Briefly, this error occurs when Elasticsearch is unable to parse an HTTP request template due to an unexpected token. This usually happens when there’s a syntax error in the request body or the JSON payload. To resolve this issue, you can: 1) Check the syntax of your request body or JSON payload for any errors or unexpected tokens. 2) Validate your JSON payload using a JSON validator. 3) Ensure that the field in question is correctly defined in your Elasticsearch mapping. 4) If you’re using a script, ensure it’s correctly formatted and doesn’t contain any unexpected tokens.
This guide will help you check for common problems that cause the log ” could not parse http request template. unexpected token [{}] for field [{}] ” to appear. To understand the issues related to this log, read the explanation below about the following Elasticsearch concepts: plugin, request, template.
If you want to learn more about Elasticsearch templates, check out this guide.
Overview
A template in Elasticsearch falls into one of the two following categories and is indexed inside Elasticsearch using its dedicated endpoint:
- Index templates, which are a way to define a set of rules including index settings, mappings and an index pattern. The template is applied automatically whenever a new index is created with the matching pattern. Templates are also used to dynamically apply custom mapping for the fields which are not predefined inside existing mapping.
- Search templates, which help in defining templates for search queries using mustache scripting language. These templates act as a placeholder for variables defined inside the search queries.
Examples
Create a dynamic index template
PUT /_template/template_1?pretty
{
"index_patterns": [
"logs*",
"api*"
],
"settings": {
"number_of_shards": 2
},
"mappings": {
"dynamic_templates": [
{
"strings": {
"match_mapping_type": "string",
"mapping": {
"type": "keyword"
}
}
}
],
"properties": {
"host_name": {
"type": "keyword"
},
"created_at": {
"type": "date"
}
}
}
}Create a search template
POST /_scripts/search_template_1?pretty
{
"script": {
"lang": "mustache",
"source": {
"query": {
"match": {
"description": "{{query_string}}"
}
}
}
}
}Executing a search query using search template
GET /_search/template?pretty
{
"id": "search_template_1",
"params": {
"query_string": "hello world"
}
}The search request will be executed by default on all the indices available in the cluster and can be limited to particular indices using an index parameter.
Notes
- A dynamic index template is always useful when you do not know the field names in advance and want to control their mapping as per the business use case.
Log Context
Log “could not parse http request template. unexpected token [{}] for field [{}]” class name is HttpRequestTemplate.java. We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :
} else {
throw new ElasticsearchParseException("could not parse http request template. unexpected numeric field [{}]";
currentFieldName);
}
} else {
throw new ElasticsearchParseException("could not parse http request template. unexpected token [{}] for field [{}]";
token; currentFieldName);
}
} if (builder.host == null) {
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