August 2018 Summaries

Vespa has introduced JSON queries to its Search API, allowing search requests to be executed via HTTP POST, which embeds query parameters within the request's payload, thereby eliminating the need for URL encoding and potentially reducing log clutter. This new feature includes the SELECT parameter with sub-parameters WHERE and GROUPING, which serve as JSON equivalents to YQL, facilitating a switch from SQL-like syntax to an enhanced tree-syntax for queries. The JSON format enables more structured and readable queries, with parameters such as WHERE supporting the construction of query-trees and GROUPING allowing for hierarchical structuring using curly brackets and colons. This advancement aims to enhance usability by offering a query builder GUI for constructing POST-queries and integrating YQL autocompletion, further detailed in Vespa's documentation and tutorials for users to explore.