# FlattenIndexFields

The fields in a hierarchically structured document whose content you want to index as one level. IDOL Server treats these fields as FlattenIndexType fields for the documents that you send in the index action.

NOTE: Micro Focus recommends that you use field configuration to set FlattenIndexType fields, instead of setting this parameter for a single index action.

Separate multiple fields with commas. There must be no space before or after a comma. You can use wildcards.

When identifying fields use the formats:

- `/FieldName` to match root-level fields

- `*/FieldName` to match all fields except root-level

- `/Path/FieldName` to match fields that the specified path points to.

If you specify only the field name, IDOL Server automatically adds a `*/` to it.

NOTE: Any fields that you set in `FlattenIndexFields` must also be Index fields. You can set the fields as Index fields, either by adding an appropriate field process in your configuration file, or by setting the IndexFields index action parameter.

Actions: | DREADD DREADDDATA
Type: | String
Default: |
Example: |
    <documents>
       <article id="_21498602">
          <url>http://example.com/21490.html</url>
          <hltext_display>The history of pharmacogenetics </hltext_display>
          <source>Science Online</source>
          <media_type>text</media_type>
          <subject>
             <text>The prologue to pharmacogenetics began to play out around 1850 and spanned some 60 years into the 1900s.</text>
             <text>In 1953, the molecular basis of heredity, the double helix of DNA, was described.</text>
          </subject>
       <valid_time>Jul 13 2001 5:00AM</valid_time>
       </article>
    </documents>
If you specify `FlattenIndexFields=*/subject`, and index the XML above, any content that a subject field or a field within a subject field includes is indexed as the content of the subject field. You must also have a field configuration that configures the `*/subject` and `*/subject/*` field paths as Index type, or you must set `IndexField=*/subject,*/subject/*` in the index action. If you now query for a particular term in the subject field that is actually contained in a level below the subject field, for example the term pharmacogenetics, the above text is returned. If you had not flattened the subject field the query would fail, as the subject field itself does not contain this term.
See Also: | FlattenIndexType configuration parameter

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