Elasticsearch (ES) is a server-side search engine managed by the platform administrator. From a form designer's perspective, ES is just another data source — you access it using the same mechanisms as any other remote or local data.

Real-time search with search-api()

Point search-api() at the ES _search endpoint using POST method. In the appearance column:

search-api('POST',
  'https://es.example.com/my_index/_search',
  '{"query":{"match":{"name":"%__input__%"}},"size":20}',
  '_id',
  '##_source.name## — ##_source.district##',
  '$.hits.hits',
  'es_result')

Key points:

• data_path must be $.hits.hits — each hit in the array becomes one result item
• display_template uses ##_source.fieldname## to access nested source fields
• value_column is typically _id or a field inside _source
• After selection, read any field with pulldata('es_result', '_source.district'), pulldata('es_result', '_source.province'), etc.

See Dynamic Search for the full search-api() parameter reference.

When to use: Data changes frequently and the device has reliable connectivity.

Offline access with dataSetting.csv

Use dataSetting.csv to download an ES data export as a SQLite file at form open time. The server exports the ES index as a SQLite file with a single externalData table. Once on the device, query it with rawquery like any other local database.

dataSetting.csv entry for an ES export:

filepath,service_url,option,frequency,primary_key,where,dynamic_part
resources/familyMedia/FORM/staff.db,./api/es/export?index=hr_staff,overwrite,3600,,,

Then in the form's appearance column:

search-autocomplete-noedit-v2('rawquery',
  concat(${family_path}, '/staff.db::externalData'),
  '[name]', 'id',
  'SELECT name, id FROM externalData WHERE marked_as_deleted != 1')

See Data Settings and Local Database Search for full reference.

When to use: Data changes daily or weekly and offline access is required.

Choosing the right approach

Security note

The ES cluster uses HTTP Basic Auth managed server-side — credentials are never sent to devices. When search-api() queries ES directly from the device, the request is sent without authentication headers.