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Update API

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IMPORTANT: This documentation is no longer updated. Refer to Elastic's version policy and the latest documentation.

Update API

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Update Request

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An UpdateRequest requires the following arguments:

UpdateRequest request = new UpdateRequest(
        "posts", 
        "doc",  
        "1");

	Index
	Type
	Document id

The Update API allows to update an existing document by using a script or by passing a partial document.

Updates with a script

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The script can be provided as an inline script:

Map<String, Object> parameters = singletonMap("count", 4); 

Script inline = new Script(ScriptType.INLINE, "painless", "ctx._source.field += params.count", parameters);  
request.script(inline);

	Script parameters provided as a `Map` of objects
	Create an inline script using the `painless` language and the previous parameters
	Sets the script to the update request

Or as a stored script:

Script stored =
        new Script(ScriptType.STORED, null, "increment-field", parameters);  
request.script(stored);

	Reference to a script stored under the name `increment-field` in the `painless` language
	Sets the script in the update request

Updates with a partial document

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When using updates with a partial document, the partial document will be merged with the existing document.

The partial document can be provided in different ways:

UpdateRequest request = new UpdateRequest("posts", "doc", "1");
String jsonString = "{" +
        "\"updated\":\"2017-01-01\"," +
        "\"reason\":\"daily update\"" +
        "}";
request.doc(jsonString, XContentType.JSON);

Partial document source provided as a String in JSON format

Map<String, Object> jsonMap = new HashMap<>();
jsonMap.put("updated", new Date());
jsonMap.put("reason", "daily update");
UpdateRequest request = new UpdateRequest("posts", "doc", "1")
        .doc(jsonMap);

Partial document source provided as a Map which gets automatically converted to JSON format

XContentBuilder builder = XContentFactory.jsonBuilder();
builder.startObject();
{
    builder.field("updated", new Date());
    builder.field("reason", "daily update");
}
builder.endObject();
UpdateRequest request = new UpdateRequest("posts", "doc", "1")
        .doc(builder);

Partial document source provided as an XContentBuilder object, the Elasticsearch built-in helpers to generate JSON content

UpdateRequest request = new UpdateRequest("posts", "doc", "1")
        .doc("updated", new Date(),
             "reason", "daily update");

Partial document source provided as Object key-pairs, which gets converted to JSON format

Upserts

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If the document does not already exist, it is possible to define some content that will be inserted as a new document using the upsert method:

String jsonString = "{\"created\":\"2017-01-01\"}";
request.upsert(jsonString, XContentType.JSON);

Upsert document source provided as a String

Similarly to the partial document updates, the content of the upsert document can be defined using methods that accept String, Map, XContentBuilder or Object key-pairs.

Optional arguments

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The following arguments can optionally be provided:

request.routing("routing");

Routing value

request.parent("parent");

Parent value

request.timeout(TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(1)); 
request.timeout("1s");

	Timeout to wait for primary shard to become available as a `TimeValue`
	Timeout to wait for primary shard to become available as a `String`

request.setRefreshPolicy(WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy.WAIT_UNTIL); 
request.setRefreshPolicy("wait_for");

	Refresh policy as a `WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy` instance
	Refresh policy as a `String`

request.retryOnConflict(3);

How many times to retry the update operation if the document to update has been changed by another operation between the get and indexing phases of the update operation

request.fetchSource(true);

Enable source retrieval, disabled by default

String[] includes = new String[]{"updated", "r*"};
String[] excludes = Strings.EMPTY_ARRAY;
request.fetchSource(new FetchSourceContext(true, includes, excludes));

Configure source inclusion for specific fields

String[] includes = Strings.EMPTY_ARRAY;
String[] excludes = new String[]{"updated"};
request.fetchSource(new FetchSourceContext(true, includes, excludes));

Configure source exclusion for specific fields

request.version(2);

Version

request.detectNoop(false);

