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✍️ Adding and Updating Documents

Now that you have an index, it's time to add documents—the individual pieces of data you want to store and search.

Each document is a JSON object stored in an index.

📥 Add a Single Document (Auto-ID)​

POST hcm-employees/_doc
{
  "name": "Dr. Dieter Schmitz",
  "position": "Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter, CEO",
  "email": "Dieter.Schmitz@healthcare-manufaktur.de",
  "location": {
    "lat": 50.1109,
    "lon": 8.6821
  },
  "timestamp": "2025-04-01T10:00:00Z"
}

This creates a new document with a generated _id.

🆔 Add a Document With Custom ID​

PUT hcm-employees/_doc/schmitz
{
  "name": "Dr. Dieter Schmitz",
  "position": "CEO",
  "email": "Dieter.Schmitz@healthcare-manufaktur.de",
  "location": {
    "lat": 50.1109,
    "lon": 8.6821
  }
}

This stores the document with ID schmitz. Useful for updates.

🔁 Update a Document​

POST hcm-employees/_update/schmitz
{
  "doc": {
    "position": "CEO & Founder",
    "phone": "0176-20790644"
  }
}

You can update only part of the document using _update.

📦 Bulk Add Many Employees​

POST _bulk
{ "index": { "_index": "hcm-employees", "_id": "birnbaum" } }
{ "name": "Dr. Frank Birnbaum", "position": "CEO", "email": "frank.birnbaum@healthcare-manufaktur.de", "location": { "lat": 52.52, "lon": 13.405 } }
{ "index": { "_index": "hcm-employees", "_id": "boehnert" } }
{ "name": "Marion Böhnert", "position": "Projektleitung", "email": "marion.boehnert@healthcare-manufaktur.de", "location": { "lat": 48.7758, "lon": 9.1829 } }
{ "index": { "_index": "hcm-employees", "_id": "henkel" } }
{ "name": "Wolfgang Henkel", "position": "Commercial Director", "email": "wolfgang.henkel@healthcare-manufaktur.de", "location": { "lat": 53.5511, "lon": 9.9937 } }

Use newline-delimited JSON (NDJSON) with { "index": ... } before each document.

✅ This is the fastest way to add many docs.

🧼 Replace an Entire Document​

PUT hcm-employees/_doc/knode
{
  "name": "Julian Knode",
  "position": "Werkstudent",
  "email": "julian.knode@healthcare-manufaktur.de",
  "location": {
    "lat": 51.3397,
    "lon": 12.3731
  }
}

This replaces the full document with ID knode.

🗑️ Delete a Document​

DELETE hcm-employees/_doc/boehnert

Removes Marion's document by ID.

🧠 Tips​

  • Avoid using large nested structures in documents.
  • Use geo_point for coordinates to enable map visualizations.
  • Add a timestamp field if you want time-based filtering in Kibana.

✅ Next Up: Searching Your Data​

Once your documents are stored, let’s learn how to search, filter, and analyze them using:

  • Simple match queries
  • Filters
  • Full text search

➡️ Move on to the "Searching Your Data" guide next.

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