Nested type in Elasticsearch: "object mapping can't be changed from nested to non-nested" when indexing a document

Question

I try to index some nested documents into an Elasticsearch (v2.3.1) mapping which looks as follows (based on this example from the documentation):

PUT /my_index
{
  "mappings": {
    "blogpost": {
      "properties": {
        "title": { "type": "string" },
        "comments": {
          "type": "nested", 
          "properties": {
            "name":    { "type": "string"  },
            "comment": { "type": "string"  }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

However, I do not understand what my JSON documents have to look like in order to fit into that mapping. I tried with

PUT /my_index/some_type/1
{
  "title": "some_title",
  "comments": {
    "name": "some_name",
    "comment": "some_comment"
  }
}

as well as with

PUT /my_index_some_type/1
{
  "title": "some_title",
  "comments": [
      {
        "name": "some_name",
        "comment": "some_comment"
      }
  ]
}

which both result in

{

    "error": 

{

    "root_cause": 

[

            {
                "type": "remote_transport_exception",
                "reason": "[Caiman][172.18.0.4:9300][indices:data/write/index[p]]"
            }
        ],
        "type": "illegal_argument_exception",
        "reason": "object mapping [comments] can't be changed from nested to non-nested"
    },
    "status": 400

}

Which is the correct format to index nested documents? Any working examples are much appreciated, most examples here at SO or on other pages concentrate on nested queries rather than how the documents have been indexed before.

Are you using the blogpost mapping type in your URL or not? It's not clear from your question (i.e. some_type vs blogpost). It seems you're really creating a document of type some_type and comments will default to a normal object, which is not allowed since you already have a nested object called comments in the blogpost mapping type. — Val
– Val, Commented Apr 12, 2016 at 12:17
Ahh no, seriously... that's what happens when you copy and paste too much from different sources. If you want to add this as an answer, I'll be happy to accept it so that we have one more complete example around. — Dirk
– Dirk, Commented Apr 12, 2016 at 12:33

Val · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-12 12:35:58Z

22

It seems you're really creating a document of type some_type and comments will default to a normal object (i.e. not nested), which is not allowed since you already have a nested object called comments in the blogpost mapping type in the same index.

Try this instead and it should work:

PUT /my_index/blogpost/1
{
  "title": "some_title",
  "comments": {
    "name": "some_name",
    "comment": "some_comment"
  }
}

answered Apr 12, 2016 at 12:35

Val

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4 Comments

Gullbyrd Over a year ago

How is this an answer? It's exactly as the same as the example that doesn't work (except for the change of the type). I have this problem, I am using the correct type, and I keep getting the same error.

Val Over a year ago

@Gullbyrd look at the type name more carefully (hint: blogpost instead of some_type) ;-) I suggest you create a new question referencing this one but explaining your context and details and we'll be able to figure it out.

Vishnu Narang Over a year ago

@Val while it works if I remove the type, how do i still ensure that the document type is what i want it to be when i create it. I'm migrating from 2.4 to 7.6

Vishnu Narang Over a year ago

@Val (answering my own question) I just figured it out. As per the documentation, mapping-types are removed. elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.6/… We need to either use an explicit field or use a different index for each mapping type.

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