ElasticSearch Spring - disable date_detection only for a set of fields and not the entire index using @Mapping annotation

Question

I'm trying to disable date_detection on a set of fields in an index. Below is the mapping

{
  "my-index" : {
    "mappings" : {
      "properties" : {
        "_class" : {
          "type" : "text",
          "fields" : {
            "keyword" : {
              "type" : "keyword",
              "ignore_above" : 256
            }
          }
        },
        "customFields" : {
          "properties" : {
            "firstName" : {
              "type" : "text",
              "fields" : {
                "keyword" : {
                  "type" : "keyword",
                  "ignore_above" : 256
                }
              }
            },
            "lastName" : {
              "type" : "text",
              "fields" : {
                "keyword" : {
                  "type" : "keyword",
                  "ignore_above" : 256
                }
              }
            },
            "address" : {
              "type" : "text",
              "fields" : {
                "keyword" : {
                  "type" : "keyword",
                  "ignore_above" : 256
                }
              }
            },
            "dateOfBirth" : {
              "type" : "date"
            }
          }
        },
        "key" : {
          "type" : "long"
        },
        "updatedDate" : {
          "type" : "date",
          "format" : "basic_date_time"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

I want the dateOfBirth field to be of type text, not date.

So I did the following:

I created a mappings.json file (see below) and used the @Mapping(mappingPath = "mappings.json") annotation

{
  "date_detection": false
}

Now, this does disable date_detection but it also forces the updatedDate to be of type text and this is causing some errors.

These are the updatedDate and customFields variables in my index class:

@Field(type = FieldType.Date, format = DateFormat.basic_date_time)
Instant updatedDate;

Map<String, Object> customFields;

Is there a way to disable date_detection for the fields inside customFields so that only the dateOfBirth field's type is changed to text and not updatedDate?

Answer 1

Reading the documentation at https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.2/dynamic-field-mapping.html#_disabling_date_detection date_detection is per index and not configurable for individual fields.

If you use a mappings file, Spring Data Elasticsearch does not create a mapping from the entity but only uses the file, so your @Field annotation is ignored.

Keep the @Field annotation on the updatedDate and add

@Mapping(dateDetection = Mapping.Detection.FALSE)

to your entity class (the one annotated with @Document). Remove the reference to the mapping.json.