Filter row-level data for a source using the Flow Service API

This tutorial provides steps on how to filter row-level data for a source using the Flow Service API.

Getting started

This tutorial requires you to have a working understanding of the following components of Adobe Experience Platform:

• Sources: Experience Platform allows data to be ingested from various sources while providing you with the ability to structure, label, and enhance incoming data using Platform services.
• Sandboxes: Experience Platform provides virtual sandboxes which partition a single Platform instance into separate virtual environments to help develop and evolve digital experience applications.

Using Platform APIs

For information on how to successfully make calls to Platform APIs, see the guide on getting started with Platform APIs.

Filter source data

The following outlines steps to take in order to filter row-level data for your source.

Look up connection specifications

Before you can use the API to filter row-level data for a source, you must first retrieve your source’s connection specification details in order to determine the operators and language that a specific source supports.

To retrieve a given source’s connection specification, make a GET request to the /connectionSpecs endpoint of the Flow Service API while providing the property name of your source as part of your query parameters.

API format

GET /connectionSpecs/{QUERY_PARAMS}

Request

The following request retrieves connection specifications for Google BigQuery.

curl -X GET \
  'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/connectionSpecs?property=name=="google-big-query"' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
  -H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
  -H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
  -H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}'

Response

A successful response returns the connection specifications for Google BigQuery, including information on its supported query language and logical operators.

"attributes": {
  "filterAtSource": {
    "enabled": true,
    "queryLanguage": "SQL",
    "logicalOperators": [
      "and",
      "or",
      "not"
    ],
    "comparisonOperators": [
      "=",
      "!=",
      "<",
      "<=",
      ">",
      ">=",
      "like",
      "in"
    ],
    "columnNameEscapeChar": "`",
    "valueEscapeChar": "'"
  }

Comparison operators

Specify filtering conditions for ingestion

Once you have identified the logical operators and query language that your source supports, you can use Profile Query Language (PQL) to specify the filtering conditions you want to apply to your source data.

In the example below, conditions are applied to only select data that equal the provided values for the node types listed as parameters.

{
  "type": "PQL",
  "format": "pql/json",
  "value": {
    "nodeType": "fnApply",
    "fnName": "=",
    "params": [
      {
        "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
        "fieldName": "city"
      },
      {
        "nodeType": "literal",
        "value": "DDN"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Preview your data

You can preview your data by making a GET request to the /explore endpoint of the Flow Service API while providing filters as part of your query parameters and specifying your PQL input conditions in Base64.

API format

GET /connections/{BASE_CONNECTION_ID}/explore?objectType=table&object={TABLE_PATH}&preview=true&filters={FILTERS}

Request

curl -X GET \
  'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/connections/89d1459e-3cd0-4069-acb3-68f240db4eeb/explore?objectType=table&object=TESTFAS.FASTABLE&preview=true&filters=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\' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
  -H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
  -H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {IMS_ORG}' \
  -H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}'

Response

A successful request returns the following response.

{
  "format": "flat",
  "schema": {
    "columns": [
      {
        "name": "FIRSTNAME",
        "type": "string",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "LASTNAME",
        "type": "string",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "CITY",
        "type": "string",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "AGE",
        "type": "string",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "HEIGHT",
        "type": "string",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "ISEMPLOYED",
        "type": "boolean",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "boolean"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "POSTG",
        "type": "boolean",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "boolean"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "LATITUDE",
        "type": "double",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "number"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "LONGITUDE",
        "type": "double",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "number"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "JOINEDDATE",
        "type": "string",
        "meta:xdmType": "date-time",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "date-time"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "CREATEDAT",
        "type": "string",
        "meta:xdmType": "date-time",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "date-time"
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "CREATEDATTS",
        "type": "string",
        "meta:xdmType": "date-time",
        "xdm": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "date-time"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
 "data": [
    {
        "CITY": "MZN",
        "LASTNAME": "Jain",
        "JOINEDDATE": "2022-06-22T00:00:00",
        "LONGITUDE": 1000.222,
        "CREATEDAT": "2022-06-22T17:19:33",
        "FIRSTNAME": "Shivam",
        "POSTG": true,
        "HEIGHT": "169",
        "CREATEDATTS": "2022-06-22T17:19:33",
        "ISEMPLOYED": true,
        "LATITUDE": 2000.89,
        "AGE": "25"
    },
    {
        "CITY": "MUM",
        "LASTNAME": "Kreet",
        "JOINEDDATE": "2022-09-07T00:00:00",
        "LONGITUDE": 10500.01,
        "CREATEDAT": "2022-09-07T17:19:33",
        "FIRSTNAME": "Rakul",
        "POSTG": true,
        "HEIGHT": "155",
        "CREATEDATTS": "2022-09-07T17:19:33",
        "ISEMPLOYED": false,
        "LATITUDE": 2500.89,
        "AGE": "42"
    },
    {
        "CITY": "MAN",
        "LASTNAME": "Lee",
        "JOINEDDATE": "2022-09-14T00:00:00",
        "LONGITUDE": 1000.222,
        "CREATEDAT": "2022-09-14T05:02:33",
        "FIRSTNAME": "Denzel",
        "POSTG": true,
        "HEIGHT": "185",
        "CREATEDATTS": "2022-09-14T05:02:33",
        "ISEMPLOYED": true,
        "LATITUDE": 123.89,
        "AGE": "16"
    }
  ]
}

