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This page is for a data modeller who needs to load data from an external source via HTTP.

Overview

An HTTP

Collector

collector reads data from a HTTP Datasource. The collector defines how the data needed from the datasource

will be

is extracted to be used in PhixFlow.

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To add a new HTTP collector to an analysis model:

Go to the model's toolbar → Create group.
Click
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to expand the menu.
Drag a
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onto the analysis model.

To add an existing HTTP collector to an analysis model, in the model diagram toolbar:

Go to the model toolbar → List group.
Click
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to expand the menu.
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Stream

to open the list of available collectors.
Drag an HTTP collector into the analysis model.

Table Values in a HTTP Collector

To drive the lookups made by a HTTP

Collector

collector from a

stream

table, the two must be connected using a lookup pipe. For example

- If

, a URL for a server

is

can either be captured

,

or calculated

, on a stream

in an attribute called "ServerURL"

and passed

. The URL is then passed via a lookup pike to the HTTP

Collector

collector to be used in its URL Expression

, the pipe connecting the two must be a lookup pipe.

.

If the pipe is called in, here is how the URL Expression would be written on the HTTP

Collector

HTTP Collector Properties

collector:
{substring(in.ServerUrl,9)}

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Basic Settings

Field	Description
Name

Name

Enter the name of the HTTP

Collector

collector.

Enabled

Tick when

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when the configuration is complete and the collector is ready to be used.

HTTP

Data Source

Datasource

The

Select the HTTP datasource that this collector will collect from. For how to add a new one, see HTTP Datasource Properties. To select from a list, click

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.

HTTP Request Method

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Select one of the following HTTP methods to use for the request:

GET or POST
GET
POST
DELETE
OPTIONS
PUT
PATCH

We recommend that you select a method but if you do not, PhixFlow uses GET or POST by default. If the Send Message → Statement Expression:

evaluates to null or empty string, PhixFlow uses GET
is not empty, PhixFlow uses POST.

For information, see the w3schools page about HTTP methods.

Icon

The Icon

Enter the name of an icon to display in controls when this HTTP collector is used.
Timeout (secs)	The number of seconds to wait for a response from the corresponding HTTP datasource before a timeout is recorded.

Allow Non

Allow Non-Scheduled Collection	If this is turned on, then the collector will run as part of any ad-hoc Analysis Engine run which requires this data. If not, it will only run as part of a scheduled Task Plan under the Analysis Engine.
Datasource Instance Expression	The datasource to which this collector is connected may list multiple instances from which the data may be accessed. Each HTTP

Datasource Instance

datasource instance is identified by a unique string. This expression should evaluate to a string which allows the collector to determine the specific instance to use. If the expression is blank then the collector will assume that there is only one instance and will use that one by default. If there is more than one instance and no expression is provided here then an error will be thrown during analysis since the collector will be unable to determine which source to use.

Send Message

Define details of the HTTP request sent to the HTTP Datasource to get the data required.

Field	Description

URL Expression

The URL to be used, without the leading http:// prefix. The URL may contain embedded expressions within { }. If this field is blank, the

url

URL field on the httpDatasourceInstance is used directly.

For Example, this expression adds to the base

url

URL provided by the HTTP

Datasource Instance

datasource instance:
{_url}/sub1/sub2?param1=3

The HTTP Collector will follow any HTTP redirections and return the final response.

Statement Expression

An expression to generate the data that will be sent by the exporter to the datasource. For Example

<?xml version ="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE CORPORATE DASHBOARD "corpDash.dtd"> <results user="%USERNAME%" password="%PASSWORD%"> <monthlyTotals region={'"' + Region + '"'} division={'"' + Division + '"'}> <totalBilled>{'"' + TotalBilled + '"'}<\totalBilled> <totalCollected>{'"' + TotalCollected + '"'}<\totalCollected> <monthlyTotals> <\results>

The username and password for the HTTP Datasource Instance are available as %USERNAME% and %PASSWORD%.

The data will be encoded using the charset parameter specified by the Content-Type Header if one is present. If no Content-Type Header is set then ISO-8859-1 will be used. If the Content-Type header is set, but does not specify a charset then PhixFlow will use a default character set dependant on the content type.

HTTP Headers

This section has a toolbar with standard buttons. The grid contains a list of the HTTP headers defined for this collector. To add a HTTP header to the list, click

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. PhixFlow opens a new HTTP Header Properties properties tab. To remove a HTTP header, use the

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in the toolbar.

Some headers will be set to default values if not provided. Automatically added headers may not appear in the debug log. The Content-Length header will be added to all requests and cannot be overridden by providing a value.

