Indices, types, and parent / child: current status and upcoming changes in Elasticsearch

The text discusses the upcoming changes in Elasticsearch concerning the use of "types" within indices, focusing on the move towards eliminating types due to user misconceptions and technical pitfalls such as sparsity and scoring issues. Elastic, the company behind Elasticsearch, has observed numerous support cases where users misinterpreted types as equivalent to relational database tables, leading to complications. To address this, Elastic plans to phase out types, replacing them with a special field for parent-child relationships, aiming for a smooth multi-phase transition. This shift will culminate in the complete removal of types in version 7.0, with interim features introduced in versions 5.x and 6.0 to facilitate adaptation. The changes are expected to be seamless for most logging and security analytics users, while those using Elasticsearch as a search or document database are advised to review and adjust their type usage. Elastic encourages users to engage on their forums for support during this transition.