# Using Kibana to add data to elasticsearch from forms

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-kibana-to-add-data-to-elasticsearch-from-forms/105043>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [October 24, 2017, 10:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-kibana-to-add-data-to-elasticsearch-from-forms/105043 "2017-10-24T10:52:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Samuel\_Momanyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Samuel\_Momanyi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Samuel_Momanyi)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 10:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-kibana-to-add-data-to-elasticsearch-from-forms/105043/1 "2017-10-24T10:52:39Z")

</div>

I have a couple of things i don't understand.

1 I am trying to create a connection to elasticsearch so that i can access a specific index and then i can add data to it via a form.

my index.js looks like this since i read that you need to create a server and then communicate with elastic search

```
import exampleRoute from './server/routes/example';

export default function (kibana) {
  return new kibana.Plugin({
    require: ['elasticsearch'],
    name: 'article',
    uiExports: {

      app: {
        title: 'Article',
        description: 'lists articles in Kibana',
        main: 'plugins/article/app'
      },

    },

    init(server, options) {
      // Add server routes and initialize the plugin here
      exampleRoute(server);
      server.route({
        path: '/api/article/index/{name}',
        method: 'GET',
        handler(req, reply) {
          server.plugins.elasticsearch.callWithRequest(req, 'cluster.state', {
            metric: 'metadata',
            index: req.params.name
          }).then(function (response) {
            reply(response.metadata.indices[req.params.name]);
          });
        }
      });
    }

  });
};

```

then in my app.js i need to know how i would write my controller to access and modify my index in elasticsearch since i dont know what methods are available to help pass form data to elasticsearch.

Before i tried using a different method to access the index and it failed

app.js looked like this

```
uiModules
.get('app/testcloud', [])
.controller('testcloudHelloWorld', function ($scope, $route, $interval) {
  $scope.title = 'Testcloud';
  $scope.description = 'tags test';

  const currentTime = moment($route.current.locals.currentTime);
  $scope.currentTime = currentTime.format('HH:mm:ss');
  const unsubscribe = $interval(function () {
    $scope.currentTime = currentTime.add(1, 'second').format('HH:mm:ss');
  }, 1000);
  $scope.$watch('$destroy', unsubscribe);
});

uiModules
.get('app/testcloud', [])
.controller('dataCtrl', ['$scope','searchService',function($scope, searchService){
  $scope.results = {
    documents: []
  };

  searchService.search().then(function(es_return){
    scope.results.documents = es_return;

    console.log(es_return)
  })

  $scope.title = 'World';
  $scope.description = 'howdy';
  $scope.submit = function() {
    $scope.greeting = 'Hello ' + $scope.title + '!'+ $scope.description +'!';
  };

}]);

uiModules
.get('app/testcloud', [])
.service('searchService', ['$q','esFactory', function($q, esFactory){
  var esClient = esFactory ({
    location: 'localhost:9200'
  });

  this.search = function() {
    var deferred = $q.defer();

    esClient.search({
      index: 'article',
      body: {
        query: {
          match_all:{}
        }
      }
    }).then(function(es_return) {
      deferred.resolve(es_return);
    }, function(error) {
      deferred.reject(error);
    });

    return deferred.promise;
  };
}]);

```

and my index.html

```
<div ng-controller="dataCtrl">
  <div class="results">
    <h1>Articles</h1>

    <ul>
      <li ng-repeat="news in results.documents">
        <strong>{{news.title}}</strong>
      </li>
    </ul>

  </div>
  <br>
  Id:
    <input type="text" ng-model="id">
  <br>
  Title:
    <input type="text" ng-model="title">
  <br>
  Description:
    <input type="textarea" ng-model="description">
    <button ng-click='submit()'>submit</button>
 
</div>
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weltenwort](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/weltenwort/32/53885_2.png) [@weltenwort](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/weltenwort)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 1:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-kibana-to-add-data-to-elasticsearch-from-forms/105043/2 "2017-10-25T13:18:06Z")

</div>

Hi @Samuel_Momanyi,

there are two ways to communicate with Elasticsearch from client-side code in Kibana. You can either directly communicate with it from the browser by letting angular inject the `es` service or create your own server-side api that uses `elasticsearch.callWithRequest` to write to the database. Both approaches are touched upon in [the Kibana Documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/development-elasticsearch.html).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Samuel\_Momanyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Samuel\_Momanyi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Samuel_Momanyi)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2017, 2:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-kibana-to-add-data-to-elasticsearch-from-forms/105043/4 "2017-11-13T14:22:08Z")

</div>

I was able to connect to elastic search and i can search data but i am getting a status 404 error

`C:\Users\front\Desktop\kibana\node_modules\angular\angular.js:12701 POST http://localhost:5601/api/elasticsearch/article/news/3 404 (Not Found)`

when indexing a document

this is my controller

```
.controller('indexCtrl', function ($scope, es) {

  es.index({
   index: 'article',
   id: '3',
   type: 'news',
   body: {
     "query": {},
     "id": "3",
     "title":"Samuel has done it again",
     "description":"Hello this really cool if it works, please do"
   }

 }).then(function (err,resp,status) {
   if(err) {
      console.log(err);
    }
    else {
      console.log(resp);
    }
   });

});

```

and this is the server request

```
server.route({
    path: '/api/genplug/{index}/{type}/{id}',
    method: 'POST',
    handler(req, reply) {
      elasticRequest.callWithRequest(req, 'index', { index: 'article', type: 'news' })
      .then(response =&gt; {
        console.log(`cluster status is: #{response.data}`);
      });
    }
  });

```

What could I be doing wrong?  
[/quote]

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weltenwort](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/weltenwort/32/53885_2.png) [@weltenwort](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/weltenwort)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-kibana-to-add-data-to-elasticsearch-from-forms/105043/5 "2017-11-13T18:15:33Z")

</div>

As far as I know access to elasticsearch from the Kibana client-side is read-only. Sorry that I did not mention this earlier. So creating a server-side route that does the indexing as shown in your second code snippet is the correct way. In you example I don't see where you call your `/api/genplug/...` route though. Instead you directly try to write to ES by calling `es.index`.

I would recommend to use the `$http` service on the client side to call your server-side route as described in [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/development-basepath.html#\_api\_requests\_from\_the\_front\_end](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/development-basepath.html#_api_requests_from_the_front_end) (don't forget to add the `basePath` like in the example). The request url params and body can convey all information you need to the execute an [`index`](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/javascript-api/current/api-reference.html#api-index) operation via `callWithRequest`, e.g.

```
elasticRequest.callWithRequest(req, 'index', {
  index: req.params.index,
  id: req.params.id,
  type: req.params.type,
  body: req.payload,
}).then(...)

```

Just be aware that you're opening write-access to all your data with this route. I would advise to strictly validate the request before using any values from it.

---

<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:** [December 11, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-kibana-to-add-data-to-elasticsearch-from-forms/105043/6 "2017-12-11T18:15:38Z")

</div>

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