Note

You are viewing the documentation for an older version of boto (boto2).

Boto3, the next version of Boto, is now stable and recommended for general use. It can be used side-by-side with Boto in the same project, so it is easy to start using Boto3 in your existing projects as well as new projects. Going forward, API updates and all new feature work will be focused on Boto3.

For more information, see the documentation for boto3.

An Introduction to boto’s Cloudsearch interface

This tutorial focuses on the boto interface to AWS’ Cloudsearch. This tutorial assumes that you have boto already downloaded and installed.

Creating a Connection

The first step in accessing CloudSearch is to create a connection to the service.

The recommended method of doing this is as follows:

>>> import boto.cloudsearch
>>> conn = boto.cloudsearch.connect_to_region("us-west-2",
...             aws_access_key_id='<aws access key>',
...             aws_secret_access_key='<aws secret key>')

At this point, the variable conn will point to a CloudSearch connection object in the us-west-2 region. Available regions for cloudsearch can be found here. In this example, the AWS access key and AWS secret key are passed in to the method explicitly. Alternatively, you can set the environment variables:

  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID - Your AWS Access Key ID
  • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - Your AWS Secret Access Key

and then simply call:

>>> import boto.cloudsearch
>>> conn = boto.cloudsearch.connect_to_region("us-west-2")

In either case, conn will point to the Connection object which we will use throughout the remainder of this tutorial.

Creating a Domain

Once you have a connection established with the CloudSearch service, you will want to create a domain. A domain encapsulates the data that you wish to index, as well as indexes and metadata relating to it:

>>> from boto.cloudsearch.domain import Domain
>>> domain = Domain(conn, conn.create_domain('demo'))

This domain can be used to control access policies, indexes, and the actual document service, which you will use to index and search.

Setting access policies

Before you can connect to a document service, you need to set the correct access properties. For example, if you were connecting from 192.168.1.0, you could give yourself access as follows:

>>> our_ip = '192.168.1.0'

>>> # Allow our IP address to access the document and search services
>>> policy = domain.get_access_policies()
>>> policy.allow_search_ip(our_ip)
>>> policy.allow_doc_ip(our_ip)

You can use the allow_search_ip and allow_doc_ip methods to give different CIDR blocks access to searching and the document service respectively.

Creating index fields

Each domain can have up to twenty index fields which are indexed by the CloudSearch service. For each index field, you will need to specify whether it’s a text or integer field, as well as optionally a default value:

>>> # Create an 'text' index field called 'username'
>>> uname_field = domain.create_index_field('username', 'text')

>>> # Epoch time of when the user last did something
>>> time_field = domain.create_index_field('last_activity',
...                                        'uint',
...                                        default=0)

It is also possible to mark an index field as a facet. Doing so allows a search query to return categories into which results can be grouped, or to create drill-down categories:

>>> # But it would be neat to drill down into different countries
>>> loc_field = domain.create_index_field('location', 'text', facet=True)

Finally, you can also mark a snippet of text as being able to be returned directly in your search query by using the results option:

>>> # Directly insert user snippets in our results
>>> snippet_field = domain.create_index_field('snippet', 'text', result=True)

You can add up to 20 index fields in this manner:

>>> follower_field = domain.create_index_field('follower_count',
...                                            'uint',
...                                            default=0)

Adding Documents to the Index

Now, we can add some documents to our new search domain. First, you will need a document service object through which queries are sent:

>>> doc_service = domain.get_document_service()

For this example, we will use a pre-populated list of sample content for our import. You would normally pull such data from your database or another document store:

>>> users = [
    {
        'id': 1,
        'username': 'dan',
        'last_activity': 1334252740,
        'follower_count': 20,
        'location': 'USA',
        'snippet': 'Dan likes watching sunsets and rock climbing',
    },
    {
        'id': 2,
        'username': 'dankosaur',
        'last_activity': 1334252904,
        'follower_count': 1,
        'location': 'UK',
        'snippet': 'Likes to dress up as a dinosaur.',
    },
    {
        'id': 3,
        'username': 'danielle',
        'last_activity': 1334252969,
        'follower_count': 100,
        'location': 'DE',
        'snippet': 'Just moved to Germany!'
    },
    {
        'id': 4,
        'username': 'daniella',
        'last_activity': 1334253279,
        'follower_count': 7,
        'location': 'USA',
        'snippet': 'Just like Dan, I like to watch a good sunset, but heights scare me.',
    }
]

When adding documents to our document service, we will batch them together. You can schedule a document to be added by using the add method. Whenever you are adding a document, you must provide a unique ID, a version ID, and the actual document to be indexed. In this case, we are using the user ID as our unique ID. The version ID is used to determine which is the latest version of an object to be indexed. If you wish to update a document, you must use a higher version ID. In this case, we are using the time of the user’s last activity as a version number:

>>> for user in users:
>>>     doc_service.add(user['id'], user['last_activity'], user)

When you are ready to send the batched request to the document service, you can do with the commit method. Note that cloudsearch will charge per 1000 batch uploads. Each batch upload must be under 5MB:

>>> result = doc_service.commit()

The result is an instance of CommitResponse which will make the plain dictionary response a nice object (ie result.adds, result.deletes) and raise an exception for us if all of our documents weren’t actually committed.

If you wish to use the same document service connection after a commit, you must use clear_sdf to clear its internal cache.

