Icu Plugin

The ICU analysis plugin allows for unicode normalization, collation and folding. The plugin is called elasticsearch-analysis-icu.

The plugin includes the following analysis components:

ICU Normalization

Normalizes characters as explained here. It registers itself by default under icu_normalizer or icuNormalizer using the default settings. Allows for the name parameter to be provided which can include the following values: nfc, nfkc, and nfkc_cf. Here is a sample settings:

{
    "index" : {
        "analysis" : {
            "analyzer" : {
                "normalization" : {
                    "tokenizer" : "keyword",
                    "filter" : ["icu_normalizer"]
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

ICU Folding

Folding of unicode characters based on UTR#30. It registers itself under icu_folding and icuFolding names.

The filter also does lowercasing, which means the lowercase filter can normally be left out. Sample setting:

{
    "index" : {
        "analysis" : {
            "analyzer" : {
                "folding" : {
                    "tokenizer" : "keyword",
                    "filter" : ["icu_folding"]
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Filtering

The folding can be filtered by a set of unicode characters with the parameter unicodeSetFilter. This is useful for a non-internationalized search engine where retaining a set of national characters which are primary letters in a specific language is wanted. See syntax for the UnicodeSet here2.

The Following example excempt Swedish characters from the folding. Note that the filtered characters are NOT lowercased which is why we add that filter below.

{
    "index" : {
        "analysis" : {
            "analyzer" : {
                "folding" : {
                    "tokenizer" : "standard",
                    "filter" : ["my_icu_folding", "lowercase"]
                }
            }
            "filter" : {
                "my_icu_folding" : {
                    "type" : "icu_folding"
                    "unicodeSetFilter" : "[^åäöÅÄÖ]"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

ICU Collation

Uses collation token filter. Allows to either specify the rules for collation (defined here3 using the rules parameter (can point to a location or expressed in the settings, location can be relative to config location), or using the language parameter (further specialized by country and variant). By default registers under icu_collation or icuCollation and uses the default locale.

Here is a sample settings:

{
    "index" : {
        "analysis" : {
            "analyzer" : {
                "collation" : {
                    "tokenizer" : "keyword",
                    "filter" : ["icu_collation"]
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

And here is a sample of custom collation:

{
    "index" : {
        "analysis" : {
            "analyzer" : {
                "collation" : {
                    "tokenizer" : "keyword",
                    "filter" : ["myCollator"]
                }
            },
            "filter" : {
                "myCollator" : {
                    "type" : "icu_collation",
                    "language" : "en"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}