Specifying a default elasticsearch mapping in a file

I'm trying to use a json file to define the default mapping for each index. This is what I am trying to do:

/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/mappings/_default/mymap.json

{
"item": {
"properties": {
"uuid": {"type": "string", "store": "yes", "index": "no"},
"title": {"type": "string", "store": "yes", "boost": 5,
"index": "analyzed", "analyzer": "english"},
"description": {"type": "string", "store": "yes", "boost": 3,
"index": "analyzed", "analyzer": "english"},
}

When I try and query my index_test elasticsearch index I get this:

curl -XGET 'http://...:9200/index_test/_mapping'
{"index_test":{"mappings":{}}}

I used the documentation found on here. Any help would be appreciated.