Load Request

At this point, the following steps should already be achieved by the Data Integration (DI) team:

  1. Create the JSONL files Data Integration | 1. Export JSONL files

The load request is done for every document JSONL (following the required Data Structure) required for your Data Integration process, once they are generated.

For a product data sync, make sure the following tables have been prepared and are provided: doc_product, doc_attributes, doc_attribute_values and doc_languages

 

/load

The load request will do the following things:

  1. saving your JSONL (for every data type required for the data sync type) in a Google Cloud Storage (GCS) Bucket from the Boxalino project

    1. the files are available for 30 days in the clients` GCS bucket

  2. loading every JSONL in a BigQuery table in Boxalino project

    1. for Instant Updates : the tables have a retention policy of 1 day

    2. for Delta Updates: the tables have a retention policy of 7 days

    3. for Full Updates: thetables have a retention policy of 30 days

Boxalino will provide access to the data Storage Buckets and BigQuery datasets that store your data.

Request Definition

1

Endpoint

full data sync

https://boxalino-di-full-krceabfwya-ew.a.run.app

2

 

delta data sync

https://boxalino-di-delta-krceabfwya-ew.a.run.app

3

 

instant-update data sync

https://boxalino-di-instant-update-krceabfwya-ew.a.run.app

4

 

stage / testing

https://boxalino-di-stage-krceabfwya-ew.a.run.app

5

Action

/load

6

Method

POST

7

Body

the document JSONL

8

Headers

Authorization

Basic base64<<DATASYNC API key : DATASYNC API Secret>>

Note: only the API credentials with role=ADMIN are valid. API Credentials | Roles

9

 

Content-Type

application/json

10

 

project

(optional) the project name where the documents are to be stored;

11

 

dataset

(optional) the dataset in which the doc_X tables must be stored;

 

if not provided, the service will check the <index>_<mode> dataset in the Boxalino project, to which you will have access

12

 

bucket

(optional) the storage bucket where the doc_X will be loaded;

if not provided, the service will use the Boxalino project.

13

 

doc

the document type (as described in Data Structure )

14

 

client

your Boxalino account name

15

 

dev

only add it if the dev data index must be updated

16

 

mode

D for delta , I for instant update, F for full

technical: the constants from the GcpClientInterface data-integration-doc-php/src/Service/GcpRequestInterface.php at 3.0.0 · boxalino/data-integration-doc-php

17

 

tm

time, in format: YmdHis
requirement: the same tm value must be used from the begging of the DI process until the end, for all files.

technical: used to identify the version of the documents and create the content.

18

 

ts

timestamp, must be millisecond based in UNIX timestamp

technical: calculated from the time the data has been exported to BQ; the update requests will be applied in version ts order; data-integration-doc-php/src/Service/Flow/DiRequestTrait.php at 3.0.0 · boxalino/data-integration-doc-php

19

 

type

integration type (product, order, etc)
data-integration-doc-php/src/Service/GcpRequestInterface.php at 3.0.0 · boxalino/data-integration-doc-php

20

 

chunk

(optional) for loading content by chunks
see Load Request | Load By Chunks

A LOAD REQUEST code-sample is available in the data-integration-doc-php library: data-integration-doc-php/src/Service/Flow/LoadTrait.php at 3.0.0 · boxalino/data-integration-doc-php

Optionally, if you are to use an advanced rest client , you can configure it as such:

Advanced REST Client SYNC request structure

Integration Strategy

  • doc_attribute, doc_attribute_value, doc_language can be synchronized with a call to the load endpoint

    • because GCP has a size limit of 32MB for POST requests, do not use the /load service for big data exports

  • doc_product / doc_order / doc_user / doc_content / etc and other content bigger than 32 MB must be loaded in batches (max size of 32MB) or via GCS Public Signed URL /load/chunk endpoint

Load in Batches / data > 32 MB

In order to upload the content in chunks or in big data sizes (GB of data), the following requests are required:

  1. make an HTTP POST call to /load/chunk endpoint .

