# Using elasticsearch to index couchdb tags

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 4, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652 "2013-07-04T00:06:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bryan\_rasmussen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bryan_rasmussen/32/874_2.png) [@bryan\_rasmussen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bryan_rasmussen)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652/1 "2013-07-04T00:06:47Z")

</div>

As per the subject, my documents in couchdb have a tags field which is an array.

Now I could of course do a view that output every single with the  
relevant data, and I would have to do some map reduce I guess to be  
able to handle if people wanted to query against multiple tags.

But considering I have elasticsearch river running to index couchdb I  
was wondering if there is an easier way to do it?

For example a way to have a query for array has particular value?

If no - can you suggest a way to do it with elasticsearch?

I am a newbie to elasticsearch - although have been running it with no  
problems for just this project quite a while there has been no need to  
have anything but the core functionality until now.

I do have familiarity with Solr and know how I would do it there -  
multiple tag fields, index those, have a special search handler for  
tags.

Thanks,  
Bryan Rasmussen

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**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:** [July 4, 2013, 7:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652/2 "2013-07-04T07:17:18Z")

</div>

Not sure I fully understand the use case.  
Your concern is not about the way you are sending documents from couchDb to elasticsearch, right?

You want to somehow display a TAG cloud, right?  
You should give a look at: [Elastic — The Search AI Company | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/facets/terms-facet/)

If it's not the answer you were expected, could you update your question with some sample data and describe the result you want to have from that data?

## HTH

David Pilato | Technical Advocate | [Elasticsearch.com](http://Elasticsearch.com)  
@dadoonet | @elasticsearchfr | @scrutmydocs

Le 4 juil. 2013 à 02:06, bryan rasmussen [rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com](mailto:rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com) a écrit :

> As per the subject, my documents in couchdb have a tags field which is an array.
> 
> Now I could of course do a view that output every single with the  
> relevant data, and I would have to do some map reduce I guess to be  
> able to handle if people wanted to query against multiple tags.
> 
> But considering I have elasticsearch river running to index couchdb I  
> was wondering if there is an easier way to do it?
> 
> For example a way to have a query for array has particular value?
> 
> If no - can you suggest a way to do it with elasticsearch?
> 
> I am a newbie to elasticsearch - although have been running it with no  
> problems for just this project quite a while there has been no need to  
> have anything but the core functionality until now.
> 
> I do have familiarity with Solr and know how I would do it there -  
> multiple tag fields, index those, have a special search handler for  
> tags.
> 
> Thanks,  
> Bryan Rasmussen
> 
> --  
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**Author:** ![bryan\_rasmussen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bryan_rasmussen/32/874_2.png) [@bryan\_rasmussen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bryan_rasmussen)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652/3 "2013-07-04T17:20:29Z")

</div>

> David Pilato [david@pilato.fr](mailto:david@pilato.fr) Jul 04 09:17AM +0200

> If it's not the answer you were expected, could you update your question with \>some  
> sample data and describe the result you want to have from that data?

My main problem is that the way to handle tags in couchdb to do stuff like

1. return all documents that have tag1 (where a tag can be  
anydescripting text applied to a document by a user)

and

1. return all documents that have tag1 + tag2 + tag3

and so forth

tend to be verbose and expensive.

To do that in Solr is quite easy, but snce the search is actually not  
that important a part of the application I didn't want to go through  
the trouble of setting up, maintaining Solr, instead I just used  
elasticsearch couchdb river.

So I would like a way to handle the problem in elasticsearch with  
hopefully not a lot of work 🙂

tags in my documents are represented as arrays.

so solutions I might expect to be possible would be:

a way to write a query that allows me to search for a value inside of  
an array item, by using a special parameter in the query.

or

have a view that does not do the common couchdb thing of outputting a  
document per tag but solves the problem in some other way, and  
indexing that view?

or

create a special query handler that only indexes items in the array,  
so that each array[i] becomes

tag = value of array[i]

which is of course the same as couchdb way of having a view output new  
document per actual tag in tags array, except the way elasticsearch  
does it will not have the drawbacks of couchdb writing multiple  
documents to disk.

Thanks,  
Bryan Rasmussen

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**Author:** ![bryan\_rasmussen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bryan_rasmussen/32/874_2.png) [@bryan\_rasmussen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bryan_rasmussen)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 5:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652/4 "2013-07-07T05:47:38Z")

</div>

I think I found a way to do what I want, but I'd like some feedback  
before I start - especially as it will help me developing some other  
applications with elasticsearch as the search engine that I am working  
on right now -

question

On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 7:20 PM, bryan rasmussen  
[rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com](mailto:rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com) wrote:

> > David Pilato [david@pilato.fr](mailto:david@pilato.fr) Jul 04 09:17AM +0200
> 
> > If it's not the answer you were expected, could you update your question with \>some  
> > sample data and describe the result you want to have from that data?
> 
> My main problem is that the way to handle tags in couchdb to do stuff like
> 
> 1. return all documents that have tag1 (where a tag can be  
> anydescripting text applied to a document by a user)
> 
> and
> 
> 1. return all documents that have tag1 + tag2 + tag3
> 
> and so forth
> 
> tend to be verbose and expensive.
> 
> To do that in Solr is quite easy, but snce the search is actually not  
> that important a part of the application I didn't want to go through  
> the trouble of setting up, maintaining Solr, instead I just used  
> elasticsearch couchdb river.
> 
> So I would like a way to handle the problem in elasticsearch with  
> hopefully not a lot of work 🙂
> 
> tags in my documents are represented as arrays.
> 
> so solutions I might expect to be possible would be:
> 
> a way to write a query that allows me to search for a value inside of  
> an array item, by using a special parameter in the query.
> 
> or
> 
> have a view that does not do the common couchdb thing of outputting a  
> document per tag but solves the problem in some other way, and  
> indexing that view?
> 
> or
> 
> create a special query handler that only indexes items in the array,  
> so that each array[i] becomes
> 
> tag = value of array[i]
> 
> which is of course the same as couchdb way of having a view output new  
> document per actual tag in tags array, except the way elasticsearch  
> does it will not have the drawbacks of couchdb writing multiple  
> documents to disk.
> 
> Thanks,  
> Bryan Rasmussen

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**Author:** ![bryan\_rasmussen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bryan_rasmussen/32/874_2.png) [@bryan\_rasmussen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bryan_rasmussen)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 6:03am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652/5 "2013-07-07T06:03:26Z")

</div>

oops, sent that last one accidentally

I think I found a way to do what I want, but I'd like some feedback  
before I start - especially as it will help me developing some other  
applications with elasticsearch as the search engine that I am working  
on right now -

given that: "...elasticsearch can easily have several couchdb rivers  
(and other types of rivers) running at the same time, all pointing to  
different databases and indexing them into different indices (or the  
same index, you choose) using the same elasticsearch cluster."

Can I index just a view in a river and then do something like the following?

"filter" : "tagfilter",  
"filter\_params" : {  
"tag" : doc['field\_name'].values  
}

So the view returns documents with tags and probably some other data  
relevant to display in the application when sorting documents by tag,  
the tag param should then allow me to do a search with the param  
tag=couchdb and if I have ["couchdb","elasticsearch","other tag"] as  
the tags array in my document I should be able to return that  
document.

Does this sound correct?

Can I actually do "tag" : doc['field\_name'].values (or some variation  
that gives the same result) in my filter\_params or am I going to have  
to go to scripting?

Thanks,  
Bryan Rasmussen

On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 7:47 AM, bryan rasmussen  
[rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com](mailto:rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com) wrote:

> I think I found a way to do what I want, but I'd like some feedback  
> before I start - especially as it will help me developing some other  
> applications with elasticsearch as the search engine that I am working  
> on right now -
> 
> question
> 
> On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 7:20 PM, bryan rasmussen  
> [rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com](mailto:rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com) wrote:
> 
> > > David Pilato [david@pilato.fr](mailto:david@pilato.fr) Jul 04 09:17AM +0200
> > 
> > > If it's not the answer you were expected, could you update your question with \>some  
> > > sample data and describe the result you want to have from that data?
> > 
> > My main problem is that the way to handle tags in couchdb to do stuff like
> > 
> > 1. return all documents that have tag1 (where a tag can be  
> > anydescripting text applied to a document by a user)
> > 
> > and
> > 
> > 1. return all documents that have tag1 + tag2 + tag3
> > 
> > and so forth
> > 
> > tend to be verbose and expensive.
> > 
> > To do that in Solr is quite easy, but snce the search is actually not  
> > that important a part of the application I didn't want to go through  
> > the trouble of setting up, maintaining Solr, instead I just used  
> > elasticsearch couchdb river.
> > 
> > So I would like a way to handle the problem in elasticsearch with  
> > hopefully not a lot of work 🙂
> > 
> > tags in my documents are represented as arrays.
> > 
> > so solutions I might expect to be possible would be:
> > 
> > a way to write a query that allows me to search for a value inside of  
> > an array item, by using a special parameter in the query.
> > 
> > or
> > 
> > have a view that does not do the common couchdb thing of outputting a  
> > document per tag but solves the problem in some other way, and  
> > indexing that view?
> > 
> > or
> > 
> > create a special query handler that only indexes items in the array,  
> > so that each array[i] becomes
> > 
> > tag = value of array[i]
> > 
> > which is of course the same as couchdb way of having a view output new  
> > document per actual tag in tags array, except the way elasticsearch  
> > does it will not have the drawbacks of couchdb writing multiple  
> > documents to disk.
> > 
> > Thanks,  
> > Bryan Rasmussen

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**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:** [July 7, 2013, 7:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652/6 "2013-07-07T07:21:28Z")

</div>

Sorry. I don't get it.

