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Laravel-Elasticsearch

Nested Queries

Nested queries are a powerful feature of Elasticsearch that allows you to search within nested objects or arrays. This feature is especially useful when working with complex data structures that require deep search capabilities.

WhereNestedObject

This method allows you to query nested objects within an Elasticsearch document. Nested fields are useful when you need to store large arrays of objects without flattening them into a single array or overindexing the parent index.

$posts = BlogPost::whereNestedObject('comments', function (Builder $query) {
    $query->where('comments.country', 'Peru')->where('comments.likes', 5);
})->get();

You are free to exclude the parent nested field in the closure, for example:

$posts = BlogPost::whereNestedObject('comments', function (Builder $query) {
        $query->where('country', 'Peru')->where('likes', 5);
        // 'country' points to 'comments.country'
        // 'likes' points to 'comments.likes'
    })->get();

WhereNotNestedObject

Similar to whereNestedObject, this method allows you to query nested objects within an Elasticsearch document. However, it excludes documents that match the specified nested object query.

$posts = BlogPost::whereNotNestedObject('comments', function (Builder $query) {
        $query->where('comments.country', 'Peru');
    })->get();

Order By Nested Field

This method allows you to order the results of a query by a nested field. This is useful when you need to sort the results of a query based on a nested field.

Parameters scope: orderByNested($field, $direction = 'asc', $mode = 'min')

$posts = BlogPost::where('status', 5)->orderByNested('comments.likes', 'desc', 'sum')->limit(5)->get();

Filtering Nested Values

Format: queryNested($field, Closure $closure)

This method allows you to filter the values of a nested field by passing in a query closure that will be applied to the nested values.

Internally, the package will set an inner_hits query to get the nested values that match the closure query, and map them to the parent document.

Example:

1. No Filtering:

 $posts = BlogPost::where('status', 5)->orderBy('created_at')->first();

return example:

{
    "_id": "1IiLKG38BCOXW3U9a4zcn",
    "title": "My first post",
    "status": 5,
    "comments": [
        {
            "name": "Damaris Ondricka",
            "comment": "Quia quis facere cupiditate unde natus dolorem. Quia voluptatem in nam occaecati. Veritatis libero neque vitae.",
            "country": "Peru",
            "likes": 5
        },
        {
            "name": "Cole Beahan",
            "comment": "Officia ut dolorem itaque sapiente repellendus consequatur. Voluptas veniam quis eligendi. Aliquid voluptatem reiciendis ut.",
            "country": "Sweden",
            "likes": 0
        },
        {
            "name": "April Von",
            "comment": "Repudiandae rem aspernatur neque molestiae voluptatibus ut aut. Animi dolor id voluptas. Blanditiis a est nobis voluptatem sed sed illum esse.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 10
        },
        {
            "name": "Ella Ruecker",
            "comment": "Et deleniti ab cumque nobis ut ullam. Exercitationem qui sequi voluptatem delectus sunt nobis. Vel libero nihil quas inventore omnis. Harum corrupti consequatur quibusdam ut.",
            "country": "UK",
            "likes": 5
        },
        {
            "name": "Mabelle Schinner",
            "comment": "Aliquid molestiae quas vitae ipsam neque nam sed. Facere blanditiis repellendus sequi autem. Explicabo cupiditate porro quia animi ut minus tempora ut.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 7
        }
    ]
}

2. Filter comments from Switzerland:

$posts = BlogPost::where('status', 5)->queryNested('comments', function ($query) {
        $query->where('country', 'Switzerland'); //or comments.country
    })->orderBy('created_at')->first();

returns:

{
    "_id": "1IiLKG38BCOXW3U9a4zcn",
    "title": "My first post",
    "status": 5,
    "comments": [
        {
            "name": "April Von",
            "comment": "Repudiandae rem aspernatur neque molestiae voluptatibus ut aut. Animi dolor id voluptas. Blanditiis a est nobis voluptatem sed sed illum esse.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 10
        },
        {
            "name": "Mabelle Schinner",
            "comment": "Aliquid molestiae quas vitae ipsam neque nam sed. Facere blanditiis repellendus sequi autem. Explicabo cupiditate porro quia animi ut minus tempora ut.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 7
        }
    ]
}

3. Filter comments from Switzerland ordered by likes:

$posts = BlogPost::where('status', 5)->queryNested('comments', function ($query) {
        $query->where('country', 'Switzerland')->orderBy('likes');
    })->orderBy('created_at')->first();

returns:

{
    "_id": "1IiLKG38BCOXW3U9a4zcn",
    "title": "My first post",
    "status": 5,
    "comments": [
        {
            "name": "Mabelle Schinner",
            "comment": "Aliquid molestiae quas vitae ipsam neque nam sed. Facere blanditiis repellendus sequi autem. Explicabo cupiditate porro quia animi ut minus tempora ut.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 7
        },
        {
            "name": "April Von",
            "comment": "Repudiandae rem aspernatur neque molestiae voluptatibus ut aut. Animi dolor id voluptas. Blanditiis a est nobis voluptatem sed sed illum esse.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 10
        }
    ]
}

4. Filter comments with likes greater than 5:

$posts = BlogPost::where('status', 5)->queryNested('comments', function ($query) {
        $query->where('likes', '>', 5);
    })->orderBy('created_at')->first();

returns:

{
    "_id": "1IiLKG38BCOXW3U9a4zcn",
    "title": "My first post",
    "status": 5,
    "comments": [
        {
            "name": "April Von",
            "comment": "Repudiandae rem aspernatur neque molestiae voluptatibus ut aut. Animi dolor id voluptas. Blanditiis a est nobis voluptatem sed sed illum esse.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 10
        },
        {
            "name": "Mabelle Schinner",
            "comment": "Aliquid molestiae quas vitae ipsam neque nam sed. Facere blanditiis repellendus sequi autem. Explicabo cupiditate porro quia animi ut minus tempora ut.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 7
        }
    ]
}

4. Filter comments with likes greater than or equal to 5, limit 2:

$posts = BlogPost::where('status', 5)->queryNested('comments', function ($query) {
        $query->where('likes', '>=', 5)->limit(2);
    })->orderBy('created_at')->first();

returns:

{
    "_id": "1IiLKG38BCOXW3U9a4zcn",
    "title": "My first post",
    "status": 5,
    "comments": [
        {
            "name": "Damaris Ondricka",
            "comment": "Quia quis facere cupiditate unde natus dolorem. Quia voluptatem in nam occaecati. Veritatis libero neque vitae.",
            "country": "Peru",
            "likes": 5
        },
        {
            "name": "April Von",
            "comment": "Repudiandae rem aspernatur neque molestiae voluptatibus ut aut. Animi dolor id voluptas. Blanditiis a est nobis voluptatem sed sed illum esse.",
            "country": "Switzerland",
            "likes": 10
        }
    ]
}

Note on Nested limits:

The default max limit for Elasticsearch on nested values when using inner_hits is 100. Trying to set a limit higher than that will result in an error.

You can change the limit by setting the max_inner_result_window value in your Elasticsearch configuration.

 Schema::create('blog_posts', function (IndexBlueprint $index) {
    $index->nested('comments');
    $index->settings('max_inner_result_window', 200);
});

Then you can:

$posts = BlogPost::where('status', 5)->queryNested('comments', function ($query) {
        $query->orderByDesc('likes')->limit(200)
    })->orderBy('created_at')->first();