[[api-conventions]] = API Conventions [partintro] -- The *elasticsearch* REST APIs are exposed using: * <>, * <>, * <>. The conventions listed in this chapter can be applied throughout the REST API, unless otherwise specified. * <> * <> -- [[multi-index]] == Multiple Indices Most APIs that refer to an `index` paramter support execution across multiple indices, using simple `test1,test2,test3` notation (or `_all` for all indices). It also support wildcards, for example: `test*`, and the ability to "add" (`+`) and "remove" (`-`), for example: `+test*,-test3`. All multi indices API support the `ignore_indices` option. Setting it to `missing` will cause indices that do not exists to be ignored from the execution. By default, when its not set, the request will fail. NOTE: Single index APIs such as the <> and the <> do not support multiple indices. [[common-options]] == Common options The following options can be applied to all of the REST APIs. [float] === Pretty Results When appending `?pretty=true` to any request made, the JSON returned will be pretty formatted (use it for debugging only!). Another option is to set `format=yaml` which will cause the result to be returned in the (sometimes) more readable yaml format. [float] === Human readable output Statistics are returned in a format suitable for humans (eg `"exists_time": "1h"` or `"size": "1kb"`) and for computers (eg `"exists_time_in_millis": 3600000`` or `"size_in_bytes": 1024`). The human readable values can be turned off by adding `?human=false` to the query string. This makes sense when the stats results are being consumed by a monitoring tool, rather than intended for human consumption. The default for the `human` flag is `false`. added[1.00.Beta,Previously defaulted to `true`] [float] === Parameters Rest parameters (when using HTTP, map to HTTP URL parameters) follow the convention of using underscore casing. [float] === Boolean Values All REST APIs parameters (both request parameters and JSON body) support providing boolean "false" as the values: `false`, `0`, `no` and `off`. All other values are considered "true". Note, this is not related to fields within a document indexed treated as boolean fields. [float] === Number Values All REST APIs support providing numbered parameters as `string` on top of supporting the native JSON number types. [float] === Result Casing All REST APIs accept the `case` parameter. When set to `camelCase`, all field names in the result will be returned in camel casing, otherwise, underscore casing will be used. Note, this does not apply to the source document indexed. [float] === JSONP All REST APIs accept a `callback` parameter resulting in a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSONP[JSONP] result. [float] === Request body in query string For libraries that don't accept a request body for non-POST requests, you can pass the request body as the `source` query string parameter instead.