Spring Data Repository not taking into account @Field(name) annotation when generating queries for Object Fields

[Mynameisbt]

I am having an issue when trying to do a search with a Spring Data Elasticsearch 4 repository when using a Object Field Type. Below is a simple example that is replicating the issue I am having in my application. With Spring Data Elasticsearch 3 the query generated by the repository would use the @Field(name) value but it no longer does with Spring Data Elasticsearch 4.

The query that it is generating for the Authors.FirstName field repository method according to the logs is:

Request body: {"from":0,"size":10000,"query":{"bool":{"must":[{"query_string":{"query":"John","fields":["authors.firstName^1.0"],"type":"best_fields","default_operator":"and","max_determinized_states":10000,"enable_position_increments":true,"fuzziness":"AUTO","fuzzy_prefix_length":0,"fuzzy_max_expansions":50,"phrase_slop":0,"escape":false,"auto_generate_synonyms_phrase_query":true,"fuzzy_transpositions":true,"boost":1.0}}],"adjust_pure_negative":true,"boost":1.0}},"version":true}

I would have expected the fields query to be:

["Authors.FirstName^1.0"]

based on the @Field annotation. That is what Spring Data Elasticsearch 3 would generate

Is there something I am missing in my configuration for the query to use the @Field(name) value in Spring Data Elasticsearch 4?

I have a github test setup that reproduces the problem. I just run a Elasticsearch docker container prior to executing the test.

https://github.com/Mynameisbt/nestedobjectquerytest/blob/master/src/test/java/com/mynameisbt/nestedobjectquerytest/NestedobjectquerytestApplicationTests.java

If I remove the custom names for authors and first name then the documents get returned.

@Document(indexName = "blog", type = "article")
public class Article {
    @Id
    private String id;
    @MultiField(mainField = @Field(type = Text, fielddata = true), otherFields = {@InnerField(suffix = "verbatim", type = Keyword)})
    private String title;

    @Field(type = FieldType.Object, name = "Authors")
    private List<Author> authors;

    @Field(type = Keyword)
    private String[] tags;

    public Article() {
    }

    public Article(String title) {
        this.title = title;
    }
}

Subclass

public class Author {
    @Field("FirstName")
    private String firstName;
    @Field("LastName")
    private String lastName;

Repository

public interface ArticleRepository extends ElasticsearchRepository<Article, String> {

    Page<Article> findByAuthorsFirstName(String name, Pageable pageable);
}

[sothawo]

The problem is that the @Field annotations of the properties of Author do not have a type attribute set, meaning the filed type for Elasticsearch is autodetected and therefore no mapping is written - even if a namewas specified. You will need to change that to:

public class Author {
    @Field(value = "FirstName", type = FieldType.Text)
    private String firstName;
    @Field(value = "LastName", type = FieldType.Text)
    private String lastName;
}

I will add a description of this behaviour to the documentation.

But even with this change, the test will fail, because currently the CriteriaQuery - and the repository implementation creates one under the hood - does not support queries on nested objects see my answer on this SO question where this came up as well.

I will later create a bug issue for this, as this should definitely be possible.

[sothawo]

Not having the type defined in the @Field annotations is no problem. The field won't be written to the index mapping on index creation, but later will be autodetected as a text field with the desired name (FirstName, LastName).

But the problem really is the nested query. I have implemented a fix with #1753, this will be available from the next version on - which will be Spring Data Elasticsearch 4.2.0 GA.

Your demo application successfully runs with this version, what must be changed is:

@Field(type = FieldType.Nested, name = "Authors")
private List<Author> authors;

The type must be changed to FieldType.Nested as we need a nested query in this case.

[Mynameisbt]

Shouldn't it also pass even if the FieldType is FieldType.Object?

I know in the Author example it makes sense to use FieldType.Nested and a nested query for names to maintain the independence of each object vs FieldType.Object where the objects are flatted. https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/nested.html

But in my example even with a FieldType.Object query where the object arrays are flattened I would expect it to return the same 4 documents since the query is just on the FirstName field which is on all 4 documents.

[sothawo]

I added another fix #1761 so now a nested query is only used when the FieldType.Nested is defined, otherwise a normal query is used.
Your demo code runs now with no change - at least no change relevant to the problem, you will need to remove the type attribute from the @Document annotation.