Edit (8/20/14): As Cédric Mourizard mentioned in the comments, if you have access to CLI you can simply run the following command to trigger an indexing of ElasticSearch. The method explained in this article is geared toward triggering an indexing via the API in scenarios where you may not have access to the CLI.

$ php silentFTSIndex.php

Like many, I’m comfortable with the ETL tools that I have been using in Sugar for years now. While many ETL tools support Sugar’s SOAP API (and a couple support the new REST API), I often prefer working directly with the database as it’s a much quicker way to move large amounts of data due to bypassing business logic such as workflow rules and logic hooks.

Things changed in 7. With ElasticSearch now being a requirement of Sugar, doing database work can have some undesired effects in regards to search and activity stream functionality. They simply do not work if data has been imported directly to the database.

One way I have found to update ElasticSearch after doing an import directly to the database is to interact with the bean within Sugar or using the API.

I think it’s safe to assume that our goal as Sugar developers is to automate tedious tasks so that users (and us developers) can work more efficiently. Indexing ElasticSearch is certainly one of those tasks.

That said, I find writing a script using the Sugar 7 Rest Client to be a quick and easy way to index ElasticSearch after performing Sugar 7 database work.

Here is a quick example of using the Sugar 7 Rest Client to do just that.

Have a better idea? Please let me know in the comments below!