# Indexing CouchDB documents prior to the creation of a River **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [May 6, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-couchdb-documents-prior-to-the-creation-of-a-river/4355 "2011-05-06T06:33:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Robert\_Rees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@Robert\_Rees](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Robert_Rees)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-couchdb-documents-prior-to-the-creation-of-a-river/4355/1 "2011-05-06T06:33:51Z")
Hi there, apologies for a noob question but I couldn't see it in the FAQ. I've set up my Couch River and it's working well but I wanted to check about adding the documents created prior to the establishment of the River. Do I just add them to the River index as you would a normal index? ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-couchdb-documents-prior-to-the-creation-of-a-river/4355/2 "2011-05-06T15:23:49Z")
You mean documents in couch that existed before the index was created and indexing them? They get added since the river uses the \_change API, and that returns the whole couch "past" documents and future ones. On Friday, May 6, 2011 at 9:33 AM, Robert Rees wrote: > Hi there, apologies for a noob question but I couldn't see it in the > FAQ. > > I've set up my Couch River and it's working well but I wanted to check > about adding the documents created prior to the establishment of the > River. Do I just add them to the River index as you would a normal > index? ---
**Author:** ![Robert\_Rees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@Robert\_Rees](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Robert_Rees)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 10:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-couchdb-documents-prior-to-the-creation-of-a-river/4355/3 "2011-05-08T10:37:53Z")
Hmmm, thanks. That's the way I thought it should work but I didn't see it in practice. Let me go back and check my river creation logic on a fresh install. On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 4:23 PM, Shay Banon [shay.banon@elasticsearch.com](mailto:shay.banon@elasticsearch.com)wrote: > You mean documents in couch that existed before the index was created and > indexing them? They get added since the river uses the \_change API, and that > returns the whole couch "past" documents and future ones. > > On Friday, May 6, 2011 at 9:33 AM, Robert Rees wrote: > > Hi there, apologies for a noob question but I couldn't see it in the > FAQ. > > I've set up my Couch River and it's working well but I wanted to check > about adding the documents created prior to the establishment of the > River. Do I just add them to the River index as you would a normal > index? ---
**Author:** ![Robert\_Rees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@Robert\_Rees](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Robert_Rees)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-couchdb-documents-prior-to-the-creation-of-a-river/4355/4 "2011-05-10T15:19:32Z")
Okay, I've run through the process and it all seems to be working now so I think it might have been a mix of unfamiliarity and typos in my search test. It would have been really handy for me if the documentation on creating the CouchDB River (after the Status section) included a quick cut and paste curl "find all" sanity check. On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 11:37 AM, Robert Rees [robert@wazoku.com](mailto:robert@wazoku.com) wrote: > Hmmm, thanks. That's the way I thought it should work but I didn't see it > in practice. Let me go back and check my river creation logic on a fresh > install. > > On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 4:23 PM, Shay Banon [shay.banon@elasticsearch.com](mailto:shay.banon@elasticsearch.com)wrote: > > > You mean documents in couch that existed before the index was created and > > indexing them? They get added since the river uses the \_change API, and that > > returns the whole couch "past" documents and future ones. > > > > On Friday, May 6, 2011 at 9:33 AM, Robert Rees wrote: > > > > Hi there, apologies for a noob question but I couldn't see it in the > > FAQ. > > > > I've set up my Couch River and it's working well but I wanted to check > > about adding the documents created prior to the establishment of the > > River. Do I just add them to the River index as you would a normal > > index? ---
**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, 4:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-couchdb-documents-prior-to-the-creation-of-a-river/4355/5 "2017-07-06T04:06:33Z")