The record adapters load the source data.
To start, here is a quick review of how sample data included with the
deployment template is processed. The sample application includes a sample
dataset in
<app dir>/test_data/baseline
directory. When
processing the sample data, the
load_baseline_test_data
script copies the contents of
this directory into the
<app dir>/data/incoming/
directory and sets a flag in
the EAC.
This flag, named
baseline_data_ready
, indicates to the deployment
template scripts that the data extraction process is complete and data is ready
for processing. Once that has occurred, the baseline update process copies
these files into the
<app dir>/data/processing
directory before running
the Forge process.
When using a default deployment template application, it is therefore
necessary for all input record adapters to look in the
<app dir>/data/processing
directory for incoming data
extracts. The deployment template handles this automatically by specifying the
--inputDir
flag when running the primary forge process.
This flag overrides any absolute path specified for specific input adapters
with the proper deployment template path:
<app dir>/data/processing
. However, the
--inputDir
flag respects relative paths, resolving them
relative to the path specified as the input directory.
The URL property of any record adapter component therefore only needs to
specify the relative path to a specific file or subdirectory within the
<app dir>/data/incoming
directory. (Remember that
files and subdirectories in the incoming directory are copied to the processing
directory by the deployment template before Forge is run.)
For example, if a single extract file called
data.txt
is copied into the
<app dir>/data/incoming
directory before running a
baseline, the URL property of that data's input record adapter should specify a
URL of
data.txt
.
For a more complex deployment where, for instance, multiple text extract
files are copied into the
<app dir>/data/incoming/extracted_data
directory
before running a baseline update, the URL property of a single input record
adapter configured to read these files should be set to
extracted_data/*.txt
.