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Overview
A pipe is a connector that links two elements in a PhixFlow model and sends data from the input to the output. Pipes allows you to control which attributes and which records from the input are delivered by to the output, although in most cases - with minimal configuration - you will get all columns and the records from the current run.
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For advanced configuration, see Advanced Pipe Configuration.
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A pipe joining a datasource to a data collector has no details to edit. All the configuration for the output data set occurs in the collector - either a database collector for a database datasource, or an HTTP collector for an HTTP datasource. |
Basic Settings
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| Name | Enter a name. The name is used to refer to the pipe in other model elements. Pipe names default to The name:
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| Enabled |
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| Static | Normally when a pipe requests data from a non-static input stream, that stream will first attempt to bring itself up to date, generating new stream sets as necessary, before supplying the data requested. However, if this field is ticked, the input stream will not run. Pipes from collectors cannot be marked as static.
Pipes from collectors cannot be marked as static. | ||||||||||||||||
| Mandatory |
If this is a push pipe with positive offsets and this option is ticked then the notification to create another stream set will only be pushed along the pipe if the last stream set created contains at least one record. This causes the pipe to present each candidate set to the output stream in a different way than usual. | ||||||||||||||||
| Multiplier |
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| Type | Select:
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| Data to Read | Select the type of input data to use.
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| Read Future Data | Use this option to exclude or include input streams sets that have future dates relative to the stream set you are generating. For details about how future stream sets occur, see Managing Future Stream Sets, above.
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| Input | The name of the object at the start of the pipe. | ||||||||||||||||
| Output | The name of the stream at the end of the pipe. |
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In some circumstances the input stream may have stream sets that have dates in the future relative to the stream set being generated for the output stream. This may happen, for example, if:
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When you run analysis on a stream with a transactional period, it is possible that as your analysis is still running, a different run can start and complete. This run can generate additional stream sets on the input stream with a future data relative to the date of the stream set you are generating. For transactional input streams, you want the pipe to use these future streams. To do this, tick the Read Future Data check box.
Filter
Filters are made up of a set of clauses; each clause in turn contains a number of conditions. These conditions must be satisfied for data to be passed through the pipe.
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Available when Type is Lookup.
For lookup pipes, PhixFlow uses the pipe cache when it looks-up data from streams or database collectors. For efficiency, the records are cached (stored temporarily in memory) so that if the same set of records need to be looked up again they are readily available without going back to the database.
Enter a number to set a limit on the data cache size available for the pipe. You need to estimate the largest number of records that the lookup pipe will return on a single read. Check whether PhixFlow is looking up:
- many records
The pipe does a single lookup onto a stream or database table to get a large number of records in one go, for example 10,000 records. - few records may times
The pipe does many lookups, getting a small number of records for each lookup, for example, 10 records at a time. In this case, PhixFlow is usually using a key value, such as an account number, to get the data. The key value is:- for a stream - the attribute used to filter the pipe
- for a database collector - a condition in the database query. For example:
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WHERE AccountNumber = _out.AccountNum |
If you do not set a limit for the cache, PhixFlow uses the system default set in System Configuration → System Tuning → Maximum Pipe Cache Size.
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In the log for an analysis run, which is available in the system console, PhixFlow reports warnings when a single read returns:
PhixFlow reports an error and stops the analysis run when:
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Every time the lookup pipe is referenced, PhixFlow calculates the values of all of the variable elements of the query or pipe filter, and checks if it already has a set of data in the cache retrieved using this set of variable values. If so the data is immediately returned from the cache. Otherwise, a new set of data is read from the stream of collector. If adding the new records to the cache would cause it to exceed the maximum cache size, previously cached results are removed to make enough room for the new results. |
Use this option to look up data from attributes that are present in a stream view on the input stream.
Select a stream view from the list. If the input stream has no views, the list will be empty.
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Sorting or filtering of records must be set directly on the pipe. It is not inherited from the pipe view. |
Use the pipe view to limit the attributes that the pipe reads when:
- a stream has lots of attributes containing many data records
- but you only need data from a few attributes.
Only the data for the attributes in the stream view are sent to the output stream.
Pipe views are very useful:
- during lookups a pipe loads and caches all of the attributes from the stream. This can use a lot of memory, especially when there are many records.
- during file export all data records from all attributes are exported.
To set up a pipe view:
- Create a new view on the source stream. In the view, only add the attributes you need.
- In the pipe Pipe View option, select the pipe view.
- Run analysis. PhixFlow only looks-up or exports data from the attributes specified on the view.
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If a File Exporter is configured to export to Excel or to HTML:
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Select one of the options
- Where ALL...
- Where ANY...
- .
To add more conditions, hover your mouse pointer over
this field to display
Add
the button and add another condition to your filter.
Select an option from the list. PhixFlow adds more fields where you can:
- select how the filter matches (for example,
equals,contains,is null) - enter a string that the filter uses to match the data. The string can be an expression or a literal string.
