The /search and /suggestions APIs comes with the following enhancements:

• New, optional scope parameter supporting Site (Group) IDs and External Reference Codes (ERCs) in /search. The scope parameter of /suggestions has also been updated to have the same semantics.

• /search now is in RELEASE status.

• The APIs now are available under the /o/search/v1.0/ endpoint with backward compatibility for current /o/portal-search-rest/v1.0 calls through server-side forward.

Refer to the documentation for more details.

Elasticsearch 8.15.x has been tested and added to the compatibility matrix to the corresponding Liferay versions.

Note: Compatibility with newer Elasticsearch minor versions is tested in two ways:

1. Latest-Latest: Testing the latest Liferay version with the latest available minor version of Elasticsearch → e.g. Master/2024.Q3 + Elasticsearch 8.15

2. Minimum-Latest: Testing the minimum Liferay version where Elasticsearch 8 compatibility was first made available with the latest minor version of Elasticsearch → DXP 7.4 U81/DXP 7.3 U31 + Elasticsearch 8.15

This way Liferay can allow a broader deployment base to operate their stack with an up-to-date search engine version.

As Elasticsearch is usually releases a new Minor version roughly every two months, this is a recurring process and a planed activity in each quarter.

Per Elastic’s product lifecycle, Elasticsearch 7.17.x versions are supported and maintained until Elasticsearch version 9 is released. While Elastic does not provide specific release dates for future releases, for Elasticsearch 9.0.0, the new release is anticipated in early calendar year 2025.

Therefore, Liferay strongly recommends all customers with 7.17.x deployments to begin the planning phase for an upgrade project to the latest compatible Elasticsearch 8.x version.

Compatibility with Elasticsearch 8 is available on 7.4 U81+. → Operating Liferay 7.4 GA/Update 81+ with Elasticsearch 8 - Liferay

Note: The Elasticsearch 8.x compatibility is provided through the bundled Elasticsearch 7 connector and the REST API Compatibility of Elasticsearch 8.

Liferay ships with an updated Elasticsearch connector using 7.17.21 as the client version and also as version of Sidecar Elasticsearch server for development and testing purposes.

Clause Contributors configuration is now stored within the blueprint’s JSON with a smaller footprint, reducing the size of a blueprint by more than 90% when using the default setting (all contributors enabled → Enable All) or the new Disable All option.

The behavior of the different options is as follows:

• with Enable All, all current and future query clause contributors introduced to the platform will be enabled automatically. Disable All behaves the opposite way,

• with Customize, the configuration is locked to the specified contributor list.

Feature Status Change

The Headless Search API introduced as BETA in 7.4 U88 is now in RELEASE status.