Methods provided by the Data Exchange library

The following functions you can use within your model, are exposed by the Data Exchange library.

Methods for reading and writing data

dex::AddMapping(mappingName, mappingFile)

Parses mappingFile to create a mapping called mappingName. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • mappingName – the name of the mapping to be created

  • mappingFile – the relative path to the mapping file to be parsed.

dex::DeleteMapping(mappingName)

Deletes an existing mapping mappingName. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure. Mappings referring to runtime identifiers, must be deleted prior to deleting the corresponding runtime library.

Arguments

  • mappingName – the name of the mapping to be created

dex::ResetMappingData(mappingName, emptyIdentifiers, emptySets, resetCounters)

Reset data associated with the mapping mappingName. The function can empty identifiers and sets associated with the mapping, and reset any iterative counters used in it. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • mappingName – the name of the mapping to be reset

  • emptyIdentifiers – indicates whether all identifiers referred in the mapping should be emptied

  • emptySets – indicates whether all domain and range sets referred in the mapping should be emptied

  • resetCounters – indicates whether to reset all counters for iterative-binds-to indices used in the mapping should be reset

dex::ReadFromFile(dataFile, mappingName, emptyIdentifiers, emptySets, resetCounters)

Reads data from file dataFile into model identifiers using mapping mappingName. Note that the identifiers used in the included-mapping and write-filter will also be emptied, depending on the emptyIdentifiers argument. When the mapping contains an the included-mapping or the iterative-existing attributes, emptying sets is likely to cause problems, unless the domain sets referred in these attributes are defined. In that case it is better to call dex::ResetMappingData() for selected mappings, or reset counters selectively using the iterative-reset attribute. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • dataFile – the relative path to the data file/folder to be read

  • mappingName – the name of the mapping to be used

  • emptyIdentifiers – indicates whether all identifiers referred in the mapping should be emptied prior to reading the file

  • emptySets – indicates whether all domain and range sets referred in the mapping should be emptied prior to reading the file

  • resetCounters – indicates whether to reset all counters for iterative-binds-to indices prior to reading the file

dex::WriteToFile(dataFile, mappingName, pretty)

Writes file dataFile from data in model identifiers using mapping mappingName. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • dataFile – the relative path to the data file/folder to write to

  • mappingName – the name of the mapping to be used for writing

  • pretty – indicates whether to use a pretty writer (enhances readability at the cost of bigger file size)

dex::ReadFromDataSource(dexconFile, mappingName, emptyIdentifiers, emptySets, resetCounters, version)

Reads from the database defined in DexConnect file dexconFile into model identifiers using mapping mappingName. Note that the identifiers used in the included-mapping and write-filter will also be emptied, depending on the emptyIdentifiers argument. When the mapping contains an the included-mapping or the iterative-existing attributes, emptying sets is likely to cause problems, unless the domain sets referred in these attributes are defined. In that case it is better to call dex::ResetMappingData() for selected mappings, or reset counters selectively using the iterative-reset attribute. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • dexconFile – the relative path to the DexConnect file defining the database configuration

  • mappingName – the name of the mapping to be used

  • emptyIdentifiers – indicates whether all identifiers referred in the mapping should be emptied prior to reading the file

  • emptySets – indicates whether all domain and range sets referred in the mapping should be emptied prior to reading the file

  • resetCounters – indicates whether to reset all counters for iterative-binds-to indices prior to reading the file

  • version – The version name of the dataset to be read. If this string is empty or omitted, the last version will be selected.

dex::WriteToDataSource(dexconFile, mappingName, version)

Writes to the database defined in DexConnect file dexconFile from data in model identifiers using mapping mappingName. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure. It will try to create the database if it does not exist.

