# CouchDB-River deleted document **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [February 12, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682 "2012-02-12T22:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Geert\_Pasteels](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/geert_pasteels/32/2994_2.png) [@Geert\_Pasteels](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Geert_Pasteels)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682/1 "2012-02-12T22:46:56Z")
Hello, I think I am missing something obvious but when I delete a CouchDb document the river doesn't seem to be picking up on the change. This is how I create the river: curl -XPUT 'localhost:9200/\_river/products/\_meta' -d '{ "type" : "couchdb", "couchdb" : { "host" : "localhost", "port" : 5984, "db" : "fluf", "filter": "general/products" }, "index" : { "index" : "products", "type" : "product", "bulk\_size" : "100", "bulk\_timeout" : "10ms" } }' All my couchDb documents have a type field and the general/products filter will filter on type === 'product'. So is there something I am missing here? Friendly Greetings, Geert ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Everton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dan_everton/32/1865_2.png) [@Dan\_Everton](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Dan_Everton)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682/2 "2012-02-13T04:43:23Z")
When CouchDB deletes a document, the change event does not include the document. So if your filter function is something like: return doc.type == 'product' then it's filtering out the delete events. There's nothing that Elasticsearch can do in this case unfortunately. You just have to design around it by not filtering delete events. See [https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-river-couchdb/issues/7](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-river-couchdb/issues/7) for more discussion about this corner case. Cheers, Dan ---
**Author:** ![Geert\_Pasteels](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/geert_pasteels/32/2994_2.png) [@Geert\_Pasteels](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Geert_Pasteels)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682/3 "2012-02-13T11:36:09Z")
Hello, does it actually work if I remove the filter or do I have to do something else? I read that issue a few times before but I guess I am not fully understanding it. If you delete something the change feed will show a delete message with the document id right? The document id is unique inside a couchdb database so couldn't you use that to delete it from the index or is it a problem if one elasticsearch instance is feeding of different couchDB databases so you can't be sure the id is unique? ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682/4 "2012-02-13T11:45:39Z")
If you delete a document in couchDb, changes API will send the delete in stream and ES river will delete the document in ES as well. HTH David 😉 @dadoonet Le 13 févr. 2012 à 12:36, Geert Pasteels [geert.pasteels@gmail.com](mailto:geert.pasteels@gmail.com) a écrit : > Hello, > > does it actually work if I remove the filter or do I have to do something else? > > I read that issue a few times before but I guess I am not fully understanding it. If you delete something the change feed will show a delete message with the document id right? The document id is unique inside a couchdb database so couldn't you use that to delete it from the index or is it a problem if one elasticsearch instance is feeding of different couchDB databases so you can't be sure the id is unique? ---
**Author:** ![Geert\_Pasteels](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/geert_pasteels/32/2994_2.png) [@Geert\_Pasteels](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Geert_Pasteels)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682/5 "2012-02-13T11:52:47Z")
I just realized why it doesn't work with a filter I think. Cause the delete message doesn't show up in the changes feed if you filter it? ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Everton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dan_everton/32/1865_2.png) [@Dan\_Everton](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Dan_Everton)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682/6 "2012-02-13T21:55:36Z")
CouchDB is sending the delete message but your filter function is preventing it from going to Elasticsearch. I assume your filter function looks like this" ``` return doc.type == 'product' ``` Well that will filter out deleted document events because the only fields a deleted document as are \_id, \_rev, and \_deleted. By saying it must also have a type field, your filter is rejecting the delete event. If you want the delete events to pass through your filter you need to do something like ``` return doc._deleted || doc.type == 'product' ``` ---
**Author:** ![Geert\_Pasteels](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/geert_pasteels/32/2994_2.png) [@Geert\_Pasteels](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Geert_Pasteels)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682/7 "2012-02-13T22:01:55Z")
That's a great solution Dan, thanks a bunch! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/couchdb-river-deleted-document/6682/8 "2017-07-06T03:39:34Z")