Indexing non-model objects for search in Rails with Elasticsearch

Question

Right now my Rails application allows users to search only the database fields. They can upload a picture and then search with the name. I am also extracting the metadata and storing it in YAML files. So for fileA, the metadata is stored in fileA.yml file.

With Elasticsearch, I was able to index the table 'file' and allow users to search according to filetype, filename, etc. (whatever's stored on the DB). However, I'd like to provide a metadata search also, so how do I index that file's YAML file also?

I'm okay with switching to some other search provider, like Solr, if it's needed also.

Frederick Cheung · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-20 10:17:04Z

3

You don't mention what library (elasticsearch-rails, searchkick etc.) you are using to integrate with elasticsearch but they all allow you to customise the data that is sent for indexing.

For example with elasticsearch-rails you override the as_indexed_json method, for example

def as_indexed_json(options={})
  as_json(options).merge(data_from_yaml)
end

for searchkick, you would do

def search_data
  as_json.merge(data_from_yaml)
end

edited Feb 20, 2015 at 10:17

answered Feb 20, 2015 at 8:30

Frederick Cheung

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3 Comments

Swaathi Kakarla Over a year ago

I am using the search kick gem to integrate elastic search. Can I do the customizations with this gem or do I need to use the elastic search-model gem?

Swaathi Kakarla Over a year ago

Not sure if elasticserach-model is a gem, but this is what I meant: github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-rails/tree/master/…

Frederick Cheung Over a year ago

@SwaathiK yes you can do this with searchkick - the method just has to have a different name

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