Arguments

  • dexconFile – the relative path to the DexConnect file defining the database configuration

  • mappingName – the name of the mapping to be used for writing

  • version – The version name of the data set to be written. If left empty or empty string, DataExchange will create a name like “v_123”, where 123 is the primary key number.

dex::CreateOrModifyDataSource(dexconFile, mappingName)

Create a database as define by dexconFile and mapping mappingName. If the database exist it will check if the table can and needs to be modified. Currently it only allows to add maps-to columns. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • dexconFile – the relative path to the DexConnect file defining the database configuration

  • mappingName – the name of the mapping defining the (new) schema of the tables

dex::ReadAllMappings()

Read all mappings contained in the folder Mappings and store all successfully read mappings in the set dex::Mappings. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

dex::ReadMappings(startPath, recursive)

Read all mappings contained in the folder Mappings contained in startPath, and store all successfully read mappings in the set dex::Mappings. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • startPath – optional string argument indicating the folder containing mapping folder (default “”, indicating the project folder)

  • recursive – optional argument indicating whether or not to search for mapping files recursively in the Mappings folder

dex::ReadAnnotations()

Read all dex::Dataset, dex::TableName, and dex::ColumnName annotations specified in the model, and use these annotations to fill the identifiers

  • dex::Datasets

  • dex::Tables

  • dex::Columns

  • dex::DatasetTableMapping

  • dex::ColumnName

  • dex::DatasetTableColumnName

  • dex::DatasetTableColumnIndex

  • dex::DatasetTableColumnIdentifier

When every table can needs to be included in just a single dataset, you can uniquely specify the dataset-table mapping using annotations only. If tables need to be included in multiple datasets, you can manually modify the identifier dex::DatasetTableMapping to add any table to the datasets you wish to include them in.

dex::GenerateDatasetMappings()

Generate standardized table and Excel sheet mappings based on the dex::Dataset, dex::TableName, and dex::ColumnName annotations. The generated mappings will be stored in the Mappings/Generated subfolder of the project folder. All generated mappings will automatically be added to the set of available mappings, and can be directly used to read and write the standardized JSON, XML, CSV or Excel data sources based on the data exchange annotations. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure. Through the global option dex::PrefixAutoTableWithDataset you can prefix the generated table names with the specified dataset name, to prevent potential name clashes when the same table name is generated for multiple data categories. Through the global parameter dex::DatasetGeneratorFilter you can restrict the formats for which mappings will be generated, the default will be to generate mappings for all available formats.

You can use the generated mappings directly with the functions dex::WriteToFile() and dex::ReadFromFile() as with any manually created mapping.

Changing encodings and normalizations

The Data Exchange library only accepts UTF-8 JSON, XML and CSV files. Through the following functions you can change the encoding of a file prior to reading or after writing its contents. The library also contains a number of functions to normalize composed Unicode characters in strings and sets in your model to either the NFC or NFD normalization.

dex::ConvertFileToEncoding(inputFile, inputEncoding, ouputFile, outputEncoding, noBOM)

Converts file inputFile with encoding inputEncoding to file outputFile with outputEncoding, optionally with a BOM.

Arguments

  • inputFile – file path of the input file

  • inputEncoding – encoding of the input file from the predefined set AllCharacterEncodings

  • outputFile – file path of the output file

  • outputEncoding – encoding of the output file from the predefined set AllCharacterEncodings

  • noBOM – optional argument indicating whether or not the output file should start with a BOM (default 1)

dex::NormalizeString(inStr, outStr, normalization)

Normalize inStr to outStr using the normalization procedure indicated by normalization.

Arguments

  • inStr – scalar input string parameter to hold the string value to normalize

  • outStr – scalar output string parameter that will hold the normalized string

  • normalization – optional element parameter into dex::Normalizations indicating the normalization to apply (either nfc (default), nfd, no-diacritics, trim, nfc-trim, nfd-trim or no-diacritics-trim)

dex::NormalizeSet(aSet, normalization)

Normalize all elements in the set aSet using the normalization procedure indicated by normalization. All elements that changed by the selected normalization will be renamed in the set.

Arguments

  • aSet – set argument indicating the set for which to normalize all elements

  • normalization – optional element parameter into dex::Normalizations indicating the normalization to apply (either nfc (default), nfd, no-diacritics, trim, nfc-trim, nfd-trim or no-diacritics-trim)

dex::GetOptionValues(optVal)

AIMMS supports reading arbitrary command line options of the form --<name-space>::<option-name> followed by the value of the option. This feature allows, for instance, libraries to define its own set of command line options. You can read the values of the command line options through this function.

param optVal

one-dimensional string parameter over a set holding the command line options you want to retrieve the values for. The elements should be of the for <any-name-space>::<option-name>.

