What does a 406 (Not Acceptable) error code from elasticsearch mean?

Question

I am trying to use qwest to send some data to Elasticsearch:

qwest.post(
    'http://elk.example.com:9200/incidents',
    this.incident,
    {cache: true}
)
    .then(function (xhr, response) {
        console.log('incident posted')
    })
    .catch(function (e, xhr, response) {
        console.log('error posing incident: ' + e)
    })

where this.incident is an Object (from Vue.js).

The call fails with a 406 (Not Acceptable) error, which I understand being an information from the Elasticsearch server telling me that I wanted an answer in some format, which he cannot use.

The call fails (there is no document indexed) nevertheless, so I am not sure if my understanding is correct?

If so - what is a correct format to ask for?

Do you want to create a new document and also create the index at the same time? — Val, May 31 '17 at 11:51
@Val: yes, for the first call. But then also use the same call to index a new document (when the index has been created by the first call). I can create the index manually if this helps (I thought it did not matter) — WoJ, May 31 '17 at 11:53
@Val: I just tried to create the index first (`PUT /incidents`), the index was created and reissuing the call in my question leads to the same issue (so it does not matter whether the index is present or not) — WoJ, May 31 '17 at 11:55
note that you're using `post` and not `put`. Also the URL should have a document type, i.e. `http://elk.example.com:9200/incidents/incident`. It will probably work after that — Val, May 31 '17 at 12:04
@Val: you are right, I forgot to add the document type in my request. This did not solve the issue, though. — WoJ, May 31 '17 at 12:14
There are no errors in the log. I tried with a plain jQuery AJAX call, same thing (so this is not an issue with the library). I then tried to GET the status (call to a bare `http://example.com:9200`) and I get a result (via Javascript). So this is really the `POST` part which fails (you mentioned `PUT` but a `POST` of some data with `curl` was successful) — WoJ, May 31 '17 at 12:51
Are you sure that your `incident` object gets serialized as JSON ? — Val, May 31 '17 at 13:11
@Val: that was it, I was passing an Object (dictionary) which was then encoded and (I assume) sent with the default encode to ES. Would you mind just bootstrap an answer, I will then add code that works (serialized JSON and `application/json` type) - you had the right idea so the glory and delude of rep is yours :) — WoJ, May 31 '17 at 17:56

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 01 '17 at 06:51

10

The incident object is not a properly serialized JSON string. You need to call JSON.stringify(this.incident) in order to get the equivalent JSON string, and specify the application/json HTTP header.

$.ajax({
            url: 'http://example.com:9200/incidents/incidents',
            type: 'POST',
            data: JSON.stringify(this.incident),
            dataType: 'json'
        })

edited Jun 01 '17 at 06:51

WoJ

27,165
48
180
345

answered May 31 '17 at 21:23

Val

207,596
13
358
360

What does a 406 (Not Acceptable) error code from elasticsearch mean?

1 Answers1

Linked