Using the Attachment Processor with arrays

edit

To use the attachment processor within an array of attachments the foreach processor is required. This enables the attachment processor to be run on the individual elements of the array.

For example, given the following source:

{
  "attachments" : [
    {
      "filename" : "ipsum.txt",
      "data" : "dGhpcyBpcwpqdXN0IHNvbWUgdGV4dAo="
    },
    {
      "filename" : "test.txt",
      "data" : "VGhpcyBpcyBhIHRlc3QK"
    }
  ]
}

In this case, we want to process the data field in each element of the attachments field and insert the properties into the document so the following foreach processor is used:

PUT _ingest/pipeline/attachment
{
  "description" : "Extract attachment information from arrays",
  "processors" : [
    {
      "foreach": {
        "field": "attachments",
        "processor": {
          "attachment": {
            "target_field": "_ingest._value.attachment",
            "field": "_ingest._value.data"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
PUT my-index-000001/_doc/my_id?pipeline=attachment
{
  "attachments" : [
    {
      "filename" : "ipsum.txt",
      "data" : "dGhpcyBpcwpqdXN0IHNvbWUgdGV4dAo="
    },
    {
      "filename" : "test.txt",
      "data" : "VGhpcyBpcyBhIHRlc3QK"
    }
  ]
}
GET my-index-000001/_doc/my_id

Returns this:

{
  "_index" : "my-index-000001",
  "_type" : "_doc",
  "_id" : "my_id",
  "_version" : 1,
  "_seq_no" : 50,
  "_primary_term" : 1,
  "found" : true,
  "_source" : {
    "attachments" : [
      {
        "filename" : "ipsum.txt",
        "data" : "dGhpcyBpcwpqdXN0IHNvbWUgdGV4dAo=",
        "attachment" : {
          "content_type" : "text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1",
          "language" : "en",
          "content" : "this is\njust some text",
          "content_length" : 24
        }
      },
      {
        "filename" : "test.txt",
        "data" : "VGhpcyBpcyBhIHRlc3QK",
        "attachment" : {
          "content_type" : "text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1",
          "language" : "en",
          "content" : "This is a test",
          "content_length" : 16
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Note that the target_field needs to be set, otherwise the default value is used which is a top level field attachment. The properties on this top level field will contain the value of the first attachment only. However, by specifying the target_field on to a value on _ingest._value it will correctly associate the properties with the correct attachment.