HTTP Client methods

The Data Exchange library contains collection of functions implemented using libCurl (see the libCurl documentation). The following methods are exposed by the Data Exchange library to send HTTP client requests and to handle their responses.

dex::client::NewRequest()

Create a new HTTP request with (unique) identification theRequest to the URL url, with method httpMethod (optional, default GET). Upon response from the web server, the callback method callback will be called. The prototype of callback should be the same as the function dex::client::EmptyCallback.

For POST and PUT methods, you can specify the file requestFile from which to take the request body of the request. If you specify the optional responseFile argument, the response body will be captured in the specified file. If omitted the response body will be silently discarded. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

If a traceFile is being specified, tracing for the request will be enabled, and the detail trace output from libCurl will be stored in the specified file. Be aware that the trace file will expose all headers, potentially including those that contain API keys or credentials necessary to access a web service. In such case, you are advised to carefully delete trace files directly after use. You should never create trace files in production.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request.

  • url – string parameter holding the URL of the request, including any query parameters you want to add to the request.

  • callback – element parameter into AllProcedures, holding the callback to be called asynchronously after the response to the HTTP request has been received

  • httpMethod – (optional) element parameter into dex::client::HTTPMethods, specifying the HTTP method to use for the request (default GET)

  • requestFile – (optional) string parameter holding the filename from which to take the request body

  • responseFile – (optional) string parameter holding the filename in which to store the response body

  • traceFile – (optional) string parameter holding the filename in which all trace information about the request is being stored.

dex::client::CloseRequest()

Close the request theRequest and all resources held by the Data Exchange library for the request. If the request has been executed, but Data Exchange library is still listening for a response to the request, it will stop doing so. By default, the Data Exchange library will close the request directly after its callback method has been called to free its resources as soon as possible (e.g. when a large number of request is being executed). Notice that closing a request will not remove any request or response files specified in dex::client::NewRequest. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request to close

dex::client::CloseAllRequests()

Close any outstanding HTTP requests, that have been created and may still be executing. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

dex::client::PerformRequest()

Execute a previously created HTTP request theRequest. Upon response, the Data Exchange library will call the specified callback function asynchronously, as soon as the request has been completed and the AIMMS engine is idle. To force :token:callback`to be called synchronously within a procedure of your model, you can use the method dex::client::WaitForResponses. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request to execute

dex::client::SetDefaultOptions()

Using the function dex::client::SetDefaultOptions you can specify multiple string and integer-valued Curl options that will be applied to all requests, to modify the behavior of libCurl. All available Curl options can be found in the sets dex::client::StringOptions and dex::client::IntOptions. For the interpretation of these options please refer to the Curl options documentation. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • intOptions – integer parameter over the set dex::client::intOptions holding the default integer Curl options to set

  • stringOptions – string parameter over the set dex::client::StringOptions holding the default string Curl options to set

dex::client::AddRequestOptions()

Using the function dex::client::AddRequestOptions you can specify multiple string and integer-valued Curl options to request theRequest, to modify the behavior of libCurl. All available Curl options can be found in the sets dex::client::StringOptions and dex::client::IntOptions. For the interpretation of these options please refer to the Curl options documentation. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request to add request options to.

  • intOptions – integer parameter over the set dex::client::intOptions holding the integer Curl options to set

  • stringOptions – string parameter over the set dex::client::StringOptions holding the string Curl options to set

dex::client::AddStringOption()

Low-level method to set a single string-valued Curl option for request theRequest. The argument stringOptionId should be the id corresponding to the option taken from the parameter dex::client:CurlOptionId. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request to add the string-valued request option to.

  • stringOptionId – parameter holding the Curl id for the option (taken from dex::client:CurlOptionId).

  • optionValue – string parameter holding the option value.

dex::client::AddIntOption()

Low-level method to set a single integer-valued Curl option for request theRequest. The argument intOptionId should be the id corresponding to the option taken from the parameter dex::client:CurlOptionId. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request to add the integer-valued request option to.

