neo4j spatial cypher withinDistance issue

Question

I am having trouble getting withinDistance to work correctly in Cypher.

I am able to create a layer, add geometries, invoke the index and query using the spatial REST findGeometriesWithinDistance with no problems.

1. POST /db/data/ext/SpatialPlugin/graphdb/addEditableLayer {"layer":"yada"}
2. POST /db/data/ext/SpatialPlugin/graphdb/addGeometryWKTToLayer { "layer":"yada","geometry":"LINESTRING (-87.8269667076541 42.5931258671059,-87.8280193743192 42.5930348004394,-87.8284217076519 42.5931722004391)"}
3. POST /db/data/ext/SpatialPlugin/graphdb/addGeometryWKTToLayer {"layer":"yada","geometry":"LINESTRING (-87.8118643076776 42.588086600447,-87.8183341743342 42.5876782004477,-87.818426974334 42.5877468671142)"}
4. POST /db/data/index/node/ {"name":"yada", "config":{"provider":"spatial","wkb":"wkb"}}
5. POST /db/data/ext/SpatialPlugin/graphdb/findGeometriesWithinDistance {"layer":"yada","distanceInKm":2,"pointX":-87.845556,"pointY":42.582222}

However when I call withinDistance using Cypher, e.g.

• POST /db/data/cypher {"query":"START n=node:yada('withinDistance:[-87.845556,42.582222,10.0]') RETURN n"}

I get back

400 Bad Request
{
  "message" : "only within, WITHINDISTANCE and bbox are implemented.",
  "exception" : "BadInputException",
  "stacktrace" : [ "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.RepresentationExceptionHandlingIterable.exceptionOnHasNext(RepresentationExceptionHandlingIterable.java:50)", "org.neo4j.helpers.collection.ExceptionHandlingIterable$1.hasNext(ExceptionHandlingIterable.java:60)", "org.neo4j.helpers.collection.IteratorWrapper.hasNext(IteratorWrapper.java:42)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.ListRepresentation.serialize(ListRepresentation.java:58)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.Serializer.serialize(Serializer.java:75)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.MappingSerializer.putList(MappingSerializer.java:61)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.CypherResultRepresentation.serialize(CypherResultRepresentation.java:57)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.MappingRepresentation.serialize(MappingRepresentation.java:42)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.OutputFormat.assemble(OutputFormat.java:179)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.OutputFormat.formatRepresentation(OutputFormat.java:131)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.OutputFormat.response(OutputFormat.java:117)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.OutputFormat.ok(OutputFormat.java:55)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.web.CypherService.cypher(CypherService.java:75)", "java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)" ],
  "cause" : {
    "message" : "only within, WITHINDISTANCE and bbox are implemented.",
    "exception" : "UnsupportedOperationException",
    "stacktrace" : [ "org.neo4j.gis.spatial.indexprovider.LayerNodeIndex.query(LayerNodeIndex.java:277)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.spi.gdsimpl.GDSBackedQueryContext$$anon$1.indexQuery(GDSBackedQueryContext.scala:83)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.executionplan.builders.IndexQueryBuilder$$anonfun$getNodeGetter$2.apply(IndexQueryBuilder.scala:83)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.executionplan.builders.IndexQueryBuilder$$anonfun$getNodeGetter$2.apply(IndexQueryBuilder.scala:81)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.pipes.StartPipe$$anonfun$internalCreateResults$1.apply(StartPipe.scala:36)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.pipes.StartPipe$$anonfun$internalCreateResults$1.apply(StartPipe.scala:35)", "scala.collection.Iterator$$anon$13.hasNext(Iterator.scala:371)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.ClosingIterator$$anonfun$hasNext$1.apply$mcZ$sp(ClosingIterator.scala:36)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.ClosingIterator$$anonfun$hasNext$1.apply(ClosingIterator.scala:35)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.ClosingIterator$$anonfun$hasNext$1.apply(ClosingIterator.scala:35)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.ClosingIterator.failIfThrows(ClosingIterator.scala:86)", "org.neo4j.cypher.internal.ClosingIterator.hasNext(ClosingIterator.scala:35)", "org.neo4j.cypher.PipeExecutionResult.hasNext(PipeExecutionResult.scala:142)", "scala.collection.Iterator$$anon$11.hasNext(Iterator.scala:327)", "scala.collection.convert.Wrappers$IteratorWrapper.hasNext(Wrappers.scala:29)", "org.neo4j.helpers.collection.ExceptionHandlingIterable$1.hasNext(ExceptionHandlingIterable.java:58)", "org.neo4j.helpers.collection.IteratorWrapper.hasNext(IteratorWrapper.java:42)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.ListRepresentation.serialize(ListRepresentation.java:58)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.Serializer.serialize(Serializer.java:75)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.MappingSerializer.putList(MappingSerializer.java:61)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.CypherResultRepresentation.serialize(CypherResultRepresentation.java:57)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.MappingRepresentation.serialize(MappingRepresentation.java:42)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.OutputFormat.assemble(OutputFormat.java:179)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.OutputFormat.formatRepresentation(OutputFormat.java:131)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.OutputFormat.response(OutputFormat.java:117)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.repr.OutputFormat.ok(OutputFormat.java:55)", "org.neo4j.server.rest.web.CypherService.cypher(CypherService.java:75)", "java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)" ]
  }

I am not sure when this behavior started but it seems to be something recent. Am I doing something wrong here?

Thanks, Paul

• neo4j 1.9.M05
• neo4j spatial 0.11
• jdk1.7.0_17

Answer 1

Had a similar problem where the REST request would work but the Cypher did not. The solution was to create another "normal" node index (i.e. lucene index, not a spatial one) in the standard way and name it the same as your spatial index.

In your example you create a spatial index called yada, to make the Cypher work you would then do what is described here and make a standard neo4j node index, then add your nodes to it.

Then you can do the withinDistance queries via Cypher. Point to not though, this won't let you do standard Cypher queries like START n=node:yada('*:*') RETURN n; it will only let you do the spatial queries.

This was with Neo4j 1.9 on Windows.