Elasticsearch search across multiple fields including nested

Question

i have this mapping on my elasticsearch index:

{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "title": {
        "type": "keyword"
      },
      "description": {
        "type": "text"
      },
      "content": {
        "type": "text"
      },
      "author": {
        "type": "keyword"
      },
      "completionTimeMinutes": {
        "type": "integer"
      },
      "views": {
        "type": "integer"
      },
      "questions": {
        "type": "nested",
        "properties": {
          "question": {
            "type": "keyword"
          },
          "answers": {
            "type": "keyword"
          },
          "rightAnswer": {
            "type": "integer"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

And i have some problems with querying from multiple fields. In my case i want to search across title, description, content, questions.question, questions.answer. My query that doesn't work looks like this:

{
    "query": {
        "bool": {
            "must": {
                "multi_match": {
                    "query": "text to search i put here",
                    "type": "cross_fields",
                    "fields": [
                        "title",
                        "description",
                        "content",
                        "questions.question",
                        "questions.answers"
                    ],
                    "slop": 1
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

I also tried {"query": { "nested": { "path": "questions", ......, where ...... is above query, but if so, i cant search in title, description, content. So please tell me how to query from multiple nested levels.

please go through my answer, and let me know if this was your issue ? — ESCoder

ESCoder ESCoder · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-01T12:57:48

You need to combine nested and non-nested search queries. Refer ES official documentation, to know more about bool queries.

Adding a working example with index data, search query, and search result

Index Data:

{
    "title": "a",
    "description": "a",
    "content": "b",
    "questions": [
        {
            "question": "c",
            "answers": "c"
        }
    ]
}

Search Query:

{
    "query": {
        "bool": {
            "should": [
                {
                    "multi_match": {
                        "query": "a",
                        "type": "cross_fields",
                        "fields": [
                            "title",
                            "content"
                        ],
                        "slop": 1
                    }
                },
                {
                    "nested": {
                        "path": "questions",
                        "query": {
                            "multi_match": {
                                "query": "c",
                                "type": "cross_fields",
                                "fields": [
                                    "title",
                                    "content",
                                    "questions.question",
                                    "questions.answers"
                                ],
                                "slop": 1
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ],
            "minimum_should_match":1
        }
    }
}

Search Result:

"hits": [
      {
        "_index": "stof_64155263",
        "_type": "_doc",
        "_id": "1",
        "_score": 0.5753642,
        "_source": {
          "title": "a",
          "description": "a",
          "content": "b",
          "questions": [
            {
              "question": "c",
              "answers": "c"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]

Elasticsearch search across multiple fields including nested

1 Answers