Connectors → XML

About XML

EXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a text-based markup language for both structuring and encoding data in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. An XML document consists of elements, attributes, and values. An element is an arbitrary tag such as <products></products>. Within the closure of the element tag, there is a data value or another element such as <products><product>60-inch LCD Television</product></products>. An attribute is an arbitrary name-value pair that exists within an element such as <products><product sku="abc1235456">60-inch LCD Television</product></products>.

As a data structure and data format, XML is often hierarchical. A hierarchy consists of a grandparent element with sub-elements. From the perspective of the grandparent element, you can refer to the sub-elements as parents, children, and grandchildren. From the perspective of a grandchild element, you can refer to grandparents, parents, and siblings.

To help query XML, there is XPath (XML Path Language). XPath is a query language for selecting one or more elements, element values, or attribute values. Because an element is an arbitrary tag name, XPath refers to an element as a node. You can specify an XPath expression to query various nodes within XML.

About the XML Connector

The XML Connector utilizes the CData JDBC Driver for XML. In order to query an XML resource using a SQL SELECT statement, the driver supports the configuration of various JDBC connection properties, including OAuth authentication. The XML connector also supports XPath query expressions.

As a result, the XML connector allows you to connect to a local or remote XML resource using an Universal Resource Indicator (URI) which includes both service and storage providers such as AWS S3, Azure, Box, Dropbox, FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, OneDrive, Sharepoint, and more.

In addition, the XML connector allows for the configuration of an XML data model: Document, FlattenedDocuments, or Relational.

The XML connector supports the following:

Feature	Supported
Chunking	✔
Data Agent
Encryption at Ingest
Incremental Load	✔
Multi-Source	✔
OAuth
Performance Optimized	✔
Remote
Single-Source	✔
Spark Extraction
Webhook Callbacks	✔

Allow the XML connector

In order to use the XML connector, a Cluster Management Console (CMC) administrator must first allow it. Here are the steps:

Sign in to the CMC.
In the Navigation bar, select Clusters.
In the cluster list, select a Cluster name.
In the canvas tabs, select Connectors.
Select Manage Connectors.
Select Allow for xml.
Select OK.

Note

There is an associated cost to allow a CData connector. Contact your Incorta Sales Executive for details.

Steps to connect XML and Incorta

To connect XML and Incorta, here are the high level steps, tools, and procedures:

Create an external data source
Create a physical schema with the Schema Wizard
or, Create a physical schema table with the Schema Designer
Load the physical schema
Explore the physical schema

Create an external data source

A Tenant Administrator (Super User), a user that belongs to a group with the SuperRole role, or a user that belongs to a group with the Schema Manager role can create an external data source for a given tenant.

Here are the steps to create a external data source with the XML connector:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™
In the Navigation bar, select Data.
In the Action bar, select + New → Add Data Source.
In the Choose a Data Source dialog, select XML.
In the New Data Source dialog, specify the applicable connector properties.
To test, select Test Connection.
Select Ok to save your changes.

XML connector properties

Here are the basic properties for the XML connector:

Property	Control	Description
Data Source Name	text box	Required. Enter the name of the external data source.
URI	text box	Required. The Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for the XML resource location.
XPath	text box	Optional. The XPath of an element that repeats at the same height within the XML document (used to split the document into multiple rows).
Use Connection Pooling	toggle	Optional. Enable to set the related properties for connection pooling.
Data Model	drop down list	Specifies the data model to use when parsing documents and generating the database metadata. Please refer to Modeling XML Data.
Service Provider	drop down list	Specifies the local or remote source or service for the XML resource. The Service Provider selection dynamically affects the available properties for configuration.
Generate Schema Files	drop down list	Required. Indicates when to create an XML connector schema for the selected Data Model option for the XML resource.
Show Advanced Options	toggle	Optional. Enable to configure the advanced properties. Please refer to Establishing a Connection.

Note: CData JDBC Driver for XML documentation

For the above properties, please refer to the CData JDBC Driver for XML documentation for Establishing a Connection. To learn more about the Data Model property options, please refer to Modeling XML Data.

Create a physical schema with the Schema Wizard

Here are the steps to create a physical schema with the Schema Wizard:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select + New → Schema Wizard.
In (1) Choose a Source, specify the following:
- For Enter a name, enter the schema name.
- For Select a Datasource, select the XML external data source.
- Optionally create a description.
In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
In (2) Manage Tables, in the Data panel, first select the name of the Data Source, and then check the Select All checkbox.
In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
In (3) Finalize, in the Schema Wizard footer, select Create Schema.

Create a physical schema with the Schema Designer

Here are the steps to create a physical schema table using the Schema Designer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select + New → Create Schema.
In Name, specify the schema name, and select Save.
In Start adding tables to your schema, select XML.
In the Data Source dialog, specify the XML table data source properties.
Select Add.
In the Table Editor, in the Table Summary section, enter the table name.
To save your changes, select Done in the Action bar.

