Course Search : What is ELASTIC_FIELD_MAPPINGS and is it required for course search to function?

[Aparna P]

Hi all!

For enabling course search, the documentation says to set ELASTIC_FIELD_MAPPINGS together with other fields like SEARCH_ENGINE and ENABLE_COURSEWARE_INDEX.

But we found that even if ELASTIC_FIELD_MAPPINGS is not set, course search works just fine. So the question is : is ELASTIC_FIELD_MAPPINGS obsolete or does it provide some fine tuning to the search feature?

Thanks,
Aparna

[eug...@opencraft.com]

HI Aparna!

tl;dr: Yes, ELASTIC_FIELD_MAPPINGS provide fine tuning capabilities - you don't need to set them if you don't know what you're doing.

Details: it is used in edx-search to specify ElasticSearch mapping for an index - it allows fine tuning the way ElasticSearch indexes the data. Default mappings are less than ideal, but work. And unless you've got someone at least roughly familiar with what ElasticSearch mappings are, you don't want to change them as it might result in broken or malfunctioning search.

Regards,

Eugeny

@Opencraft

[Aparna P]

Thanks, Eugeny!