Convert Solr syntax, schema, and features for OpenSearch - OpenSearch - Alibaba Cloud - OpenSearch

This page maps Solr schema types, query parameters, and search features to their OpenSearch equivalents, so you can migrate your Solr application without guessing.

Schema

OpenSearch supports various data types and analyzers. The following table lists how Solr schema constructs map to OpenSearch.

Solr construct	OpenSearch equivalent	Notes
`INT`, `FLOAT`, `DOUBLE`, `LITERAL`, `TEXT`	`INT`, `FLOAT`, `DOUBLE`, `LITERAL`, `TEXT`	Supported natively. Also supported: `INT_ARRAY`, `FLOAT_ARRAY`, `DOUBLE_ARRAY`, `LITERAL_ARRAY`, `SHORT_TEXT`.
`LOCATION`	Two `FLOAT` or `DOUBLE` fields	Store longitude and latitude as separate fields.
`BOOLEAN`	`INT`	Use `0` for false and `1` for true.
`DATE`	`INT`	Timestamps in milliseconds. Fields pushed from a data source are converted automatically; fields pushed via API must be converted manually.
`DynamicField`	Schema modification	DynamicField is not supported. OpenSearch lets you modify the application schema at any time, so add fields dynamically through the schema management interface instead.
`CopyField`	Merge fields in advance	CopyField is not supported. Merge the source fields into a single field before indexing.
`patternTokenizer`	Custom analyzer with `\t` delimiter	Set the delimiter to `\t`. Convert any other delimiter in your source data before pushing.
`Payload analyzer`	—	Not supported. No equivalent.
`Bitwise analyzer`	—	Not supported. No equivalent.
`Paoding analyzer`	Chinese basic analyzer	OpenSearch provides a built-in Chinese basic analyzer with equivalent functionality.

Field count limit: OpenSearch supports a maximum of 256 fields per application. If you need more, merge non-range-query fields into a single ARRAY-type field to reduce the total count.

Query parameters

The following table maps Solr query parameters to their OpenSearch equivalents.

Solr parameter	OpenSearch equivalent	Notes
`q`	`query` clause	Required. See q conversion rules for boolean operator mapping.
`fq`	Filter field	Filters retrieved documents without affecting relevance scores. Use filter fields for non-fuzzy queries and query fields for fuzzy queries. Do not use `fq` together with sorting.
`fl`	`fetch_fields` parameter	Defines which fields to return.
`hl`	Summary and HTML tag settings	Configure in the OpenSearch console.
`start`	`start` in the `config` clause	Equivalent.
`rows`	`hit` in the `config` clause	Equivalent.
`wt`	`format` in the `config` clause	Equivalent.
`df`	Default query field	Equivalent.
`sort`	Sort expression	`field desc` → `-field`; `field asc` → `+field`; `score` → `sort=RANK` (sorts results in ascending order).
`facet`	`aggregate` clause	The field must have its index attribute configured. See Facet conversion rules.
`group`	`distinct` clause + `sort` clause	`group` is not supported. Use the `distinct` clause with the `sort` clause for simple grouping scenarios.
`stats`	`aggregate` clause	Supported functions: `min`, `max`, `count`, `avg`. Not supported: `missing`, `sumOfSquares`, `mean`, `stddev`, `distinctValue`, `countDistinct`.

q conversion rules

The q parameter maps to the OpenSearch query clause. The following table lists how Solr boolean operators convert.

Solr query	OpenSearch query	Example
`field:value` (`:` operator)	Not supported	Use filter fields for exact matches.
Range index	Filtered range	Convert range queries to filter-based range expressions.
`+A`	`A`	The `+` prefix is dropped.
`-A`	Not supported	—
`A AND B`	`A AND B`	Direct equivalent.
`A AND -B`	`A ANDNOT B`
`A OR B`	`A OR B`	Direct equivalent.
`A OR +B`	`A RANK B`
`A AND B OR C`	`A AND B RANK C`	Example: `Hongfushi AND Apple OR Shandong`
`A OR B AND C`	`B AND C RANK A`	Example: `Hongfushi OR Apple AND Shandong`
`A AND B OR +C`	`A AND B AND C`	Example: `Hongfushi AND Apple OR +Shandong`
`A OR +B AND C`	`B AND C RANK A`	Example: `Hongfushi OR +Apple AND Shandong`
`+A OR B AND C`	`A AND B AND C`	Example: `+Hongfushi OR Apple AND Shandong`
`A AND B OR -C`	`(A AND B) ANDNOT C`	Example: `Hongfushi AND Apple OR -Shandong`
`A AND -B OR C`	`A ANDNOT B RANK C`	Example: `Apple AND -Hongfushi OR Shandong`
`-A AND B OR C`	`B ANDNOT A RANK C`	Example: `-Hongfushi AND Apple OR Shandong`
`A OR B AND -C`	`B ANDNOT C RANK A`	Example: `Hongfushi OR Apple AND -Shandong`
`A OR -B AND C`	`C ANDNOT B RANK A`	Example: `Hongfushi OR -Shandong AND Apple`
`-A OR B AND C`	`(B AND C) ANDNOT A`	Example: `-Hongfushi OR Shandong AND Apple`
`A OR B OR -C`	`(A OR B) ANDNOT C`	Equivalent regardless of operand order.
`A AND B OR C AND D`	`A AND B AND C AND D`

Facet conversion rules

Solr parameter	OpenSearch equivalent	Notes
`facet.field`	`group_key` in the `aggregate` clause
`facet.limit`	`max_group` in the `aggregate` clause	Default: 1000.
`facet.mincount`	Not supported	Process all results manually and filter client-side.
`facet.offset`	Not supported	Implement pagination manually across all results.
`facet.sort`	Not supported	Sort all results manually.

Example:

# Solr
facet=true&facet.field=price&facet.limit=200

# OpenSearch
aggregate=group_key:price,agg_fun:count(),max_group:200

Limitations

Keep the following limitations in mind when migrating.

Deep pagination

OpenSearch provides two interfaces for retrieving results:

search: Standard queries. Returns up to 5,000 results with page turning supported (maximum 500 results per page).
scroll: Data export. Exports tens of millions of records without sorting support. Use this for bulk data extraction and offline analysis.

Statistical result accuracy

OpenSearch uses sampling and estimation to maintain retrieval performance, so statistical results (such as facet counts) may not be exact.

Total result count

The total number of results is always an estimate, regardless of the actual dataset size.

Multiple OR operators

Query strings have a maximum encoded length of 1 KB. Queries with many OR operators may exceed this limit and return no results. To work around this:

Increase the query string length limit in your application configuration.
Split the query into multiple concurrent requests and merge the results.