    1. The HTTP headers must include a new property - chunk.

      1. the chunk value (number or textual) can be the order of the batch / pagination / SEEK strategy used for content segmentation / etc

    2. This endpoint returns a public GCS Signed URL (https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/access-control/signed-urls ). This is used to load content data-integration-doc-php/src/Service/Flow/GcsLoadUrlTrait.php at 3.0.0 · boxalino/data-integration-doc-php

      1. the received link is generated by GCS. It will be unique per each loaded segment.

  2. with the response from step #1, load the document content (PUT)

    1. data-integration-doc-php/src/Service/Flow/LoadByChunkTrait.php at 3.0.0 · boxalino/data-integration-doc-php

  3. repeat step#1 + step#2 (in a loop) until all your product/order/customers content has been uploaded

    1. the chunk value is updated (as part of the iteration)

    2. the same tm value must be used

  4. make an HTTP POST call to load/bq endpoint

    1. It will inform BQ to load the stored GCS content to your dataset

    2. data-integration-doc-php/src/Service/Flow/LoadBqTrait.php at 3.0.0 · boxalino/data-integration-doc-php

 

Fallback / retry policies

We do our best to ensure that our services are continuously available to receive requests. The endpoints have a timeout of 3600s. This means that your POST request will receive a response when the service finished your request (either error or succes) or when the timeout is reached.

The /load , /load/chunk , /load/bq have a succesfull response on average in 10sec (so the wait time is minimal). Howether, we recommend for your fallback/retry policy, to use a timeout configuration of 3-5 min.

Based on your system, the timeout is represented by different parameters for the HTTP request.

curl --max-time 10 --connect-timeout 30 <SERVICE> -X POST -d <data>

--max-time is the timeout: wait 10s for a response from the server or stop connection
--connect-timeout is the connection timeout: wait 30s to make a connection to the service or stop connection

Instead of stop connection, we recommend to integrate a fallback policy with a retry.

Using private GCP resources for DI

For the case when the client wants to use their own GCP resources for the Data Integration with Boxalino, the following requirements must be complied with:

BigQuery Datasets

 

1. Naming

The BigQuery dataset in which your account documents are loaded can be named after the data index and process it is meant to synchronize to:

  1. if the request is for the dev data index - <client>_dev_<mode>

  2. if the request is for the production data index - <client>_<mode>

, where:

  • <client> is the account name provided by Boxalino.

  • <mode> is the process F (for full), D (for delta), I (for instant)

Example, for our an account boxalino_client, the following datasets must exist (upon your integration use-cases):

  • for dev index: boxalino_client_dev_I, boxalino_client_dev_F, boxalino_client_dev_D

  • for production data index: boxalino_client_I, boxalino_client_F, boxalino_client_D

The above datasets must exist in your project.

 

2. Location

Upon the creation of your dataset, please use the Data Location: EU

3. Permissions

In order to have read & write access to your private dataset, please provide the following permissions to the Data Integration Service Account (DISA) 55483703770-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com:

  1. BigQuery Data Viewer

  2. BigQuery Metadata Viewer

  3. BigQuery Data Editor / Owner

  4. BigQuery Job User

or BigQuery Admin to the created datasets datasets.

Storage Bucket

1. Naming

In your custom project must be available the storage buckets in which #1 step can be done (loading your generated JSONL document).

Follow the Google documentation on how to create storage buckets.

The storage buckets have the requirement to be unique within the scope of the integration. Please use the following naming formula:

  1. <your-custom-project>_<your-boxalino_account>_dev

  2. <your-custom-project>_<your-boxalino-account>

 

2. Location

For content storage, please use either Multi-region (eu) or Region (europe-west1).

 

3. Permissions

In order to have load & read access to your private Google Cloud Storage buckets, please provide the following permissions to the Data Integration Service Account (DISA) 55483703770-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com:

  1. Storage Object Creator

  2. Storage Object Admin

The above permissions can be replaced with the Storage Admin role.