  • intOptionId – parameter holding the Curl id for the option (taken from dex::client:CurlOptionId).

  • optionValue – parameter holding the option value.

dex::client::SetDefaultHeaders()

Using the function dex::client::AddRequestHeaders you can specify any HTTP headers you want to add to subsequent request. Notice that some Curl options will also result in the addition of HTTP headers to the request. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • headers – string parameter over a (user-defined) set of header names holding the corresponding header values to add to all subsequent requests.

dex::client::AddRequestHeaders()

Using the function dex::client::AddRequestHeaders you can specify any HTTP headers you want to add to request theRequest. Notice that some Curl options will also result in the addition of HTTP headers to the request. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request to add request headers to.

  • headers – string parameter over a (user-defined) set of header names holding the corresponding header values to add

dex::client::AddRequestHeader()

Using the function dex::client::AddRequestHeader you can specify a single HTTP header you want to add to request theRequest. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request to add a request header to.

  • headers – string parameter holding the header name to add

  • headerValue – string parameter holding the header value to add

dex::client::AddMimePart()

Using the function dex::client::AddMimePart you can create a multi-part MIME body for a POST request. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request for which to create a multi-part MIME body.

  • partname – string parameter holding the name of the part

  • partfile – string parameter holding the name of the file containing the contents of the part.

  • headers – string parameter holding the headers that should be added to the part

  • asfile – parameter indicating whether part is to be treated as a file part, in which case the base name of partfile is transferred as the remote file name

  • encoding – the encoding to be used for the part (can be binary,``8bit``,``7bit``,``base64``, or quoted-printable).

dex::client::EmptyCallback()

Prototype function for any callback to be added as the callback parameter of the function dex::client::NewRequest. Inside the callback you can retrieve info items provided by libCurl and any response headers regarding the executed request, or handle the response file associated with the request. To free resources, the Data Exchange library will delete a request directly after its callback has been called. At such point, you will not be able to retrieve any info items for the request any longer, but, you as a caller will remain responsible for deleting any request and response files you may have specified.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request for which the callback is called.

  • statusCode – HTTP status code of the response.

  • errorCode – Curl error code for the response in case the request was not successful.

dex::client::GetInfoItems()

Using the function dex::client::GetInfoItems you can retrieve string- and integer-valued info items provided by libCurl regarding the executed request inside the callback function specified in the dex::client::NewRequest method. For the interpretation of the available info items, see the Curl info documentation. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request for you want to retrieve info items

  • infoItems – subset of dex::client::CurlInfoItems holding the collection of string- or integer-valued info items you want to retrieve.

  • intInfoItems – output parameter holding the integer-valued info item values.

  • stringInfoItems – output string parameter holding the string-value info item values.

dex::client::GetStringInfoItem()

Using the function dex::client::GetStringInfoItem you can retrieve a single string-valued info item provided by libCurl regarding the executed request inside the callback function specified in the dex::client::NewRequest method. The parameter stringinfoId should hold the id corresponding to the info item taken from the parameter dex::client:CurlInfoId. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request for you want to retrieve info items

  • stringinfoId – parameter holding the id of the string-valued info item

  • infoValue – output string parameter holding the value of the requested string info item.

dex::client::GetIntInfoItem()

Using the function dex::client::GetStringInfoItem you can retrieve a single integer-valued info item provided by libCurl regarding the executed request inside the callback function specified in the dex::client::NewRequest method. The parameter intinfoId should hold the id corresponding to the info item taken from the parameter dex::client:CurlInfoId. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request for you want to retrieve info items

  • intinfoId – parameter holding the id of the integer-valued info item

  • infoValue – output parameter holding the value of the requested integer info item.

dex::client::GetResponseHeaders()

Using the function you can retrieve the HTTP headers of the response of theRequest. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • theRequest – string parameter holding the unique identification of the request for you want to retrieve the response headers

  • headers – output string parameter over a (user-defined) header set, holding the values of all headers in response, which will be added to the header set.

dex::client::GetErrorMessage()

With this function you can retrieve the Curl error message associated with the error code passed back via a request callback. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

Arguments

  • errorCode – parameter holding the error code passed back via a request callback

  • errorMessage – output string parameter holding the associated error message

dex::client::WaitForResponses()

Using this function you can block the execution of the calling procedure for a maximum of timeout milliseconds to wait for incoming responses of any outstanding HTTP requests. As soon as a first response is available for any of the outstanding requests within the given timeout, its associated callback will be called, as well as for any other available responses. If there are no further responses, the function will return. The function will return 1 if one or more responses came in within the given timeout, or 0 on timeout.

