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Atlas Search Database Commands

createSearchIndexes

On this page

  • Definition
  • Syntax
  • Command Fields
  • Search Index Definition Syntax
  • Behavior
  • Access Control
  • Output
  • Examples
  • Create a Search Index on All Fields
  • Create a Search Index with a Language Analyzer
  • Create Multiple Search Indexes

Definition

createSearchIndexes

New in version 7.0: (Also available starting in 6.0.7)

Creates one or more Atlas Search indexes on a specified collection.

The mongosh method db.collection.createSearchIndex() provides a wrapper around the createSearchIndexes database command.

Important

This command can only be run on a deployment hosted on MongoDB Atlas, and requires an Atlas cluster tier of at least M10.

Syntax

Command syntax:

db.runCommand(
   {
      createSearchIndexes: "<collection name>",
      indexes: [
         {
            name: "<index name>",
            definition: {
               /* search index definition fields */
            }
        },
        ...
      ]
   }
)

Command Fields

The createSearchIndexes command takes the following fields:

Field
Type
Necessity
Description
createSearchIndexes
string
Required
Name of the collection on which to create the search index.
indexes
array
Required
Array of documents describing the indexes to create.
indexes.name
string
Optional

Name of the search index to create.

You cannot create multiple indexes with the same name on a single collection.

If you do not specify a name, the index is named default.

indexes.definition
document
Required
Document describing the index to create. For details on definition syntax, see Search Index Definition Syntax.

Search Index Definition Syntax

The search index definition takes the following fields:

{
   analyzer: "<analyzer-for-index>",
   searchAnalyzer: "<analyzer-for-query>",
   mappings: {
      dynamic: <boolean>,
      fields: { <field-definition> }
   },
   analyzers: [ <custom-analyzer> ],
   storedSource: <boolean> | {
      <stored-source-definition>
   },
   synonyms: [ {
      name: "<synonym-mapping-name>",
      source: {
         collection: "<source-collection-name>"
      },
      analyzer: "<synonym-mapping-analyzer>"
   } ]
}
Field
Type
Necessity
Description
analyzer
string
Optional

Specifies the analyzer to apply to string fields when indexing.

If you omit this field, the index uses the standard analyzer.

searchAnalyzer
string
Optional

Specifies the analyzer to apply to query text before the text is searched.

If you omit this field, the index uses the same analyzer specified in the analyzer field.

If you omit both the searchAnalyzer and the analyzer fields, the index uses the standard analyzer.

mappings
object
Optional
Specifies how to index fields on different paths for this index.
mappings.dynamic
boolean
Optional

Enables or disables dynamic field mapping for this index.

If set to true, the index contains all fields containing supported data types.

If set to false, you must specify individual fields to index using mappings.fields.

If omitted, defaults to false.

mappings.fields
document
Conditional

Required only if dynamic mapping is disabled.

Specifies the fields to index. To learn more, see Define Field Mappings.

analyzers
array
Optional
Specifies the Custom Analyzers to use in this index.
storedSource
Optional

Specifies document fields to store for queries performed using the returnedStoredSource option.

You can store fields of all Data Types on Atlas Search. The storedSource value can be one of these:

  • true, to store all fields

  • false, to not store any fields

  • An object that specifies the fields to include or exclude from storage

If omitted, defaults to false.

To learn more, see Define Stored Source Fields in Your Atlas Search Index.

synonyms
Optional

Specifies synonym mappings to use in your index. Configuring synonyms allows you to you index and search for words that have the same or a similar meaning.

To learn more, see Define Synonym Mappings in Your Atlas Search Index.

Behavior

The createSearchIndexes command triggers an index build. There may be a delay between when you receive a response from the command and when the index is ready.

To see the status of your search indexes, use the $listSearchIndexes aggregation stage.

Access Control

If your deployment enforces access control, the user running the createSearchIndexes command must have the createSearchIndexes privilege action on the database or collection:

{
   resource: {
      db : <database>,
      collection: <collection>
   },
   actions: [ "createSearchIndexes" ]
}

The built-in readWrite role provides the createSearchIndexes privilege. The following example grants accountUser01 the readWrite role on the products database:

db.grantRolesToUser(
   "accountUser01",
   [ { role: "readWrite", db: "products" } ]
)

Output

The createSearchIndexes command output resembles the following:

{
   ok: 1,
   indexesCreated: [
      {
         id: "<index Id>",
         name: "<index name>"
      }
   ]
}

Important

The response field ok: 1 indicates that the command was successful. However, there may be a delay between when you receive the response and when the created indexes are ready for use.

To see the status of your search indexes, use the $listSearchIndexes aggregation stage.

Examples

Create a Search Index on All Fields

The following example creates a search index named searchIndex01 on the contacts collection:

db.runCommand( {
   createSearchIndexes: "contacts",
   indexes: [
      {
         name: "searchIndex01",
         definition: { mappings: { dynamic: true } }
      }
   ]
} )

The index definition specifies mappings: { dynamic: true }, which means that the index contains all fields in the collection that have supported data types.

Create a Search Index with a Language Analyzer

A language analyzer introduces stop-words, which are words that are not significant enough to be indexed.

The following example creates a search index named frenchIndex01 on the cars collection, and specifies the lucene.french analyzer on the fr field:

db.runCommand( {
   createSearchIndexes: "cars",
   indexes: [
      {
         name: "frenchIndex01",
         definition: {
            mappings: {
              fields: {
                subject: {
                  fields: {
                    fr: {
                      analyzer: "lucene.french",
                      type: "string"
                    }
                  },
                  type: "document"
                }
              }
            }
          }
      }
   ]
} )

To learn more about language analyzers, see Language Analyzers.

Create Multiple Search Indexes

The following command creates two search indexes on the products collection, searchIndex02 and searchIndex03:

db.runCommand( {
   createSearchIndexes: "products",
   indexes: [
      {
         name: "searchIndex02",
         definition: {
            mappings: {
               fields: {
                  title: {
                     type: "string",
                     analyzer: "lucene.simple"
                  }
               }
            }
         }
      },
      {
         name: "searchIndex03",
         definition:
            {
               mappings: { dynamic: true }
            }
      }
   ]
} )

searchIndex02 uses a simple analyzer on the title field. The simple analyzer divides text into searchable terms based on non-letter characters, such as whitespace, punctuation, or digits.

searchIndex03 uses a dynamic field mapping, meaning the index contains all fields in the collection that have supported data types.

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Atlas Search Database Commands