There are three ways to utilize Elasticsearch via Clowder:

1. Using the /api/search endpoint
2. Using Search box in the upper right of Clowder
3. Going to Explore > Advanced Search

We want to make sure there is consistency in behavior across these methods as much as possible.

/api/search

• documented in Swagger
• automatically handles spaces in phrases via parsing request string
• ?query=
  • supports some regular expressions e.g. .*
• ?resource_type=file|dataset|collection
• ?field=
  • metadata field name, "metadata." prefix not required
• ?datasetid= ?collectionid= ?tag=
• example parsing:
  • http://localhost:9000/clowder/api/search?field=Alternative Title&query=foo bar

  • Searching Elasticsearch: {"bool":{"must":[{"regexp":{"metadata.Alternative Title":"foo bar"}}]}}

/search (via Search box)

• poorly documented
• by default, searches _all indexed fields
  • id, name, creator, parent_of, child_of, description, tags, comments, metadata
  • _all will not delve into nested objects by default, so useless for metadata unless user specifies a field as shown below
• general idea was to support basic : notation for being more specific
  • for nested objects like metadata, metadata.fieldname notation is required
• example queries:
  • banana
  • "baby carrots"
  • metadata.Favorite Fruit:banana
  • metadata.Favorite Snack:"baby carrots"
  • metadata.Favorite Fruit:banana metadata.Favorite Snack:"baby carrots"
• should we support this kind of notation? to what extent?
  • would be nice if the same features were available to both API and search box

/metadata/search (a.k.a. Advanced Search)

• easier to use visually
• limited to metadata fields
• supports space filtering