# Adding number of hits in HTTP response headers
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adding-number-of-hits-in-http-response-headers/10256
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [January 7, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adding-number-of-hits-in-http-response-headers/10256 "2013-01-07T23:03:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Benjamin\_Deveze](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Benjamin_Deveze)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adding-number-of-hits-in-http-response-headers/10256/1 "2013-01-07T23:03:50Z")
I think it could be useful to return the total number of hits in HTTP
response headers for relevant APIs like search or multisearch.
In my use case, I cache some ES results using varnish. I want to apply
different cache policies (TTL, ...) based on the number of total hits
matching a request. For example, you can choose not to cache requests with
no result, or maybe cache that for 1 minute... Returning this info as a
response header would allow doing this very easily and without parsing the
response body.
Anyone else interested?
--
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### Author:  [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2013, 8:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adding-number-of-hits-in-http-response-headers/10256/2 "2013-01-11T08:04:20Z")
Opening up the headers in general would seem to be beneficial, but I am
assuming there is some technical reason not to do so. If not, adding the
number of hits seems like a great place to start.
Here is one project that has an HTTP header issue:
> **[GitHub - Asquera/elasticsearch-http-basic: HTTP Basic Authentication for...](https://github.com/Asquera/elasticsearch-http-basic)**
>
> HTTP Basic Authentication for Elasticsearch (Discontinued) - GitHub - Asquera/elasticsearch-http-basic: HTTP Basic Authentication for Elasticsearch (Discontinued)
--
Ivan
On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Benjamin Devèze
[benjamin.deveze@gmail.com](mailto:benjamin.deveze@gmail.com)wrote:
> I think it could be useful to return the total number of hits in HTTP
> response headers for relevant APIs like search or multisearch.
--
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### Author:  [@Benjamin\_Deveze](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Benjamin_Deveze)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adding-number-of-hits-in-http-response-headers/10256/3 "2013-01-11T23:12:48Z")
Issue opened here [Open up HTTP headers · Issue #2540 · elastic/elasticsearch · GitHub](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/2540)
On Friday, January 11, 2013 9:04:20 AM UTC+1, Ivan Brusic wrote:
> Opening up the headers in general would seem to be beneficial, but I am
> assuming there is some technical reason not to do so. If not, adding the
> number of hits seems like a great place to start.
>
> Here is one project that has an HTTP header issue:
> [GitHub - Asquera/elasticsearch-http-basic: HTTP Basic Authentication for Elasticsearch (Discontinued)](https://github.com/Asquera/elasticsearch-http-basic)
>
> --
> Ivan
>
> On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Benjamin Devèze \<[benjami...@gmail.com](mailto:benjami...@gmail.com)\
>
> > wrote:
>
> > I think it could be useful to return the total number of hits in HTTP
> > response headers for relevant APIs like search or multisearch.
--
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### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adding-number-of-hits-in-http-response-headers/10256/4 "2013-01-12T20:23:28Z")
Hey there,
I dont think there is a technical reason. The problem lies in the problem
of anyone having a different use-case (as you need very different logic
depening on your header requirements).
The RestResponse class could easily get methods adding new headers, which
could be parsed by the NettyHttpChannel/HttpChannel class.
I have however not a really good idea, how to make it configurable and
maintainable 🙂
If you have any ideas in that regard, it might make sense to add them to
the ticket.
--Alexander
On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 12:12 AM, Benjamin Devèze \<[benjamin.deveze@gmail.com](mailto:benjamin.deveze@gmail.com)
> wrote:
> Issue opened here
> [Open up HTTP headers · Issue #2540 · elastic/elasticsearch · GitHub](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/2540)
>
> On Friday, January 11, 2013 9:04:20 AM UTC+1, Ivan Brusic wrote:
>
> > Opening up the headers in general would seem to be beneficial, but I am
> > assuming there is some technical reason not to do so. If not, adding the
> > number of hits seems like a great place to start.
> >
> > Here is one project that has an HTTP header issue: [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)\*\*
> > Asquera/elasticsearch-http-\*\*basic[https://github.com/Asquera/elasticsearch-http-basic](https://github.com/Asquera/elasticsearch-http-basic)
> >
> > --
> > Ivan
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Benjamin Devèze [benjami...@gmail.com](mailto:benjami...@gmail.com)wrote:
> >
> > > I think it could be useful to return the total number of hits in HTTP
> > > response headers for relevant APIs like search or multisearch.
> >
> > --
--
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 2:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/adding-number-of-hits-in-http-response-headers/10256/5 "2017-07-06T02:56:46Z")