[7.17] Restructure and enhance docs (#243) (#247)

docs/api-conventions/blocking-and-async.asciidoc

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+[[blocking-and-async]]
+=== Blocking and asynchronous clients
+
+API clients come in two flavors: blocking and asynchronous. All methods on
+asynchronous clients return a standard `CompletableFuture`.
+
+Both flavors can be used at the same time depending on your needs, sharing the
+same transport object:
+
+["source","java"]
+--------------------------------------------------
+ElasticsearchTransport transport = ...
+
+include-tagged::{doc-tests-src}/api_conventions/ApiConventionsTest.java[blocking-and-async]
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+Although we won't go in deeper details on asynchronous programming in Java, remember to handle failures of asynchronous tasks. It's easy to overlook them and have errors go unnoticed.
+
+{doc-tests-blurb}

docs/api-conventions/building-objects.asciidoc

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+[[building-objects]]
+=== Building API objects
+
+[discrete]
+==== Builder objects
+
+All data types in the {java-client} are immutable. Object creation uses the
+https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1216151&seqNum=2[builder pattern]
+that was popularized in *Effective Java* in 2008.
+
+["source","java"]
+--------------------------------------------------
+ElasticsearchClient client = ...
+include-tagged::{doc-tests-src}/api_conventions/ApiConventionsTest.java[builders]
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+Note that a builder should not be reused after its `build()` method has been
+called.
+
+[discrete]
+==== Builder lambda expressions
+
+Although this works nicely, having to instantiate builder classes and call the
+`build()` method is a bit verbose. So every property setter in the {java-client} also
+accepts a lambda expression that takes a newly created builder as a parameter
+and returns a populated builder. The snippet above can also be written as:
+
+["source","java"]
+--------------------------------------------------
+ElasticsearchClient client = ...
+include-tagged::{doc-tests-src}/api_conventions/ApiConventionsTest.java[builder-lambdas]
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+This approach allows for much more concise code, and also avoids importing
+classes (and even remembering their names) since types are inferred from the
+method parameter signature.
+
+Note in the above example that builder variables are only used to start a chain
+of property setters. The names of these variables are therefore unimportant and
+can be shortened to improve readability:
+
+["source","java"]
+--------------------------------------------------
+ElasticsearchClient client = ...
+include-tagged::{doc-tests-src}/api_conventions/ApiConventionsTest.java[builder-lambdas-short]
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+Builder lambdas become particularly useful with complex nested queries like the
+one below, taken from the
+{ref}/query-dsl-intervals-query.html[intervals query API documentation].
+
+This example also highlights a useful naming convention for builder parameters in
+deeply nested structures. For lambda expressions with a single argument, Kotlin
+provides the implicit `it` parameter and Scala allows use of `_`. This can be approximated
+in Java by using an underscore or a single letter prefix followed by a number representing the depth
+level (i.e. `_0`, `_1`, or `b0`, `b1` and so on). Not only does this remove the need to create
+throw-away variable names, but it also improves code readability. Correct indentation
+also allows the structure of the query to stand out.
+
+["source","java"]
+--------------------------------------------------
+ElasticsearchClient client = ...
+include-tagged::{doc-tests-src}/api_conventions/ApiConventionsTest.java[builder-intervals]
+--------------------------------------------------
+<1> Search results will be mapped to `SomeApplicationData` instances to
+be readily available to the application.
+
+{doc-tests-blurb}

docs/api-conventions/exceptions.asciidoc

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+[[exceptions]]
+=== Exceptions
+
+Client methods can throw two kinds of exceptions:
+
+* Requests that were received by the {es} server but that were rejected
+(validation error, server internal timeout exceeded, etc) will produce an
+`ElasticsearchException`. This exception contains details about the error,
+provided by {es}.
+
+* Requests that failed to reach the server (network error, server unavailable,
+etc) will produce a `TransportException`. That exception's cause is the exception
+thrown by the lower-level implementation. In the case of the `RestClientTransport`
+it will be a `ResponseException` that contains the low level HTTP response.
+