is there a way to deserialize Elasticsearch Nest search query?

Question

upon building my Elasticsearch query using Nest, i want to be able to see the JSON version of what's being sent to Elasticsearch. is this possible? some sort of deserializer i suppose.

here's the info for my follow up question:

{
  "_infer": {
    "defaultIndex": "myindex"
  },
  "acknowledged": false,
  "isValid": false,
  "connectionStatus": {
    "success": false,
    "requestMethod": "POST",
    "requestUrl": "http://localhost:9200/myindex",
    "settings": {},
    "request": "{
  "settings": {
    "index": {
      "analysis": {
        "analyzer": {
          "fullTermCaseInsensitive": {
            "tokenizer": "keyword",
            "filter": [
              "standard",
              "lowercase"
            ],
            "type": "custom"
          },
          "fullTerm": {
            "tokenizer": "keyword",
            "filter": [
              "standard"
            ],
            "type": "custom"
          },
          "caseInsensitive": {
            "tokenizer": "lowercase",
            "filter": [
              "standard"
            ],
            "type": "custom"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "mappings": {
    "searchdata": {
      "properties": {
        "upc": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "productid": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "title": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "store": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "mediaformat": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "mediaformat": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "label": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "vendor": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "availabledate": {
          "type": "date"
        },
        "releasedate": {
          "type": "date"
        },
        "lastreturndate": {
          "type": "date"
        },
        "nonreturnable": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "mpaa": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "esrb": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "esrb": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "csnrflag": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "cover": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "size": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "color": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "style": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "qoh": {
          "type": "integer"
        },
        "adult": {
          "type": "integer"
        },
        "salesrank": {
          "type": "integer"
        },
        "listprice": {
          "type": "double"
        },
        "sellingprice": {
          "type": "double"
        },
        "costprice": {
          "type": "double"
        },
        "specialorder": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "flags": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "salescategory": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "artists": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "name": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTerm",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            },
            "id": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTerm",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "directors": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "name": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTerm",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            },
            "id": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTerm",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "starring": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "name": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTerm",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            },
            "id": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTerm",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "credits": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "name": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTerm",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            },
            "id": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTerm",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "additionaltitles": {
          "type": "string",
          "analyzer": "caseInsensitive"
        },
        "attributes": {
          "type": "string",
          "analyzer": "caseInsensitive"
        },
        "specialty": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "specialty": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "genres": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "genres": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "theme": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "theme": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "price": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "price": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "tracks": {
          "type": "string",
          "analyzer": "caseInsensitive"
        },
        "deleted": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "updatedate": {
          "type": "date"
        },
        "processed": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "decades": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "decades": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "period": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "period": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        },
        "platform": {
          "type": "multi_field",
          "fields": {
            "platform": {
              "type": "string",
              "analyzer": "fullTermCaseInsensitive"
            },
            "raw": {
              "type": "string",
              "index": "not_analyzed"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}",
    "numberOfRetries": 0,
    "httpStatusCode": 400,
    "serializer": {},
    "successOrKnownError": true
  },
  "infer": {
    "defaultIndex": "myindex"
  }
}

Answer 1

Yup. You can use the serializer that is exposed by ElasticClient like this:

var query = Nest.Query<SomeObject>...
var json = Client.Serializer.SerializeToString(query);

You can also use Newtonsoft directly, or any JSON library for that matter to serialize your query object. Using the serializer in ElasticClient though (which essentially wraps Newtonsoft), will give you the exact JSON that NEST will generate.

Checkout how the unit tests are done in NEST for more details, specifically this.

Answer 2

I used SearchDescriptor like this for a complex query:

SearchDescriptor<T> sd = new SearchDescriptor<T>()
.From(0).Size(100)
    .Query(q => q
        .Bool(t => t
            .Must(u => u
                .Bool(v => v
                    .Should(
                        ...
                    )
                )
            )
        )
    );

And got the deserialized JSON like this:

{
  "from": 0,
  "size": 100,
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "must": [
        {
          "bool": {
            "should": [
              ...
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

It was annoying, NEST library should have something that spits out the JSON from request. However this worked for me:

using (MemoryStream mStream = new MemoryStream()) {
    client.Serializer.Serialize(sd, mStream);
    Console.WriteLine(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(mStream.ToArray()));
}

NEST library version: 2.0.0.0. Newer version may have an easier method to get this (Hopefully).

Answer 3

If the above answer doesn't work, or you want a simpler one, I posted another way here on what is probably a duplicate, (but differently worded) question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31247636/261405

Answer 4

Add this to your WebApiConfig.cs:

public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
{
    ...
    // ignore circular reference globally
    config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.ReferenceLoopHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
    ...
}

Then you should be able to do something like this:

// Return raw
var esObj = await _client.SearchAsync<object>(searchRequest);

// more specific deserialization using Newtonsoft.Json example
foreach (var hit in esObj.Hits) 
{
    var myObj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyObject>(hit.xxx);
    ...
}

Answer 5

For Nest 5.3.0 :

        var memoryStream = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
        client.Serializer.Serialize(query, memoryStream);
        var jsonQuery = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());