Synonym analyzer not working - elasticsearch

Question

Here are my settings:
{
"countries": {
"aliases": {},
"mappings": {
"country": {
"properties": {
"countryName": {
"type": "string"
}
}
}
},
"settings": {
"index": {
"creation_date": "1472140045116",
"analysis": {
"filter": {
"synonym": {
"ignore_case": "true",
"type": "synonym",
"synonyms_path": "synonym.txt"
}
},
"analyzer": {
"synonym": {
"filter": [
"synonym"
],
"tokenizer": "whitespace"
}
}
},
"number_of_shards": "5",
"number_of_replicas": "1",
"uuid": "7-fKyD9aR2eG3BwUNdadXA",
"version": {
"created": "2030599"
}
}
},
"warmers": {}
}
}
My synonym.txt file is in the config folder inside the main elasticsearch folder.
Here is my query:
query: {
query_string: {
fields: ["countryName"],
default_operator: "AND",
query: searchInput,
analyzer: "synonym"
}
}
The words in synonym.txt are: us, u.s., united states.
So this doesn't work. What's interesting is that search works as normal, except for when I enter any of the words in the synonym.txt file. So for example, when I usually type in us into the search, I would get results. With this analyzer, us doesn't give me anything.
I've done close and open to my ES server, and still it doesn't work.
EDIT
An example of a document:
{
"_index": "countries",
"_type": "country",
"_id": "57aabeb80057405968de152b",
"_score": 1,
"_source": {
"countryName": "United States"
}
Example of searchInput (this is coming from the front-end):
united states
EDIT #2:
Here is my updated index config file:
{
"countries": {
"aliases": {},
"mappings": {},
"settings": {
"index": {
"number_of_shards": "5",
"creation_date": "1472219634083",
"analysis": {
"filter": {
"synonym": {
"ignore_case": "true",
"type": "synonym",
"synonyms_path": "synonym.txt"
}
},
"analyzer": {
"synonym": {
"filter": [
"synonym"
],
"tokenizer": "whitespace"
}
}
},
"country": {
"properties": {
"countryName": {
"type": "string",
"analyzer": "synonym"
},
"number_of_replicas": "1",
"uuid": "50ZwpIVFTqeD_rJxlmd59Q",
"version": {
"created": "2030599"
}
}
},
"warmers": {}
}
}
}
}
When I try adding documents, and doing a search on said documents, the synonym analyzer does not work for me.
EDIT #3
Here are 2 documents in the index:
{
"took": 3,
"timed_out": false,
"_shards": {
"total": 5,
"successful": 5,
"failed": 0
},
"hits": {
"total": 2,
"max_score": 1,
"hits": [{
"_index": "stocks",
"_type": "stock",
"_id": "2",
"_score": 1,
"_source": {
"countryName": "United States"
}
}, {
"_index": "stocks",
"_type": "stock",
"_id": "1",
"_score": 1,
"_source": {
"countryName": "Canada"
}
}]
}
}

Answer 1

You are close, but I suggest reading thoroughly this section from the documentation to understand better this functionality.
As a solution:
PUT /countries
{
"mappings": {
"country": {
"properties": {
"countryName": {
"type": "string",
"analyzer": "synonym"
}
}
}
},
"settings": {
"analysis": {
"filter": {
"synonym": {
"ignore_case": "true",
"type": "synonym",
"synonyms_path": "synonym.txt"
}
},
"analyzer": {
"synonym": {
"filter": [
"lowercase",
"synonym"
],
"tokenizer": "whitespace"
}
}
}
}
}
You need to delete the index and create it again with the mapping above.
Then use this query:
"query": {
"query_string": {
"fields": [
"countryName"
],
"default_operator": "AND",
"query": "united states"
}
}

Answer 2

Have you deleted/created the index after pushing the txt ?
I think you should remove the "synonyms": "" if you are using "synonyms_path"