Dynamic Indexes

Rather than define indexes up front, RavenDB can analyze a query and create an auto index on the fly. Further uses of similar queries (using the same parameters) will result in the auto index being re-used.

Automatic indexes have their age, and that is tracked internally by RavenDB. If an automatic index isn't being used, it will become idle and eventually abandoned (see index priorities). If it is a very young index, we will decide it was a temporary index after all, and remove it from the system completely.

The following examples assume the following document structure is in place:

{
    Id: "blogs/1"
    Title: "one",
    Content: "I like ravens",
    Category: "Ravens",
    Tags:
    {
        Name: "birds"
    }
}
 
{
    Id: "blogs/2"
    Title: "two",
    Content: "",
    Category: "Ravens",
    Tags:
    {
        Name: "birds"
    }
}
 
{
    Id: "blogs/2"
    Title: "two",
    Content: "I like rhinos",
    Category: "Rhinos",
    Tags:
    {
        Name: "mammals"
    }
}

Querying simple properties

We can perform a query for all the documents with a category of “Ravens” by making a call to the ordinary indexes endpoint like so:

curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/indexes/dynamic?query=Category:Ravens

This call returns the same structure as ordinary indexes, and accepts all of the usual arguments.

Multiple properties can be queried like so:

curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/indexes/dynamic?query=Category:Ravens AND Title:one

Querying simple properties

Unlike when querying an index which is flattened, dynamic indexes take in the full path to the properties being compared

curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/indexes/dynamic?query=Content.Length:[00000000 TO NULL]

Querying collection properties

Special syntax is used to query collections, instead of a period to denote property access, a comma is used to indicate an array is being accessed.

curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/indexes/dynamic?query=Tags,Name:mammals

This is equivalent to "find all the blogs with the tag of mammals".

More querying syntax

Let's assume the following document is stored in RavenDB:

{
    "Title": "RavenDB Indexing",
    "Author": { "Id": "users/ayende", "Name": "Ayende" },
    "Tags": ["Indexing", "AdHoc"],
    "Images": [
        { "Url": "/static/ayende-on-beach.jpg", "Title": "Ayende's on the Beach" },
        { "Url": "/static/arava.jpg", "Title": "Arava with a bone" },
    ]
}

We will show the appropriate Linq query and the actual Lucene query generated for each example:

// Simple property - linq
from doc in docs
where doc.Title == "RavenDB Indexing"
select doc;

// Simple property - Lucene
Title:"RavenDB Indexing"

// Nested property - linq
from doc in docs
where doc.Author.Name == "Ayende"
select doc;

// Nested property - lucene
Author.Name:Ayende

// Primitive list - linq
from doc in docs
where doc.Tags.Any( tag => tag == "Indexing")
select doc;

// Primitive list - lucene

Tags,:Indexing

// List of objects - linq
from doc in docs
where doc.Images.Any( img => img.Url == "/static/arava.jpg")
select doc;

// List of objects - lucene

Images,Url:"/static/arava.jpg"

For querying into nested objects, we use the dot operator, just like in C#. For querying into collections, we use the comma operator.