How do I update an existing document inside ElasticSearch index using NEST?

Question

I am trying to update an existing indexed document. I have indexed tags, title and owners field. Now when the user changes the title, I need to find and update the document inside the index.

Should I update and replace the entire document or just the title field?

public void UpdateDoc(ElasticsearchDocument doc)
{
 Uri localhost = new Uri("http://localhost:9200");
 var setting = new ConnectionSettings(localhost);
 setting.SetDefaultIndex("movies");
 var client = new ElasticClient(setting);

 IUpdateResponse resp = client.Update<ElasticsearchDocument, IndexedDocument>(
                                  d => d.Index("movies")
                                        .Type(doc.Type)
                                        .Id(doc.Id), doc);
}

It just doesn't work. The code above generates a syntax error. Does anyone know the correct way to do this using the C# NEST client of ElasticSearch?

Answer 1

I have successfully updated existing items in my Elasticsearch index with NEST using a method like the following. Note in this example, you only need to send a partial document with the fields that you wish to be updated.

    // Create partial document with a dynamic
    dynamic updateDoc = new System.Dynamic.ExpandoObject();
    updateDoc.Title = "My new title";

    var response = client.Update<ElasticsearchDocument, object>(u => u
        .Index("movies")
        .Id(doc.Id)
        .Document(updateDoc)
     );

You can find more examples of ways to send updates in the NEST Update Unit Tests from the GitHub Source.