Searching Documents

Now, let’s try performing a search. First, we will need a SearchServiceConnection:

>>> search_service = domain.get_search_service()

A standard search will return documents which contain the exact words being searched for:

>>> results = search_service.search(q="dan")
>>> results.hits
2
>>> map(lambda x: x['id'], results)
[u'1', u'4']

The standard search does not look at word order:

>>> results = search_service.search(q="dinosaur dress")
>>> results.hits
1
>>> map(lambda x: x['id'], results)
[u'2']

It’s also possible to do more complex queries using the bq argument (Boolean Query). When you are using bq, your search terms must be enclosed in single quotes:

>>> results = search_service.search(bq="'dan'")
>>> results.hits
2
>>> map(lambda x: x['id'], results)
[u'1', u'4']

When you are using boolean queries, it’s also possible to use wildcards to extend your search to all words which start with your search terms:

>>> results = search_service.search(bq="'dan*'")
>>> results.hits
4
>>> map(lambda x: x['id'], results)
[u'1', u'2', u'3', u'4']

The boolean query also allows you to create more complex queries. You can OR term together using “|”, AND terms together using “+” or a space, and you can remove words from the query using the “-” operator:

>>> results = search_service.search(bq="'watched|moved'")
>>> results.hits
2
>>> map(lambda x: x['id'], results)
[u'3', u'4']

By default, the search will return 10 terms but it is possible to adjust this by using the size argument as follows:

>>> results = search_service.search(bq="'dan*'", size=2)
>>> results.hits
4
>>> map(lambda x: x['id'], results)
[u'1', u'2']

It is also possible to offset the start of the search by using the start argument as follows:

>>> results = search_service.search(bq="'dan*'", start=2)
>>> results.hits
4
>>> map(lambda x: x['id'], results)
[u'3', u'4']

Ordering search results and rank expressions

If your search query is going to return many results, it is good to be able to sort them. You can order your search results by using the rank argument. You are able to sort on any fields which have the results option turned on:

>>> results = search_service.search(bq=query, rank=['-follower_count'])

You can also create your own rank expressions to sort your results according to other criteria, such as showing most recently active user, or combining the recency score with the text_relevance:

>>> domain.create_rank_expression('recently_active', 'last_activity')

>>> domain.create_rank_expression('activish',
...   'text_relevance + ((follower_count/(time() - last_activity))*1000)')

>>> results = search_service.search(bq=query, rank=['-recently_active'])

Viewing and Adjusting Stemming for a Domain

A stemming dictionary maps related words to a common stem. A stem is typically the root or base word from which variants are derived. For example, run is the stem of running and ran. During indexing, Amazon CloudSearch uses the stemming dictionary when it performs text-processing on text fields. At search time, the stemming dictionary is used to perform text-processing on the search request. This enables matching on variants of a word. For example, if you map the term running to the stem run and then search for running, the request matches documents that contain run as well as running.

To get the current stemming dictionary defined for a domain, use the get_stemming method:

>>> stems = domain.get_stemming()
>>> stems
{u'stems': {}}
>>>

This returns a dictionary object that can be manipulated directly to add additional stems for your search domain by adding pairs of term:stem to the stems dictionary:

>>> stems['stems']['running'] = 'run'
>>> stems['stems']['ran'] = 'run'
>>> stems
{u'stems': {u'ran': u'run', u'running': u'run'}}
>>>

This has changed the value locally. To update the information in Amazon CloudSearch, you need to save the data:

>>> stems.save()

You can also access certain CloudSearch-specific attributes related to the stemming dictionary defined for your domain:

>>> stems.status
u'RequiresIndexDocuments'
>>> stems.creation_date
u'2012-05-01T12:12:32Z'
>>> stems.update_date
u'2012-05-01T12:12:32Z'
>>> stems.update_version
19
>>>

The status indicates that, because you have changed the stems associated with the domain, you will need to re-index the documents in the domain before the new stems are used.

Viewing and Adjusting Stopwords for a Domain

Stopwords are words that should typically be ignored both during indexing and at search time because they are either insignificant or so common that including them would result in a massive number of matches.

To view the stopwords currently defined for your domain, use the get_stopwords method:

>>> stopwords = domain.get_stopwords()
>>> stopwords
{u'stopwords': [u'a',
 u'an',
 u'and',
 u'are',
 u'as',
 u'at',
 u'be',
 u'but',
 u'by',
 u'for',
 u'in',
 u'is',
 u'it',
 u'of',
 u'on',
 u'or',
 u'the',
 u'to',
 u'was']}
>>>

You can add additional stopwords by simply appending the values to the list:

>>> stopwords['stopwords'].append('foo')
>>> stopwords['stopwords'].append('bar')
>>> stopwords

Similarly, you could remove currently defined stopwords from the list. To save the changes, use the save method:

>>> stopwords.save()

The stopwords object has similar attributes defined above for stemming that provide additional information about the stopwords in your domain.

Viewing and Adjusting Synonyms for a Domain

You can configure synonyms for terms that appear in the data you are searching. That way, if a user searches for the synonym rather than the indexed term, the results will include documents that contain the indexed term.

If you want two terms to match the same documents, you must define them as synonyms of each other. For example:

cat, feline
feline, cat

To view the synonyms currently defined for your domain, use the get_synonyms method:

>>> synonyms = domain.get_synonyms()
>>> synonyms
{u'synonyms': {}}
>>>

You can define new synonyms by adding new term:synonyms entries to the synonyms dictionary object:

>>> synonyms['synonyms']['cat'] = ['feline', 'kitten']
>>> synonyms['synonyms']['dog'] = ['canine', 'puppy']

To save the changes, use the save method:

>>> synonyms.save()

The synonyms object has similar attributes defined above for stemming that provide additional information about the stopwords in your domain.

Deleting Documents

It is also possible to delete documents:

>>> import time
>>> from datetime import datetime

>>> doc_service = domain.get_document_service()

>>> # Again we'll cheat and use the current epoch time as our version number

>>> doc_service.delete(4, int(time.mktime(datetime.utcnow().timetuple())))
>>> doc_service.commit()