How do I dynamically update the fields of a document? - node.js

Question

I'm building a basic crud app for storing movie/tv titles. I am using version 2.4.4 of elasticsearch because my project manager chose this version. I am using the express framework along with the native elasticsearch nodejs driver.
Currently this is what my mappings look like for the "titles" index for a "title" type.
client.indices.create({
index: "titles",
body: {
"mappings": {
"title": {
"properties": {
"seriesName": { "type": "string", "index": "not_analyzed" },
"seriesEpisodeNumber": { "type": "long", "index": "not_analyzed" },
"seriesEpisodeTitle": { "type": "string", "index": "not_analyzed" },
"isDeleted": { "type": "boolean", "index": "not_analyzed" }
}
}
}
}
}).
I want to have an endpoint on my server that updates the document by its id. This is what I have so far for this endpoint " POST /api/titles/:titleID/updateTitleByID"
titlesController.updateTitleByID = function(req,res){
const titleID = req.params.titleID;
es.updateByQuery({
index: "titles",
type: "title",
body: {
query: {
bool: {
must: [{
term: {
_id: titleID
}},{
term: {
isDeleted: false
}}]
}
},
script: {
inline: "ctx._source.seriesName = seriesName;ctx._source.seriesEpisodeNumber = seriesEpisodeNumber; ctx._source.seriesEpisodeTitle = seriesEpisodeTitle;",
params: { ...req.body }
}
}}).then(results => {
logger.info(results);
res.status(200).json({
message: "OK"
});
}).catch(err => {
logger.error(err);
res.status(500).json({
error: "Internal server error"
});
});
};
What I want to achieve is to update the document with what ever I get from my req.body. For example if I get a seriesName I from the request body. That is only what I want to update and leave the rest untouched. How do I achieve this?
Edit: Here is the full stack trace
Error: [remote_transport_exception] [Agon][127.0.0.1:9300][indices:data/write/update[s]]
at respond (/home/natealcedo/Projects/digitalfolks.hooq/node_modules/elasticsearch/src/lib/transport.js:289:15)
at checkRespForFailure (/home/natealcedo/Projects/digitalfolks.hooq/node_modules/elasticsearch/src/lib/transport.js:248:7)
at HttpConnector.<anonymous> (/home/natealcedo/Projects/digitalfolks.hooq/node_modules/elasticsearch/src/lib/connectors/http.js:164:7)
at IncomingMessage.wrapper (/home/natealcedo/Projects/digitalfolks.hooq/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:4968:19)
at emitNone (events.js:91:20)
at IncomingMessage.emit (events.js:186:7)
at endReadableNT (_stream_readable.js:974:12)
at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:74:11)
at process._tickDomainCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:122:9)

Answer 1

You don't need to use the update-by-query endpoint if you want to update a single document, the Update API is more than sufficient since it supports partial updates, which is exactly what you're after. You need to use the update call instead:
titlesController.updateDocByID = function(req,res){
const titleID = req.params.titleID;
const partialFields = req.body;
// TODO do some validations on the received fields
es.update({
index: "titles",
type: "title",
id: titleID,
body: {
doc: partialFields
}}).then(results => {
logger.info(results);
res.status(200).json({
message: "OK"
});
}).catch(err => {
logger.error(err);
res.status(500).json({
error: "Internal server error"
});
});
};
If you need to only update the document if the isDeleted flag is false, then you can use the same API call but with a script instead, like this:
titlesController.updateDocByID = function(req,res){
const titleID = req.params.titleID;
const partialFields = req.body;
// TODO do some validations on the received fields
es.update({
index: "titles",
type: "title",
id: titleID,
body: {
script: "if (!ctx._source.isDeleted) { ctx._source.putAll(params.partialFields) }",
params: {partialFields: partialFields}
}}).then(results => {
logger.info(results);
res.status(200).json({
message: "OK"
});
}).catch(err => {
logger.error(err);
res.status(500).json({
error: "Internal server error"
});
});
};
If you use this second method, you'll need to enable dynamic scripting in your elasticsearch.yml configuration file.