Response

Define the data response type/format that will be returned:

HTML: response type allows an XPath Expression to be specified in order to retrieve just specified sections of the data into XML structures.
XML: response type allows an XPath Expression to be specified in order to retrieve just specified sections of the data into XML structures. XML response types also support XML namespaces. The Xml Namspaces tab will be available when this response type is chosen.
String: response type will return the full data as a string value.

Please see Response Examples for how the returned data can be used and evaluated in the corresponding stream attribute expressions.

Field	Description

Return Type

Return Type	The type of the expected response : XML/HTTP/String
XPath	The XPath expression used to resolve or filter the data that comes back in XML or HTML format.

Note that

Note
Xpath namespaces syntax can only be used for XML response types.

XML Namespaces

This section has a toolbar with standard buttons. The grid contains a list of the namespaces defined in an XML response.

To add a namespace to the list, click

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. PhixFlow opens a new XML Namespace Properties

properties tab

panel. To remove a namespace, use the

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in the toolbar.

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Advanced

Field

Description

Log Traffic

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to include HTTP traffic in the logs. This is useful for debugging problems.

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Response Examples

This example uses the following XML and HTML data.

XML Data

<?xml version ="1.0"?> <root xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/"> <main page="PF Main Page" > <h:title h:name="PF Title">PF Title Text <h:datarow> <h:data h:initials="AA">Alistair Andrews</h:data> <h:data h:initials="BB">Bert Brown</h:data> </h:datarow> </h:title> <title name="Non namespace Title">Non namespace Title Text</title> </main> </root>

HTML Data

<html> <body nodename="Html Body"> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td initials="AA">Alistair Andrews</td> <td initials="BB">Bert Brown</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </body> </html>

The data is being pointed to by either HTTP datasources or XML/HTML File collectors respectively.

The following table shows the different types of responses that can be returned from an HTTP Collector and how these can be used in the corresponding stream attribute expressions. A HTTP Collector response type of XML/HTML will mimic the responses from XML/HTML Collectors respectively.

Response Type XPath Expression Explanation

String n/a A String response should be referenced in the stream attribute expressions as in.value Note that in.value will contain the complete string data referenced above.

XML

/root/main/h:title

Note
The namspace prefix used here 'h' must be configured in the XML Namespace Properties.

This XPath expression will bring back all elements matching the xpath expression including the parent/grandparents and all child elements/subelements. i.e

<root xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/"> <main page="PF Main Page" > <h:title h:name="PF Title">PF Title Text <h:datarow> <h:data h:initials="AA">Alistair Andrews</h:data> <h:data h:initials="BB">Bert Brown</h:data> </h:datarow> </h:title> </main> </root>

The following examples show how to reference the returned xpaths html/xml data structure in stream attribute expressions:-

Xpath element text value: in.value -> returns 'PF Title Text'
Xpath element attibutes: in.h$name -> returns 'PF Title'
Xpath parent attributes: in.^.page -> returns 'PF Main Page'
Xpath child attributes: listToString(in.h$datarow.h$data.h$initials) -> returns 'AA,BB'
Xpath child attribute text values: listToString(in.h$datarow.h$data.value) -> returns 'Alistair Andrews,Bert Brown'

Note the use of

$ instead of our usual : namespace notation.
^ to traverse to the immediate parent element.
the listToString function to handle multiple matching child elements/attributes.

HTML

/html/body/table

Note
Namspaces are not supported in the Xpath expression for HTML response types.

This XPath expression will bring back all elements matching the xpath expression including the parent/grandparents and all child elements/subelements. i.e

<html> <body nodename="Html Body"> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td initials="AA">Alistair Andrews</td> <td initials="BB">Bert Brown</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </body> </html>

The following examples show how to reference the returned xpaths html/xml data structure in stream attribute expressions:-

Xpath parent attributes: in.^.nodename -> returns 'Html Body'
Xpath child attributes: listToString(in.tbody.tr.td.initials) -> returns 'AA,BB'
Xpath child attribute text values: listToString(in.tbody.tr.td.value) -> returns 'Alistair Andrews,Bert Brown'

Note the use of:

^ to traverse to the immediate parent element.
the listToString function to handle multiple matching child elements/attributes.
the optional html <tbody> tags. If these are not in your html data, then PhixFlow will insert them to conform with the HTML standards. Therefore when using absolute XPath expressions, the tbody tags need to be included even if they are not present in the incoming HTML data. That means /html/title/table/tr should be replaced with /html/title/table/tbody/tr or use //tr
The same applies when referencing parent/child nodes within the stream attribute expressions.

Advanced

Field

Description

Log Traffic

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Log HTTP Collector Connection Details : when ticked, PhixFlow always logs HTTP responses and requests for HTTP collectors, whatever is set here.

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Version	Old Version 43	New Version 44
Changes made by	Fiona Sargeant (Unlicensed)	Fiona Sargeant (Unlicensed)
Saved on	Mar 08, 2022	Mar 16, 2022

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