search_exists throws an exception

[ncrocfer]

Hello,

I'm using the search_exists API to determine if a document exists based on one field, but the client throws an exception when there is no matching.

For example, I know this document exists :

>>> es = Elasticsearch(...)
>>> es.search_exists('my_index', 'my_type', params={'q': 'my_field:foo'})
{u'exists': True}

But when a document doesn't exist :

>>> es.search_exists('my_index', 'my_type', params={'q': 'my_field:bar'})
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/elasticsearch/client/utils.py", line 68, in _wrapped
    return func(*args, params=params, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/elasticsearch/client/__init__.py", line 1238, in search_exists
    doc_type, '_search', 'exists'), params=params, body=body)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/elasticsearch/transport.py", line 307, in perform_request
    status, headers, data = connection.perform_request(method, url, params, body, ignore=ignore, timeout=timeout)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py", line 86, in perform_request
    self._raise_error(response.status, raw_data)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/elasticsearch/connection/base.py", line 102, in _raise_error
    raise HTTP_EXCEPTIONS.get(status_code, TransportError)(status_code, error_message, additional_info)
elasticsearch.exceptions.NotFoundError: TransportError(404, u'{"exists":false}')

Did I forget something? Thank you.

[honzakral]

You didn't forget anything. Currently we reply with True/False for all of the *_exists APIs so it is natural to expect it from this one too.

The reason (ehm, rationalization) why this API is different is that it uses a POST http method (bacause it needs body) and not HEAD like all the others. We will most likely change it to be consistent but we need to synchronize with the other language clients for ES.

Sorry for the delay and the confusion.

[ncrocfer]

Ok, no problem :) Thank you for your answer.

[honzakral]

Fixed in the python client, waiting for elasticsearch to catch up as well - elastic/elasticsearch#11204

[ncrocfer]

Great ! Thank you @honzakral 👍