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What’s the impact of changing my Algolia index name?

  • Updated

Changing the name of an Algolia index can have significant consequences on your Algolia implementation and some key features.

The most important consideration is that any code, configuration, or integration referencing the original index name must be updated. Otherwise, this change can lead to unexpected behavior or application errors. 

When renaming an index the below warning message will appear. This relates to the impact on Access and Analytics.

 

In addition to this, renaming will also have an impact on frontend integrations, events tracking, and any features dependent on index-specific events, as these are not transferred to the new index name.

Full details on the various impacts can be found below:

  1. Access:

    Within Team Member permissions, it's possible to restrict which indices users have access to, for example, you may declare dev_*, staging_* to grant a user access to all indices with a common prefix. Therefore, if you change the name of an index that you have specified a user has access to, you will need to ensure you update the name in the user's index permission settings.

  2. Frontend Integrations:

    Any frontend code, integrations, or connectors that reference the old index name will need to be updated to use the new index name. Otherwise, this change can lead to unexpected behavior or application errors.

  3. Analytics: 

    Analytics data is tied to an index by its name, not by an internal identifier. Analytics events are collected and stored on a separate analytics server from the search indices, and the index name is used as the link between them. As a result, renaming an index breaks this association, and any historical analytics data collected under the old name will no longer be accessible under the new one.

  4. Event Tracking: 

    Events are tied to the specific index name. If you change the index name, you cannot transfer historical events to the new index. More information in this article: Can I transfer events to a different index?

  5. Dynamic Re-Ranking: 

    • Algolia’s Dynamic Re-Ranking feature operates at the index level, which means it cannot draw upon insights from multiple indices simultaneously. After changing the index name, Dynamic Re-Ranking loses access to the historical event data that powers optimized ranking. As a result, the new index must wait until enough events have been collected before the feature will work again.
    • The original configuration for the index won't match anymore upon index renaming. Any configuration will need to be re-created for this feature.
    • When renaming an index, the enableReRanking index settings will be set to false.

  6. Query Categorization (QCat): 

    • QCat uses historical queries and click data. Renaming the index breaks the link to the event data. The new index must wait until enough events have been collected before the feature will work again. 
    • The original configuration for the index won't match anymore upon index renaming. Any configuration will need to be re-created for this feature.

  7. Dynamic Synonym Suggestions: 

    • Suggestions are based on search and click analytics. Renaming or copying an index breaks the connection to historical data.
    • The original configuration for the index won't match anymore upon index renaming. Any configuration will need to be re-created for this feature.
    • Every declined synonym will be lost and they will potentially be seen in "pending" again. 
      Historically accepted synonyms will still exist on the renamed index, but they won't be visible in the DSS section of the dashboard

  8. Query Suggestions:

    If the index is set as the source index for a Query Suggestions index, the configuration for that QS index should be updated to reflect the new index name.

  9. Neural Search:

    Neural training data is index-specific. A renamed/copied index loses link to prior data.

  10. Virtual Replicas (VRs):

    If you copy an index to another app and rename it, VRs will also be copied and remain as VRs of their respective new primary indices. The relationship is preserved, but the names will reflect the new primary index. More information in this article: Do virtual replicas stay connected when I copy indices with new names to another app?

     

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