78_Indexed_geo_shapes.asciidoc

Querying with Indexed Shapes

With shapes that are often used in queries, it can be more convenient to store them in the index and to refer to them by name in the query. Take our example of central Amsterdam in the previous example. We could store it as a document of type neighborhood.

First, we set up the mapping in the same way as we did for landmark:

PUT /attractions/_mapping/neighborhood
{
  "properties": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "location": {
      "type": "geo_shape"
    }
  }
}

Then we can index a shape for central Amsterdam:

PUT /attractions/neighborhood/central_amsterdam
{
  "name" : "Central Amsterdam",
  "location" : {
      "type" : "polygon",
      "coordinates" : [[
        [4.88330,52.38617],
        [4.87463,52.37254],
        [4.87875,52.36369],
        [4.88939,52.35850],
        [4.89840,52.35755],
        [4.91909,52.36217],
        [4.92656,52.36594],
        [4.93368,52.36615],
        [4.93342,52.37275],
        [4.92690,52.37632],
        [4.88330,52.38617]
      ]]
  }
}

After the shape is indexed, we can refer to it by index, type, and id in the query itself:

GET /attractions/landmark/_search
{
  "query": {
    "geo_shape": {
      "location": {
        "relation": "within",
        "indexed_shape": { (1)
          "index": "attractions",
          "type":  "neighborhood",
          "id":    "central_amsterdam",
          "path":  "location"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

1. By specifying indexed_shape instead of shape, Elasticsearch knows that it needs to retrieve the query shape from the specified document and path.

There is nothing special about the shape for central Amsterdam. We could equally use our existing shape for Dam Square in queries. This query finds neighborhoods that intersect with Dam Square:

GET /attractions/neighborhood/_search
{
  "query": {
    "geo_shape": {
      "location": {
        "indexed_shape": {
          "index": "attractions",
          "type":  "landmark",
          "id":    "dam_square",
          "path":  "location"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}