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Put Mapping

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Put Mapping

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The PUT mapping API allows you to add a new type to an existing index, or new fields to an existing type:

PUT twitter 
{
  "mappings": {
    "tweet": {
      "properties": {
        "message": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

PUT twitter/_mapping/user 
{
  "properties": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    }
  }
}

PUT twitter/_mapping/tweet 
{
  "properties": {
    "user_name": {
      "type": "string"
    }
  }
}

	Creates an index called `twitter` with the `message` field in the `tweet` mapping type.
	Uses the PUT mapping API to add a new mapping type called `user`.
	Uses the PUT mapping API to add a new field called `user_name` to the `tweet` mapping type.

More information on how to define type mappings can be found in the mapping section.

Multi-index

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The PUT mapping API can be applied to multiple indices with a single request. It has the following format:

PUT /{index}/_mapping/{type}
{ body }

{index} accepts multiple index names and wildcards.
{type} is the name of the type to update.
{body} contains the mapping changes that should be applied.

Updating field mappings

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In general, the mapping for existing fields cannot be updated. There are some exceptions to this rule. For instance:

new properties can be added to Object datatype fields.
new multi-fields can be added to existing fields.
doc_values can be disabled, but not enabled.
the ignore_above parameter can be updated.

For example:

PUT my_index 
{
  "mappings": {
    "user": {
      "properties": {
        "name": {
          "properties": {
            "first": {
              "type": "string"
            }
          }
        },
        "user_id": {
          "type": "string",
          "index": "not_analyzed"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

PUT my_index/_mapping/user
{
  "properties": {
    "name": {
      "properties": {
        "last": { 
          "type": "string"
        }
      }
    },
    "user_id": {
      "type": "string",
      "index": "not_analyzed",
      "ignore_above": 100 
    }
  }
}

	Create an index with a `first` field under the `name` Object datatype field, and a `user_id` field.
	Add a `last` field under the `name` object field.
	Update the `ignore_above` setting from its default of 0.

Each mapping parameter specifies whether or not its setting can be updated on an existing field.

Conflicts between fields in different types

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Fields in the same index with the same name in two different types must have the same mapping, as they are backed by the same field internally. Trying to update a mapping parameter for a field which exists in more than one type will throw an exception, unless you specify the update_all_types parameter, in which case it will update that parameter across all fields with the same name in the same index.

The only parameters which are exempt from this rule — they can be set to different values on each field — can be found in Fields are shared across mapping types.

For example:

PUT my_index
{
  "mappings": {
    "type_one": {
      "properties": {
        "text": { 
          "type": "string",
          "analyzer": "standard"
        }
      }
    },
    "type_two": {
      "properties": {
        "text": { 
          "type": "string",
          "analyzer": "standard"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

PUT my_index/_mapping/type_one 
{
  "properties": {
    "text": {
      "type": "string",
      "analyzer": "standard",
      "search_analyzer": "whitespace"
    }
  }
}

PUT my_index/_mapping/type_one?update_all_types 
{
  "properties": {
    "text": {
      "type": "string",
      "analyzer": "standard",
      "search_analyzer": "whitespace"
    }
  }
}

	Create an index with two types, both of which contain a `text` field which have the same mapping.
	Trying to update the `search_analyzer` just for `type_one` throws an exception like `"Merge failed with failures..."`.
	Adding the `update_all_types` parameter updates the `text` field in `type_one` and `type_two`.

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