You want to create an array of values?  
Search something in that array?

Right?

That's something Elasticsearch deals with. I don't see your concern.  
A real example should help a lot.

About couchdb views, you can't index it right now. See [Add support for views by dadoonet · Pull Request #24 · elastic/elasticsearch-river-couchdb · GitHub](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-river-couchdb/pull/24)

--  
David 😉  
Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs

Le 7 juil. 2013 à 08:03, bryan rasmussen [rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com](mailto:rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com) a écrit :

oops, sent that last one accidentally

I think I found a way to do what I want, but I'd like some feedback  
before I start - especially as it will help me developing some other  
applications with elasticsearch as the search engine that I am working  
on right now -

given that: "...elasticsearch can easily have several couchdb rivers  
(and other types of rivers) running at the same time, all pointing to  
different databases and indexing them into different indices (or the  
same index, you choose) using the same elasticsearch cluster."

Can I index just a view in a river and then do something like the following?

"filter" : "tagfilter",  
"filter\_params" : {  
"tag" : doc['field\_name'].values  
}

So the view returns documents with tags and probably some other data  
relevant to display in the application when sorting documents by tag,  
the tag param should then allow me to do a search with the param  
tag=couchdb and if I have ["couchdb","elasticsearch","other tag"] as  
the tags array in my document I should be able to return that  
document.

Does this sound correct?

Can I actually do "tag" : doc['field\_name'].values (or some variation  
that gives the same result) in my filter\_params or am I going to have  
to go to scripting?

Thanks,  
Bryan Rasmussen

On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 7:47 AM, bryan rasmussen  
[rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com](mailto:rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com) wrote:

> I think I found a way to do what I want, but I'd like some feedback  
> before I start - especially as it will help me developing some other  
> applications with elasticsearch as the search engine that I am working  
> on right now -
> 
> question
> 
> On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 7:20 PM, bryan rasmussen  
> [rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com](mailto:rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com) wrote:
> 
> > > David Pilato [david@pilato.fr](mailto:david@pilato.fr) Jul 04 09:17AM +0200
> > 
> > > If it's not the answer you were expected, could you update your question with \>some  
> > > sample data and describe the result you want to have from that data?
> > 
> > My main problem is that the way to handle tags in couchdb to do stuff like
> > 
> > 1. return all documents that have tag1 (where a tag can be  
> > anydescripting text applied to a document by a user)
> > 
> > and
> > 
> > 1. return all documents that have tag1 + tag2 + tag3
> > 
> > and so forth
> > 
> > tend to be verbose and expensive.
> > 
> > To do that in Solr is quite easy, but snce the search is actually not  
> > that important a part of the application I didn't want to go through  
> > the trouble of setting up, maintaining Solr, instead I just used  
> > elasticsearch couchdb river.
> > 
> > So I would like a way to handle the problem in elasticsearch with  
> > hopefully not a lot of work 🙂
> > 
> > tags in my documents are represented as arrays.
> > 
> > so solutions I might expect to be possible would be:
> > 
> > a way to write a query that allows me to search for a value inside of  
> > an array item, by using a special parameter in the query.
> > 
> > or
> > 
> > have a view that does not do the common couchdb thing of outputting a  
> > document per tag but solves the problem in some other way, and  
> > indexing that view?
> > 
> > or
> > 
> > create a special query handler that only indexes items in the array,  
> > so that each array[i] becomes
> > 
> > tag = value of array[i]
> > 
> > which is of course the same as couchdb way of having a view output new  
> > document per actual tag in tags array, except the way elasticsearch  
> > does it will not have the drawbacks of couchdb writing multiple  
> > documents to disk.
> > 
> > Thanks,  
> > Bryan Rasmussen

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**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:** [July 7, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652/7 "2013-07-07T23:46:42Z")

</div>

On Thursday, July 4, 2013 10:06:47 AM UTC+10, bryan wrote:

> As per the subject, my documents in couchdb have a tags field which is an  
> array.

If your CouchDB documents have a tags array, and you're indexing the whole  
document with a the CouchDB river in to Elasticsearch, then you don't need  
to do anything else. For example, if your CouchDB document looks like this:

{  
"\_id": "1",  
"tags" : ["tag1", "tag2", "tag3"]  
}

Then you can easily find that document with a term query like this:

{  
"query" : {  
"term" : { "tags" : "tag2" }  
}  
}

Which will return all documents with "tag2" somewhere in the tags array. No  
need to create special views or anything.

Basically, Elasticsearch doesn't care if your fields are array values. You  
can search them regardless.  
See [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/mapping/array-type/) for  
more details.

Cheers,  
Dan

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**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, 2:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-elasticsearch-to-index-couchdb-tags/12652/8 "2017-07-06T02:27:46Z")

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