A new and popular nosql database is the Elastic Search database. This database is easy to install en easy to run.
But is it easy to insert data and extract the outcomes?
The principle of inserting data into ElasticSearch looks rather straight forward. One inserts json files. On the other hand, with filters, one may retrieve the outcomes as a json file.
This then shows the strength of ElasticSearch. With json files, one has the possibility to add an additional category without the necessity to add anything to the structure. This is different from the traditional RDBMS. In that case, one must modify the structure of a table in one would to add an additional type of data.
But is it easy?
Well, that depends on what you understand by “easiness”. One must be able to address the webserver that comes with ElasticSearch. One must also be able to inject a json file with an address to the webserver.
The script below privides a way how this can be done with PHP.
In the start of the script, the json file is set up. At the end of script the json file is inserted. Moreover, the script also shows how data can be retrieved. One must use an address that contains the index and doctype. As example, one may look at:
http://192.168.2.11:9200/movies/soort/_search?q=director:%22Zoek%22?fields=title,year . The index is inserted directly after the adres, and the doc_type follows directly after. After the _?search, a field is provided that acts as filter to limit the number of records retrieved. Here. only records are returned for which director:”Zoek”.
A final remark. HTML allows to insert parameters that can be used to add dynamic content. See below: $Title and $Year are sent as parameters to next page.
