elasticsearch/docs/reference/mapping/params/enabled.asciidoc

[[enabled]]
=== `enabled`

Elasticsearch tries to index all of the fields you give it, but sometimes you
want to just store the field without indexing it.  For instance, imagine that
you are using Elasticsearch as a web session store.  You may want to index the
session ID and last update time, but you don't need to query or run
aggregations on the session data itself.

The `enabled` setting, which can be applied only to the mapping type and to
<<object,`object`>> fields, causes Elasticsearch to skip parsing of the
contents of the field entirely.  The JSON can still be retrieved from the
<<mapping-source-field,`_source`>> field, but it is not searchable or stored
in any other way:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT my_index
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "user_id": {
        "type":  "keyword"
      },
      "last_updated": {
        "type": "date"
      },
      "session_data": { <1>
        "enabled": false
      }
    }
  }
}

PUT my_index/_doc/session_1
{
  "user_id": "kimchy",
  "session_data": { <2>
    "arbitrary_object": {
      "some_array": [ "foo", "bar", { "baz": 2 } ]
    }
  },
  "last_updated": "2015-12-06T18:20:22"
}

PUT my_index/_doc/session_2
{
  "user_id": "jpountz",
  "session_data": "none", <3>
  "last_updated": "2015-12-06T18:22:13"
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
<1> The `session_data` field is disabled.
<2> Any arbitrary data can be passed to the `session_data` field as it will be entirely ignored.
<3> The `session_data` will also ignore values that are not JSON objects.

The entire mapping type may be disabled as well, in which case the document is
stored in the <<mapping-source-field,`_source`>> field, which means it can be
retrieved, but none of its contents are indexed in any way:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT my_index
{
  "mappings": {
    "enabled": false <1>
  }
}

PUT my_index/_doc/session_1
{
  "user_id": "kimchy",
  "session_data": {
    "arbitrary_object": {
      "some_array": [ "foo", "bar", { "baz": 2 } ]
    }
  },
  "last_updated": "2015-12-06T18:20:22"
}

GET my_index/_doc/session_1 <2>

GET my_index/_mapping <3>
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
<1> The entire mapping type is disabled.
<2> The document can be retrieved.
<3> Checking the mapping reveals that no fields have been added.

TIP: The `enabled` setting can be updated on existing fields
using the <<indices-put-mapping,PUT mapping API>>.