Create a source connection for filtered data

To create a source connection and ingest filtered data, make a POST request to the /sourceConnections endpoint while providing your filtering conditions as part of your body parameters.

API format

POST /sourceConnections

Request

The following request creates a source connection to ingest data from test1.fasTestTable where city = DDN.

curl -X POST \
  'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/sourceConnections' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
  -H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
  -H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
  -H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
      "name": "BigQuery Source Connection",
      "description": "Source Connection for Filter test",
      "baseConnectionId": "89d1459e-3cd0-4069-acb3-68f240db4eeb",
      "data": {
        "format": "tabular"
      },
      "params": {
        "tableName": "test1.fasTestTable",
        "filters": {
          "type": "PQL",
          "format": "pql/json",
          "value": {
            "nodeType": "fnApply",
            "fnName": "=",
            "params": [
              {
                "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
                "fieldName": "city"
              },
              {
                "nodeType": "literal",
                "value": "DDN"
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      },
      "connectionSpec": {
        "id": "3c9b37f8-13a6-43d8-bad3-b863b941fedd",
        "version": "1.0"
      }
    }'

Response

A successful response returns the unique identifier (id) of the newly created source connection.

{
    "id": "b7581b59-c603-4df1-a689-d23d7ac440f3",
    "etag": "\"ef05d265-0000-0200-0000-6019e0080000\""
}

Appendix

This section provides further examples of different payloads for filtering.

Singular conditions

You can omit the initial fnApply for scenarios that only require one condition.

{
  "type": "PQL",
  "format": "pql/json",
  "value": {
    "nodeType": "fnApply",
    "fnName": "like",
    "params": [
      {
        "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
        "fieldName": "firstname"
      },
      {
        "nodeType": "literal",
        "value": "%s"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Using the in operator

See the sample payload below for an example of the operator in.

{
  "type": "PQL",
  "format": "pql/json",
  "value": {
    "nodeType": "fnApply",
    "fnName": "and",
    "params": [
      {
        "nodeType": "fnApply",
        "fnName": "in",
        "params": [
          {
            "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
            "fieldName": "firstname"
          },
          {
            "nodeType": "literal",
            "value": [
              "Ramen",
              "John"
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Using the isNull operator

See the sample payload below for an example of the operator isNull.

{
  "type": "PQL",
  "format": "pql/json",
  "value": {
    "nodeType": "fnApply",
    "fnName": "isNull",
    "params": [
      {
        "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
        "fieldName": "complaint_type"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Using the NOT operator

See the sample payload below for an example of the operator NOT.

{
  "type": "PQL",
  "format": "pql/json",
  "value": {
    "nodeType": "fnApply",
    "fnName": "NOT",
    "params": [
      {
        "nodeType": "fnApply",
        "fnName": "isNull",
        "params": [
          {
            "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
            "fieldName": "complaint_type"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Example with nested conditions

See the sample payload below for an example of complex nested conditions.

{
  "type": "PQL",
  "format": "pql/json",
  "value": {
    "nodeType": "fnApply",
    "fnName": "and",
    "params": [
      {
        "nodeType": "fnApply",
        "fnName": ">=",
        "params": [
          {
            "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
            "fieldName": "age"
          },
          {
            "nodeType": "literal",
            "value": 20
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "nodeType": "fnApply",
        "fnName": "<=",
        "params": [
          {
            "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
            "fieldName": "age"
          },
          {
            "nodeType": "literal",
            "value": 30
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "nodeType": "fnApply",
        "fnName": "or",
        "params": [
          {
            "nodeType": "fnApply",
            "fnName": "!=",
            "params": [
              {
                "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
                "fieldName": "city"
              },
              {
                "nodeType": "literal",
                "value": "PUD"
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "nodeType": "fnApply",
            "fnName": "=",
            "params": [
              {
                "nodeType": "fieldLookup",
                "fieldName": "joinedDate"
              },
              {
                "nodeType": "literal",
                "value": "2020-04-22"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}