Getting Started

Trait on. Index built. Searching in under a minute.

Note

ElasticLens is not Laravel-Elasticsearch. Laravel-Elasticsearch is Eloquent for Elasticsearch. ElasticLens uses it to create and sync a searchable index of your SQL models.

Installation

• Laravel 10/11/12
• Elasticsearch 8.x

You’ll need your Elasticsearch connection configured first. See the Laravel-Elasticsearch Getting Started Guide if you haven’t done that yet.

composer require pdphilip/elasticlens

Publish the config file and create migration files:

php artisan lens:install

Run the migrations:

php artisan migrate

Optional Configuration

lens:install publishes config/elasticlens.php and creates migrations for the build state and migration log indexes.

config/elasticlens.php

return [
    'database' => 'elasticsearch',

    'queue' => null, // Set queue to use for dispatching index builds

    'index_soft_deletes' => false, // See: Soft Delete Support

    'watchers' => [
        //  \App\Models\Profile::class => [
        //      \App\Models\Indexes\IndexedUser::class,
        //  ],
    ],

    'index_build_state' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'log_trim' => 2,
    ],

    'index_migration_logs' => [
        'enabled' => true,
    ],
    'namespaces' => [
        'App\Models' => 'App\Models\Indexes',
    ],

    'index_paths' => [
        'app/Models/Indexes/' => 'App\Models\Indexes',
    ],
];

How It Works

The Index Model is a separate Elasticsearch model that ElasticLens manages for you. It’s still a real model you can query and inspect directly, just like any other Eloquent model.

On top of that, ElasticLens gives you:

• Full-text search on your Base Models using the entire Laravel-Elasticsearch query builder
• Field mapping with embedded relationships during builds
• Index Model migrations for schema control
• Conditional indexing to skip specific records
• Soft delete support to keep or remove index records on soft delete
• CLI tools for status, health, builds, and migrations

So a User model syncs with an IndexedUser model in Elasticsearch. Every search feature from Laravel-Elasticsearch is now available on your User models.