[SOLR-6376] Edismax field alias bug

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 4.6.1, 4.7, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10.1
• Component/s: query parsers
• Labels: difficulty-easy edismax impact-low
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Thomas Egense
• Created: 14/Aug/14 06:22
• Updated: 22/Oct/19 17:35

Description

If you create a field alias that maps to a nonexistent field, the query will be parsed to utter garbage.

The bug can reproduced very easily. Add the following line to the /browse request handler in the tutorial example solrconfig.xml
<str name="f.name_features.qf">name features XXX</str>
(XXX is a nonexistent field)

This simple query will actually work correctly:
name_features:video
and it will be parsed to (features:video | name:video) and return 3 results. It has simply discarded the nonexistent field and the result set is correct.
However if you change the query to:
name_features:video AND name_features:video
you will now get 0 result and the query is parsed to
+(((features:video | name:video) (id:AND^10.0 | author:and^2.0 | title:and^10.0 | cat:AND^1.4 | text:and^0.5 | keywords:and^5.0 | manu:and^1.1 | description:and^5.0 | resourcename:and | name:and^1.2 | features:and) (features:video | name:video))~3)
Notice the AND operator is now used a term! The parsed query can turn out even worse and produce query parts such as:
title:2~2
title:and^2.0^10.0

Prefered solution: During start up, shut down Solr if there is a nonexistant field alias. Just as is the case if the cycle-detection detects a cycle:
Acceptable solution: Ignore the nonexistant field totally.

Thomas Egense

Issue Links

• duplicates: SOLR-5052 eDisMax Field Aliasing behaving oddly when invalid field is present