify ((("search_analyzer parameter")))((("index_analyzer parameter")))the index_analyzer and search_analyzer in
the mapping for the name field itself. Because we want to change only the
search_analyzer, we can update the existing mapping without having to
reindex our data:
[source,js]
PUT /my_index/my_type/_mapping { "my_type": { "properties": { "name": { "type": "string", "index_analyzer": "autocomplete", <1> "search_analyzer": "standard" <2> } } }
}
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Search_as_you_type.json
<1> Use the autocomplete analyzer at index time to produce edge n-grams of
every term.
<2> Use the standard analyzer at search time to search only on the terms
that the user has entered.
If we were to repeat the validate-query request, it would now give us this
explanation:
name:brown name:fo
Repeating our query correctly returns just the Brown foxes
document.
Because most of the work has been done at index time, all this query needs to
do is to look up the two terms brown and fo, which is much more efficient
than the match_phrase_prefix approach of having to find all terms beginning
with fo.
.Completion Suggester
Using edge n-grams for search-as-you-type is easy to set up, flexible, and fast. However, sometimes it is not fast enough. Latency matters, especially when you are trying to provide instant feedback. Sometimes the fastest way of searching is not to search at all.
The http://bit.ly/1IChV5j[completion suggester] in Elasticsearch((("completion suggester"))) takes a completely different approach. You feed it a list of all possible completions, and it builds them into a finite state transducer, an((("Finite State Transducer"))) optimized data structure that resembles a big graph. To search for suggestions, Elasticsearch starts at the beginning of the graph and moves character by character along the matching path. Once it has run out of user input, it looks at all possible endings of the current path to produce a list of suggestions.
This data structure lives in memory and makes prefix lookups extremely fast,
much faster than any term-based query could be. It is an excellent match for
autocompletion of names and brands, whose words are usually organized in a
common order: Johnny Rotten'' rather thanRotten Johnny.''
When word order is less predictable, edge n-grams can be a better solution than the completion suggester. This particular cat may be skinned in myriad ways.
==== Edge n-grams and Postcodes
The edge n-gram approach can((("postcodes (UK), partial matching with", "using edge n-grams")))((("edge n-grams", "and postcodes"))) also be used for structured data, such as the
postcodes example from <postcode field would need to be analyzed instead of not_analyzed, but
you could use the keyword tokenizer((("keyword tokenizer", "using for values treated as not_analyzed")))((("not_analyzed fields", "using keyword tokenizer with"))) to treat the postcodes as if they were
not_analyzed.
[TIP]
The keyword tokenizer is the no-operation tokenizer, the tokenizer that does
nothing. Whatever string it receives as input, it emits exactly the same
string as a single token. It can therefore be used for values that we would
normally treat as not_analyzed but that require some other analysis
transformation such as lowercasing.
==================================================
This example uses the keyword tokenizer to convert the postcode string into a token stream, so that we can use the edge n-gram token filter:
[source,js]
{ "analysis": { "filter": { "postcode_filter": { "type": "edge_ngram", "min_gram": 1, "max_gram": 8 } }, "analyzer": { "postcode_index": { <1> "tokenizer": "keyword", "filter": [ "postcode_filter" ] }, "postcode_search": { <2> "tokenizer": "keyword" } } }
}
// SENSE: 130_Partial_Matching/35_Postcodes.json
<1> The postcode_index analyzer would use the postcode_filter
to turn postcodes into edge n-grams.
<2> The postcode_search analyzer would treat search terms as
if they were not_indexed.