How to store a c# List of objects into ElasticSearch with NEST 2.x

Question

I'm developing a cross-platform app with xamarin.forms and I'm trying to look for a way to store a List of Objects directly into ElasticSearch so I can later search for results based on the objects of the lists. My scenario is the folloring:

public class Box {

    [String(Index = FieldIndexOption.NotAnalyzed)]
    public string id { get; set; }

    public List<Category> categories { get; set; }
}


public class Category {

    [String(Index = FieldIndexOption.NotAnalyzed)]
    public string id { get; set; }

    public string name { get; set; }
}

My aim is to be able to search for all the boxes that have a specific category.

I have tried to map everything properly like it says in the documentation but if I do it like that, when I store a box, it only stores the first category.

Is there actually a way to do it or is it just not possible with NEST?

Any tips are very welcome!

Thanks

Answer 1

It should just work fine with AutoMap using the code in the documentation:

If the index does not exist:

var descriptor = new CreateIndexDescriptor("indexyouwant") .Mappings(ms => ms .Map<Box>(m => m.AutoMap()) );

and then call something like:

await client.CreateIndexAsync(descriptor).ConfigureAwait(false);

or, when not using async:

client.CreateIndex(descriptor);

If the index already exists

Then forget about creating the CreateIndexDescriptor part above and just call:

await client.MapAsync<Box>(m => m.Index("existingindexname").AutoMap()).ConfigureAwait(false);

or, when not using async:

client.Map<Box>(m => m.Index("existingindexname").AutoMap());

Once you succesfully created a mapping for a type, you can index the documents.

Is it possible that you first had just one category in a box and mapped that to the index (Before you made it a List)? Because then you have to manually edit the mapping I guess, for example in Sense.

I don't know if you already have important data in your index but you could also delete the whole index (the mapping will be deleted too) and try it again. But then you'll lose all the documents you already indexed at the whole index.