PT 8.61

Randall Groncki

Introduction

Business requirements change and evolve.   Adding and removing fields to Insights Index Patterns is as easy as refreshing the index pattern.

Please don’t delete your index patterns.

Index Patterns

Insights uses Index Patterns to interact with and visualize the data in OpenSearch.  In Insights, we do much of our data formatting and manipulation at the index pattern level.  Not the Visualization or Dashboard level.  Index Patterns are the foundation of visualizations and the dashboards.

Deleting and recreating an index pattern because fields have been added or removed from a data set will delete any formatting previously set on any of those index pattern fields.  It also has a very good chance of breaking the visualizations and dashboards. 

Refreshing the Index Pattern

Instead of deleting and recreating the index pattern, refresh it. 

Refreshing an Index Pattern compares the current index pattern to the dataset it represents.  Any new fields are added.  Missing fields are removed – most of the time.  Any of your existing formatting and formulas will remain if they are on a field that still exists in the pattern.

Occasionally, a removed field will still exist in the index pattern.  The best way forward is to just ignore it.  There won’t be any data behind the pattern field.

Removing fields from Index Patterns

If you are removing a field from your data, the best plan is to remove that field from any visualizations first.  Then refresh the index pattern to removing the field. 

If you refresh the index pattern and remove the field first, it may cause the visualization to crash, limiting your ability to remove the field using insight tools. 

Adding and removing fields from Index Patterns

• PeopleSoft
  • Update the PSQuery used as a data sourced for the Search Definition
  • Undeploy the Search Definition
  • Update the Search Definition – add and remove fields.
  • Update the Search Category – Add and remove fields
  • Schedule a Search Index to fully refresh the data in Elastic Search
• Insights
  • If you are removing any fields from the data set, remove those fields from any Visualization that uses that Index Pattern.
  • Refresh the index pattern
  • Update any formatting needed for new fields.
  • Create/Update the Visualizations as needed.
• Test