Disable the noop detection

request.scriptedUpsert(true);

Indicate that the script must run regardless of whether the document exists or not, ie the script takes care of creating the document if it does not already exist.

request.docAsUpsert(true);

Indicate that the partial document must be used as the upsert document if it does not exist yet.

request.waitForActiveShards(2); 
request.waitForActiveShards(ActiveShardCount.ALL);

	Sets the number of shard copies that must be active before proceeding with the update operation.
	Number of shard copies provided as a `ActiveShardCount`: can be `ActiveShardCount.ALL`, `ActiveShardCount.ONE` or `ActiveShardCount.DEFAULT` (default)

Synchronous Execution

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UpdateResponse updateResponse = client.update(request);

Asynchronous Execution

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client.updateAsync(request, new ActionListener<UpdateResponse>() {
    @Override
    public void onResponse(UpdateResponse updateResponse) {
        
    }

    @Override
    public void onFailure(Exception e) {
        
    }
});

	Called when the execution is successfully completed. The response is provided as an argument.
	Called in case of failure. The raised exception is provided as an argument.

Update Response

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The returned UpdateResponse allows to retrieve information about the executed operation as follows:

String index = updateResponse.getIndex();
String type = updateResponse.getType();
String id = updateResponse.getId();
long version = updateResponse.getVersion();
if (updateResponse.getResult() == DocWriteResponse.Result.CREATED) {
    
} else if (updateResponse.getResult() == DocWriteResponse.Result.UPDATED) {
    
} else if (updateResponse.getResult() == DocWriteResponse.Result.DELETED) {
    
} else if (updateResponse.getResult() == DocWriteResponse.Result.NOOP) {
    
}

	Handle the case where the document was created for the first time (upsert)
	Handle the case where the document was updated
	Handle the case where the document was deleted
	Handle the case where the document was not impacted by the update, ie no operation (noop) was executed on the document

When the source retrieval is enabled in the UpdateRequest through the fetchSource method, the response contains the source of the updated document:

GetResult result = updateResponse.getGetResult(); 
if (result.isExists()) {
    String sourceAsString = result.sourceAsString(); 
    Map<String, Object> sourceAsMap = result.sourceAsMap(); 
    byte[] sourceAsBytes = result.source(); 
} else {
    
}

	Retrieve the updated document as a `GetResult`
	Retrieve the source of the updated document as a `String`
	Retrieve the source of the updated document as a `Map<String, Object>`
	Retrieve the source of the updated document as a `byte[]`
	Handle the scenario where the source of the document is not present in the response (this is the case by default)

It is also possible to check for shard failures:

ReplicationResponse.ShardInfo shardInfo = updateResponse.getShardInfo();
if (shardInfo.getTotal() != shardInfo.getSuccessful()) {
    
}
if (shardInfo.getFailed() > 0) {
    for (ReplicationResponse.ShardInfo.Failure failure : shardInfo.getFailures()) {
        String reason = failure.reason(); 
    }
}

	Handle the situation where number of successful shards is less than total shards
	Handle the potential failures

When a UpdateRequest is performed against a document that does not exist, the response has 404 status code, an ElasticsearchException gets thrown which needs to be handled as follows:

UpdateRequest request = new UpdateRequest("posts", "type", "does_not_exist").doc("field", "value");
try {
    UpdateResponse updateResponse = client.update(request);
} catch (ElasticsearchException e) {
    if (e.status() == RestStatus.NOT_FOUND) {
        
    }
}

Handle the exception thrown because the document not exist

If there is a version conflict, an ElasticsearchException will be thrown:

UpdateRequest request = new UpdateRequest("posts", "doc", "1")
        .doc("field", "value")
        .version(1);
try {
    UpdateResponse updateResponse = client.update(request);
} catch(ElasticsearchException e) {
    if (e.status() == RestStatus.CONFLICT) {
        
    }
}

The raised exception indicates that a version conflict error was returned.

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