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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.

Stream

.

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

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Table Values in a HTTP Collector

To drive the lookups made by a HTTP Collector collector from a streamtable, 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 Collectorcollector:
{substring(in.ServerUrl,9)}

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HTTP Collector Properties

standard_settingsstandard_settingsName CollectorTick when HTTP Data SourceThe HTTP datasource that this collector will collect from.

Send Message

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

Field Description

HTTP Request Method

Excerpt

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

GET or

PostPUTURL 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 field on the httpDatasourceInstance is used directly.

For Example, this expression adds to the base url provided by the HTTP Datasource Instance :

{_url}/sub1/sub2?param1=3IconThe Icon to display in controls when this 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-Scheduled CollectionIf 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 ExpressionThe datasource to which this collector is connected may list multiple instances from which the data may be accessed. Each HTTP 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.

FieldDescription

URL

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The HTTP collector follows any HTTP redirections and returns the final response.

Statement Expression

An expression to generate the data that will be sent by the

exporter For Example

Expressions should be embedded in ${value}

Examplex

Code Block

title	XML Statement

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

<totalBilled>\totalBilled> <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.

/totalCollected>
	</monthlyTotals>
</results>

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{
	user: '${user}',
	code:  ${'{size: "big"}'}
	price: ${price},
	currency: '${currency}'
}

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HTTP Headers

This section has a toolbar

with standard

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 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 :HTML: response type allows an XPath Expression to be specified in order to retrieve just specified sections of the data into XML structures

and the desired location of the data.

See Response Examples below for how the returned data can be used and evaluated in the corresponding attribute expressions.

Field

Description

Return Type

Select the data type expected as the response from the API call:

String: response type will return the full data as a string value. This is available using the value in a subsequent table.
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 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.

FieldDescriptionReturn TypeThe type of the expected response : XML/HTTP/StringXPathThe XPath XML or HTML Note that Xpath can only be used with standard

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 tab

property pane. To remove a namespace, use the

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in the toolbar.

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Advanced

Field

Description

HTTP Datasource

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

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.

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 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.

Timeout (secs)

The number of seconds to wait for a response from the corresponding HTTP datasource before a timeout is recorded.

Collector Icon

PhixFlow displays this icon in controls when the HTTP collector is used.

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An icon can be set by uploading an

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or using an image already uploaded to the application. If this field is left blank, PhixFlow checks for an icon set on the associated HTTP Datasource and uses that icon, and if that too is empty, then the default icon is used.

Allow Non-Scheduled Collection

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to run the HTTP collector as part of any ad-hoc analysis run that requires this data. If not, it will only run as part of a scheduled Task Plan.

Use Raw URL

If enabled the URL Template value is sent in exactly the format it is provided to the HTTP Node. If not enabled PhixFlow will transpose values to form a valid URL, such as replacing spaces with %20.

Log Traffic

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Note
PhixFlow always logs HTTP responses and requests for HTTP collectors, whatever is set here.

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Response Examples

This example uses the following

XML and HTML <?xml version ="1.0"?> <root

Standard

Code Block

language	xml

<root> 
	<main page="PF Main Page"> 
		<title name="PF Title">PF Title Text
			<datarow> 
				<data initials="AA">Alistair Andrews</data>
				<data initials="BB">Bert Brown</data> 
			</datarow> 
		</title> 
	</main> 
</root>

With Namespace

Code Block

language	xml

<root xmlns:h="http://

wwww3.org/TR/html4/ h:h:h: <title name="Non namespace Title">Non namespace Title Text</title> >Alistair

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

JSON

Code Block

language	xml

{
	"main_page": {
		"page": "PF Main Page",
		"title" : {
			"name" : "PF Title Text,
			"data" : [
				{"initials": "AA", "value" : "Alistair Andrews"},
				{"initials": "BB", "value" : "Bert Brown"}
			]
		}
	}
}

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 XPath stream h:

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

This XPath xpath 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>

xpaths stream text valuevalue -> returns 'PF Title Text'Xpath element attibutes: in.h$name h$datarowh$datah$initialsh$datarowh$data$ instead of our usual : namespace notation^ parent element.

child element within:
- XPath uses /
- Attribute expressions use the dot notation .
the listToString function to handle multiple matching child elements/attributes.

Namespaces

XML documents containing namespaces are supported.

Within path expressions they are referred to using semicolons.
- /root/main/h:title
Within attribute expressions a $ is used instead of the normal : namespace notation
- Xpath element attibutes: in.h$name -> returns 'PF Title''
- Xpath child attributes: listToString(in.h$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 namespace prefix used here '`h`' must be configured in the XML Namespace.

HTML

/html/body/table

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

This

XPath 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>

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

Advanced

FieldDescriptionLog Traffic Insert excerpt_log_traffic2_log_traffic2nopaneltrue

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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title

This path expression will bring back all elements matching the json path expression including the parent/grandparents and all child elements/sub elements.

The following examples show how to reference the returned json path data structure in attribute expressions:-

Immediate properties text value: in.name-> returns 'PF Title Text'
Parent properties: in.^.page -> returns 'PF Main Page'
Array properties: listToString(in.data.initials) -> returns 'AA,BB'
Array index in.data.initials.1 → returns 'AA'

Note the use of:

^ to traverse to the immediate parent element.
the listToString function to handle multiple matching child elements/attributes.
Array indexes can be used, these are 1 based.

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Learn More

For links to all pages in this topic, see Analysis Models

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Saved on	Jun 16, 2020	Aug 12, 2024

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