Hover your mouse pointer over conditions or clauses to display:
Insert excerpt _
add _
add nopanel true
Delete the
- another condition or clause to the filter
the selected clause or condition from the filter.Insert excerpt _delete _delete nopanel true Insert excerpt _filter_literal _filter_literal nopanel true
- indicates the value entered is a literal value. Click this icon to treat the value as an expression.
Insert excerpt _filter_expression _filter_expression nopanel true
indicates the value entered is an expression. Click this icon to treat the value to a literal string.
Note: ["123", "234", "345"] looks like a literal value but it can be evaluated as an expression.
Open the expression in a larger editor.
A cache extraction filter allows you to further filter the data retrieved by a pipe. These are not commonly used, but are sometimes helpful when either:
- Optimising performance on a lookup pipe when for a set of records, the record you require from the lookup depends on non-key data, e.g. the date
- When getting data from a pull pipe when the filter requires that you compare one value in each record with another; this is not possible within a standard filter.
For case 1, when using a lookup pipe, data retrieved is stored in a cache. See cache size for details. The cache extraction filter allows you, as you are processing a set of output records, to use different cached entries from the lookup for each of the records are you are processing. This is very fast compared to looking up from the source (i.e. going back to an external DB table or even another PhixFlow stream) for each output record.
E.g. you want to look up the credit rating for a customer for a set of transactions - in the output, each transaction is represented by a single output record. You create an indexed lookup pipe using CustNo as the key for the index. This means that for each new CustNo you encounter in the data, all the credit rating entries for that CustNo would be retrieved by the pipe and placed into the cache. The credit rating for each customer is fully historied, so you get a number of entries for each CustNo. To get the relevant lookup entry for each output report (each transaction), you need to compare the transaction date of the output record to the dates of credit rating entries in the cache. So to extract the relevant record, you include a cache extraction filter in the form:
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StartDate >= _out.TransDate && (EndDate <= _out.TransDate || EndDate == _NULL) |
Cache extraction filters are entered free hand.
The attribute names referenced must exist in a stream. This means that the each attribute must be one of:
- an attribute in a source stream, if you are reading from a stream
- if you are reading from an external database table, one of the fields returned by the database collector AND an attribute in the output stream. This means to use an attribute with the source as a database collector, there must be an attribute of matching name in the output stream
- an attribute in the destination stream, in which case you will refer to it using the format
_out.AttributeName
Filter Examples
Filter on Current User
Sometimes when running analysis you want to select, from the source, only records belonging to the currently logged in user. To set a filter where, say, an attribute in the source Owner equals the current logged in user, add a condition to the filter like this:
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Country Is in ["England","France","Germany"] fx
Sort/Group
Use this section to group and sort data as it comes through the pipe. for lookup pipes, this section is called Order/Index. This section has:
- a toolbar with standard buttons
- a grid that lists the attributes that you want to sort or use to group
- below the grid are the following options:
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You cannot aggregate data from attributes if the pipe's input is from: If you need to aggregate data from a database collector, you can use an SQL query. |
This section has:
- a toolbar with standard buttons
- a grid that lists the attributes that you want to aggregate.
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| Data Expected | This check box is available when the pipe Type is Push or Pull.
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| Allow Incomplete Stream Sets |
PhixFlow cannot complete a stream set if:
Pipes that are not used in the analysis run do not try to complete a stream set, so will not report an error. (Unused pipes can occur if they lead to streams on branches of the model that are not being run.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cache Size | aa
Enter a number to set a limit on the data cache size available for the pipe. You need to estimate the largest number of records that the lookup pipe will return on a single read. Check whether PhixFlow is looking up:
If you do not set a limit for the cache, PhixFlow uses the system default set in System Configuration → System Tuning → Maximum Pipe Cache Size.
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| Buffer Size | Enter a number for the buffer size used to perform the stream calculation. If a large amount of data is being processed, then setting a large buffer size will give better performance. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pipe View | Use this option to look up data from attributes that are present in a stream view on the input stream Select a stream view from the list. If the input stream has no views, the list will be empty.
Use the pipe view to limit the attributes that the pipe reads when:
Only the data for the attributes in the stream view are sent to the output stream. Pipe views are very useful:
To set up a pipe view:
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Max Records To Read | Enter a number for the maximum number of records that should be read down this pipe. The pipe may read more than this number of records if it is configured to carry out multiple reads simultaneously. For example:
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| Strategy | Select an option to specify how this pipe should be implemented. See the section on Directed Merge Strategy
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Max Workers | This field is available when Strategy is Directed Enter the maximum number of concurrent worker tasks. When no value is specified, this defaults to 1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Worker Size | This field is available when Strategy is Directed Enter the number of key values to read for a single worker task, which runs a single select statement. When no value is specified, this defaults to 1000. This is the maximum value that can be used when reading from an Oracle database. |
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