elasticsearch retrieving nested objects - not individual fields - elasticsearch

Question

When I use the "fields" option of a query I get a separate array for each field. Is it possible to get back the "complete" nested objects rather than just the field?
In the following example if I try to do "fields": ["cast"] it tells me that cast is not a leaf node. And if I do "fields": ["cast.firstName", "cast.middleName", "cast.lastName"] it returns 3 arrays.
Is there another way of retrieving just a partial amount of the document? Or is there a way to "reassemble" the separate fields into a complete "cast" object?
Example Index and Data:
POST /movies
{
"mappings": {
"movie": {
"properties": {
"cast": {
"type": "nested"
}
}
}
}
}
POST /movies/movie
{
"title": "The Matrix",
"cast": [
{
"firstName": "Keanu",
"lastName": "Reeves",
"address": {
"street": "somewhere",
"city": "LA"
}
},
{
"firstName": "Laurence",
"middleName": "John",
"lastName": "Fishburne",
"address": {
"street": "somewhere else",
"city": "NYC"
}
}
]
}
Example Query:
GET /movies/_search
{
"query": {
"filtered": {
"query": {
"match_all": {}
},
"filter": {
"nested": {
"path": "cast",
"filter": {
"bool": {
"must": [
{ "term": { "firstName": "laurence"} },
{ "term": { "lastName": "fishburne"} }
]
}
}
}
}
}
},
"fields": [
"cast.address.city",
"cast.firstName",
"cast.middleName",
"cast.lastName"
]
}
Result of example query:
{
"took": 1,
"timed_out": false,
"_shards": {
"total": 5,
"successful": 5,
"failed": 0
},
"hits": {
"total": 1,
"max_score": 1,
"hits": [
{
"_index": "movies",
"_type": "movie",
"_id": "AU1JeyBseLgwMCOuOLsZ",
"_score": 1,
"fields": {
"cast.firstName": [
"Keanu",
"Laurence"
],
"cast.lastName": [
"Reeves",
"Fishburne"
],
"cast.address.city": [
"LA",
"NYC"
],
"cast.middleName": [
"John"
]
}
}
]
}
}

Answer 1

I think this is what you're looking for:
POST /movies/_search
{
"_source": {
"include": [
"cast.address.city",
"cast.firstName",
"cast.middleName",
"cast.lastName"
]
},
"query": {
"filtered": {
"query": {
"match_all": {}
},
"filter": {
"nested": {
"path": "cast",
"filter": {
"bool": {
"must": [
{
"term": {
"firstName": "laurence"
}
},
{
"term": {
"lastName": "fishburne"
}
}
]
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
Result:
{
"took": 2,
"timed_out": false,
"_shards": {
"total": 5,
"successful": 5,
"failed": 0
},
"hits": {
"total": 1,
"max_score": 1,
"hits": [
{
"_index": "movies",
"_type": "movie",
"_id": "AU1PIJgBA_0Cyshym7-m",
"_score": 1,
"_source": {
"cast": [
{
"lastName": "Reeves",
"address": {
"city": "LA"
},
"firstName": "Keanu"
},
{
"middleName": "John",
"lastName": "Fishburne",
"address": {
"city": "NYC"
},
"firstName": "Laurence"
}
]
}
}
]
}
}
You can also choose to exclude fields instead of including or both, see documentation here: http://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-request-source-filtering.html