XML table data source properties

For a physical schema table, you can define the following XML specific data source properties as follows:

Property	Control	Description
Type	drop down list	Default is XML
Data Source	drop down list	Select the XML external data source
Incremental	toggle	Enable to configure the incremental load configuration relate properties
Incremental Extract Using	drop down list	Enable Incremental to configure this property. Select between Last Successful Extract Time and Maximum Value of a Column. See Types of Incremental Load.
Incremental Column	drop down list	Enable Incremental and select Maximum Value of a Column to configure this property. Select the column to be used for Maximum Value of a Column. The Loader will track and use the greatest value or most recent timestamp for each load operation.
Query	text box	In the Edit Query editor, enter the SQL SELECT query to retrieve data from the XML dataset.
Update Query	text box	Enable Incremental to configure this property. In the Edit Query editor, enter the SQL SELECT query to retrieve data from the XML dataset.
Incremental Field Type	drop down list	Enable Incremental to configure this property. Select the format of the table date column: ● Numeric ● Timestamp ● Unix Epoch (seconds) ● Unix Epoch (milliseconds)
Fetch Size	text box	Used for performance improvement, fetch size defines the number of records that will be retrieved from the database in each batch until all records are retrieved. The default is 5000.
Chunking Method	drop down list	Chunking methods allow for parallel extraction of large tables. The default is No Chunking. There are two chunking methods: ● By Size of Chunking (Single Table) ● By Date/Timestamp
Chunk Size	text box	Select By Size of Chunking for the Chunking Method to set this property. Enter the number of records to extract in each chunk in relation to the Fetch Size. The default is 3 times the Fetch Size.
Order Column	drop down list	Select By Size of Chunking for the Chunking Method to set this property. Select a column in the source table you want to order by before chunking. It's typically an ID column and it must be numeric.
Upper Bound for Order Column	text box	Optional. Enter the maximum value for the order column.
Lower Bound for Order Column	text box	Optional. Enter the minimum value for the order column.
Order Column [Date/Timestamp]	drop down list	Select By Date/Timestamp for the Chunking Method to set this property. Select a column in the source table you want to order by before chunking. It should be a Date/Timestamp column.
Chunk Period	drop down list	Select the chunk period that will be used in dividing chunks: ● Daily ● Weekly (default) ● Monthly ● Yearly ● Custom
Callback	toggle	Enable this option to call back on the source data set
Callback URL	text box	Enable Callback to configure this property. Specify the URL.

View the physical schema diagram with the Schema Diagram Viewer

Here are the steps to view the physical schema diagram using the Schema Diagram Viewer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the list of schemas, select the XML physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Diagram.

Load the physical schema

Here are the steps to perform a Full Load of the XML physical schema using the Schema Designer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the list of schemas, select the XML physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Load → Full Load.
To review the load status, in Last Load Status, select the date.

Explore the physical schema

With the full load of the XML physical schema complete, you can use the Analyzer to explore the schema, create your first insight, and save the insight to a new dashboard.

To open the Analyzer from the physical schema, follow these steps:

In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Schema Manager, in the List view, select the XML physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Explore Data.

For more information about how to use the Analyzer to create insights, see Analyzer and Visualizations.

Additional Considerations

Types of Incremental Load

You can enable Incremental Load for an XML data source. There are two types of incremental extracts:

Last Successful Extract Time

Fetch updates since the last time the tables were loaded. This is determined by the difference between the current time and the database timestamp.

Maximum Value of a Column

The Incremental Field Type value determines how the incremental load functions for the table. The XML connector supports both timestamp and numeric columns. A timestamp column is of the type date or timestamp. A numeric column is of the type int or long.

Note

Changing the Incremental Field Type require a full load of the table to ensure data integrity.

Incremental Load Example

In this example, the people XML must contain a column of the type Date or Timestamp in order to load the table incrementally with a last successful extract time strategy. In this case, the name of the date column is [personal.modifieddate] and the format of the column is Timestamp.

Here are the data source property values for this example:

Incremental is enabled

Query contains

SELECT
 [personal.age] AS age,
 [personal.gender] AS gender,
 [personal.name.first] AS name_first,
 [personal.name.last] AS name_last,
 [personal.modifieddate] as modified_date
 [source],
 [vehicles]
FROM
 [people]

Update Query contains

SELECT
 [personal.age] AS age,
 [personal.gender] AS gender,
 [personal.name.first] AS name_first,
 [personal.name.last] AS name_last,
 [personal.modifieddate] as modified_date
 [source],
 [vehicles]
FROM
 [people]
WHERE [personal.modifieddate] > ?

Note

? is a variable in the update query that contains the last physical schema refresh date.

Incremental Field Type = Timestamp

Note

If running an update query for an incremental load, you are able to use the ? reference character. The ? character will be replaced with the last incremental reference to construct a valid query to the database. The ? reference character is not valid in a standard query.