Mapping base types

Using explicit mapping allows faster insertion of the data using schema-less approach. Thus to achieve better results and performance in indexing, it's required to manually define mapping.

Fine-tuning mapping brings some advantages such as:

• Reducing the index size on disk

• Indexing only interesting fields (general speed up)

• Precooking data for faster search or real-time analytics (such as facets)

ElasticSearch allows using base fields with a wide range of configurations.

Getting ready

You need a working ElasticSearch cluster and a test index where to put mappings.

How to do it...

Let's use a semi real-world example of a shop order for our eBay-like shop.

We initially define an order such as:

Name	Type	Description
id	Identifier	Order identifier
date	Date (time)	Date of order
customer_id	ID reference	Customer ID reference
name	String	Name of the item
quantity	Integer	Number of items
vat	Double	VAT for item
sent	Boolean	The order was sent

Our order...