# Postings highlighter throws exception on some queries

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/postings-highlighter-throws-exception-on-some-queries/21609>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 13, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/postings-highlighter-throws-exception-on-some-queries/21609 "2015-01-13T15:09:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Peter\_Bowyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/peter_bowyer/32/1001_2.png) [@Peter\_Bowyer](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Peter_Bowyer)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/postings-highlighter-throws-exception-on-some-queries/21609/1 "2015-01-13T15:09:34Z")

</div>

I'm using Elasticsearch 1.4.1 (lucene\_version 4.10.2) and have a search  
that works well with most search strings, but fails spectacularly on  
others. Experimenting, it appears to fail when at least one word in the  
query doesn't match in any documents (like the second word in the made up  
search phrase below). It fails with the error:

{  
"error": "SearchPhaseExecutionException[Failed to execute phase  
[query\_fetch], all shards failed; shardFailures  
{[w3zfoix\_Qi-xwpVGbCbQWw][ia\_test][0]:  
ElasticsearchIllegalArgumentException[the field [content] should be indexed  
with positions and offsets in the postings list to be used with postings  
highlighter]}]",  
"status": 400  
}

The simplest search which gives this error is shown below:

POST /myindex/\_search  
{  
"from" : 0,  
"size" : 25,  
"query": {  
"filtered" : {  
"query" : {  
"multi\_match" : {  
"type" : "most\_fields",  
"fields": ["title", "content", "content.english"],  
"query": "Box Fexye"  
}  
}  
}  
},  
"highlight" : {  
"fields" : {  
"content" : {  
"type" : "postings"  
}  
}  
}  
}

The index definition for these fields looks like:

{  
"properties" : {  
"title" : {  
"type" : "string",  
"fields": {  
"shingles": {  
"type": "string",  
"analyzer": "my\_shingle\_analyzer"  
}  
}  
},  
"content" : {  
"type" : "string",  
"analyzer" : "standard",  
"fields": {  
"english": {  
"type": "string",  
"analyzer": "my\_english"  
},  
"shingles": {  
"type": "string",  
"analyzer": "my\_shingle\_analyzer"  
}  
},  
"index\_options" : "offsets",  
"term\_vector" : "with\_positions\_offsets"  
}  
}  
}

Is user error involved here, or is there something ES can't handle?

Thanks,  
Peter

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mikemccand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@mikemccand](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mikemccand)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/postings-highlighter-throws-exception-on-some-queries/21609/2 "2015-01-13T17:24:03Z")

</div>

This looks like a bug: clearly from your mappings, field "content" was  
indexed with offsets, yet the error message (incorrectly) claims otherwise.

Does the bug still happen on the last 1.4.x release (1.4.2)?

If you search only on the content/content.english field does the error  
still happen? (i.e., remove title from the search since it doesn't have  
offsets)

Mike McCandless

[http://blog.mikemccandless.com](http://blog.mikemccandless.com)

On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 10:09 AM, Peter Bowyer [peter@mapledesign.co.uk](mailto:peter@mapledesign.co.uk)  
wrote:

> I'm using Elasticsearch 1.4.1 (lucene\_version 4.10.2) and have a search  
> that works well with most search strings, but fails spectacularly on  
> others. Experimenting, it appears to fail when at least one word in the  
> query doesn't match in any documents (like the second word in the made up  
> search phrase below). It fails with the error:
> 
> {  
> "error": "SearchPhaseExecutionException[Failed to execute phase  
> [query\_fetch], all shards failed; shardFailures  
> {[w3zfoix\_Qi-xwpVGbCbQWw][ia\_test][0]:  
> ElasticsearchIllegalArgumentException[the field [content] should be indexed  
> with positions and offsets in the postings list to be used with postings  
> highlighter]}]",  
> "status": 400  
> }
> 
> The simplest search which gives this error is shown below:
> 
> POST /myindex/\_search  
> {  
> "from" : 0,  
> "size" : 25,  
> "query": {  
> "filtered" : {  
> "query" : {  
> "multi\_match" : {  
> "type" : "most\_fields",  
> "fields": ["title", "content", "content.english"],  
> "query": "Box Fexye"  
> }  
> }  
> }  
> },  
> "highlight" : {  
> "fields" : {  
> "content" : {  
> "type" : "postings"  
> }  
> }  
> }  
> }
> 
> The index definition for these fields looks like:
> 
> {  
> "properties" : {  
> "title" : {  
> "type" : "string",  
> "fields": {  
> "shingles": {  
> "type": "string",  
> "analyzer": "my\_shingle\_analyzer"  
> }  
> }  
> },  
> "content" : {  
> "type" : "string",  
> "analyzer" : "standard",  
> "fields": {  
> "english": {  
> "type": "string",  
> "analyzer": "my\_english"  
> },  
> "shingles": {  
> "type": "string",  
> "analyzer": "my\_shingle\_analyzer"  
> }  
> },  
> "index\_options" : "offsets",  
> "term\_vector" : "with\_positions\_offsets"  
> }  
> }  
> }
> 
> Is user error involved here, or is there something ES can't handle?
> 
> Thanks,  
> Peter
> 
> --  
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> .  
> For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Peter\_Bowyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/peter_bowyer/32/1001_2.png) [@Peter\_Bowyer](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Peter_Bowyer)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/postings-highlighter-throws-exception-on-some-queries/21609/3 "2015-01-14T14:59:29Z")

</div>

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your response - it turned out to be user error. I'd set up the  
mappings correctly, but a few records in my bulk import file were created  
with the wrong 'type' - and so had no mapping for offsets. Once I corrected  
this, it worked.

Peter

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mikemccand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@mikemccand](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mikemccand)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/postings-highlighter-throws-exception-on-some-queries/21609/4 "2015-01-14T15:07:13Z")

</div>

Super, thanks for brining closure.

Mike McCandless

[http://blog.mikemccandless.com](http://blog.mikemccandless.com)

On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 9:59 AM, Peter Bowyer [peter@mapledesign.co.uk](mailto:peter@mapledesign.co.uk)  
wrote:

> Hi Michael,
> 
> Thanks for your response - it turned out to be user error. I'd set up the  
> mappings correctly, but a few records in my bulk import file were created  
> with the wrong 'type' - and so had no mapping for offsets. Once I corrected  
> this, it worked.
> 
> Peter
> 
> --  
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups  
> "elasticsearch" group.  
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an  
> email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com).  
> To view this discussion on the web visit  
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> [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAJvSBVMQZd1ZJiwq33pFghpg9WZzHkBtdQXAbmnkdKMjM%2B1n9g%40mail.gmail.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAJvSBVMQZd1ZJiwq33pFghpg9WZzHkBtdQXAbmnkdKMjM%2B1n9g%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer)  
> .
> 
> For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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, 12:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/postings-highlighter-throws-exception-on-some-queries/21609/5 "2017-07-06T00:38:59Z")

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