how do i set similarity in nest for elasticsearch on a per field basis - elasticsearch

Question

i have not been able to 'programmatically' set the similarity on a field in elasticsearch using Nest.
here's an example of how i set up my index. it's within the multifield mapping where i'd like to set the similarity so i can experiment with things like BM25 similarity...
(see the props > multifield section below)...
var createInd = client.CreateIndex("myindex", i =>
{
i
.Analysis(a => a.Analyzers(an => an
.Add("nameAnalyzer", nameAnalyzer)
)
.AddMapping<SearchData>(m => m
.MapFromAttributes()
.Properties(props =>
{
props
.MultiField(mf => mf
//title
.Name(s => s.Title)
.Fields(f => f
.String(s => s.Name(o => o.Title).Analyzer("nameAnalyzer"))
.String(s => s.Name(o => o.Title.Suffix("raw")).Index(FieldIndexOption.not_analyzed))
)
);
...

Answer 1

It was just recently made possible with this commit to set the similarity on a string field. You can now do this:
.String(s => s.Name(o => o.Title).Similarity("my_similarity")
This is assumming you already have the similarity added to your index. NEST is lacking a bit of flexibility at the moment for actually configuring similarities. Right now you have to use the CustomSimilaritySettings class. For example:
var bm25 = new CustomSimilaritySettings("my_similarity", "BM25");
bm25.SimilarityParameters.Add("k1", "2.0");
bm25.SimilarityParameters.Add("b", "0.75");
var settings = new IndexSettings();
settings.Similarity = new SimilaritySettings();
settings.Similarity.CustomSimilarities.Add(bm25);
client.CreateIndex("myindex", c => c.InitializeUsing(settings));
It would be nice to be able to do this via the fluent API when creating an index. I am considering sending a PR for this before the 1.0RC release.