Elasticsearch 5 is configured, but search page does not load with "Fielddata is disabled..." error

This topic describes how to fix the issue with Elasticsearch 5, where the search page does not load, and the exception similar to the following is thrown:

{"0":"{\"error\":{\"root_cause\":[{\"type\":\"illegal_argument_exception\",\"reason\":\"Fielddata is disabled on text fields by default. Set fielddata=true on [%attribute_code%]] in order to load fielddata in memory by uninverting the inverted index. Note that this can however use significant memory.\"}].

Affected versions

• Adobe Commerce 2.2.x
• ElasticSearch v.5

Issue

Pre-conditions: Elasticsearch 5 is configured.

On search request the following exception is generated in logs:

{"0":"{\"error\":{\"root_cause\":[{\"type\":\"illegal_argument_exception\",\"reason\":\"Fielddata is disabled on text fields by default. Set fielddata=true on [%attribute_code%]] in order to load fielddata in memory by uninverting the inverted index. Note that this can however use significant memory.\"}].

Cause

By default, only certain types of product attributes can be used in Layered Navigation. They are Yes/No, Dropdown, Multipleselect, and Price. That is why in the Commerce Admin, you cannot set an attribute of any other type as Use in Layered Navigation = Filterable or Use in Search Results Layered Navigation = Yes. But there is a technical possibility to get around this limitation by directly changing the is_filterable and is_filterable_in_search values in the database. If this happens, and any other attribute type, like Date, Text, etc., is set to be used in Layered Navigation, Elasticsearch 5 throws an exception.

To make sure this is the case, you need to find out if there are any other attributes other than Dropdown, Multipleselect, and Price, that are set to be used in Layered Navigation. Run the following query to search for these attributes:

SELECT ea.attribute_code, ea.frontend_input, cea.is_filterable, cea.is_filterable_in_search FROM eav_attribute AS ea
    -> INNER JOIN catalog_eav_attribute AS cea ON ea.attribute_id = cea.`attribute_id`
    -> WHERE (is_filterable = 1 OR is_filterable_in_search = 1) AND frontend_input NOT IN ('boolean', 'multiselect', 'select', 'price');

The result will contain a list of attributes used for Layered Navigation, whose type does not allow this. Take the steps described in the following section to fix this.

Solution

To fix the issue, you need to set is_filterable (that is, used in Layered Navigation) and filterable_in_search (that is, used in search results Layered Navigation) to "0" (not used). To do this, take the following steps:

1. Create a database backup.

2. Use a database tool such as phpMyAdmin, or access the DB manually from the command line to run the following SQL query:

   UPDATE catalog_eav_attribute AS cea
       INNER JOIN eav_attribute AS ea
           ON ea.attribute_id = cea.attribute_id
   SET cea.is_filterable = 0, cea.is_filterable_in_search = 0
   WHERE (cea.is_filterable = 1 OR cea.is_filterable_in_search = 1)
       AND frontend_input NOT IN ('boolean', 'multiselect', 'select', 'price');
   

3. Run the Catalog Search full reindex using the following command:

   bin/magento indexer:reindex catalogsearch_fulltext
   

4. Clean cache by running

   bin/magento cache:clean
   

or in the Commerce Admin under System > Tools > Cache Management.

Now you should be able to perform catalog searches with no issues.