Arguments

  • timeout – the maximum time in milliseconds to wait for any incoming responses.

dex::client::SetParallelConnections()

With this function you can set the maximum number of client connections that will be used concurrently. Any HTTP request submitted using dex::client::PerformRequest will be executed using one of these concurrent connections. If the number of non-processed requests exceeds the maximum number of concurrent connections, the request will be queued until a connection becomes available.

Arguments

  • nrconn – the desired maximum number of concurrent client connections allowed (default 16).

dex::client::QueryMapEncode()

Using this function you can construct a URL-encoded list of query parameters that you want to add to a URL. All query parameters are separated by an &, and you can add it to a URL by appending it with a ? token to the URL.

Arguments

  • queryMap – an indexed string parameter over a set of query parameters, holding the associated query parameter values

  • queryString – a scalar output string parameter holding the URL-encoded query parameter string that you can append to the URL.

dex::client::StopClient()

This function close all outstanding requests, and uninitialize libCurl to handle any incoming responses. The function will return 1 on success, or 0 on failure.

dex::client::ProxyResolve()

Use the OS proxy configuration to discover a proxy for the given URL. Whenever a proxy is found it can be added to a HTTP request via the CURLOP_PROXY option. This function is only implemented for the Windows OS.

Arguments

  • url – the URL for which to determine a proxy

  • proxyUrl – output string argument to hold the proxy URL for the given URL.

dex::client::DetermineProxyServer()

This function sets common default options for all subsequent dex::client requests, in case a HTTP proxy is discovered on the network.

dex::client::Poll()

Convenience function to poll for certain events by executing a procedure at a given interval. This can for instance by used to regularly check the status of a long-running REST call. Only one function can poll at any given moment.

Arguments

  • pollingProcedure – element parameter into AllProcedures holding the procedure to be executed regularly. The procedure should have no arguments. Polling will be stopped whenever the procedure returns a value of 0, in all other cases polling will continue.

  • interval – fixed interval in milliseconds in between calls to the polling procedure.

dex::client::StopPolling()

Alterative method to externally stop the sequence of calls to a polling procedure added via dex::client::Poll().

Support for OAuth2 authorization

dex::oauth::AddBearerToken()

Add a Bearer token to a given dex::client request theRequest, after optionally authorizing the client application apiClient with the identity platform configured as described in this section. The function will return a return value of 1 on success, or 0 if the authorization failed. In the latter case, the string parameter dex::oauth::APIClientErrors contains the error messages returned by the identity platform.

Arguments

  • apiClient – element parameter into dex::oath::APIClients, for which the string parameter dex::oauth::APIClientStringData holds the client configuration.

  • theRequest – dex::client` request name to which the Bearer authorization token should be added via the Authorization header.

Support functions for hashing and encoding

The Data Exchange library supports methods for computing HMAC and SHA256 digests in support of, for instance, AWS and Azure libraries that require signature headers or query parameters for method authentication. In addition, there are some functions to perform base64 encoding/decoding, and to URL encode a string.

dex::client::HMAC()

Compute the HMAC for a data_ string and a given key. The key can be provided as-is, hex-encoded, base64-encoded or base64-url-encoded, while the resulting digest can be hex-, base64- or base64-url-encoded.

Arguments

  • key – the key used to compute the HMAC digest with

  • data – the data string to compute the HMAC digest for

  • keyEncoding – Optional argument to indicate how the key is encoded, possible values 0 (default) indicates that key is used as-is, 1 key is hex-encoded, 2 key is base64-encoded, 3 key is base64-url-encoded

  • digestEncoding – Optional argument to indicate how the HMAC digest is encoded, possible values 1 (default) key is hex-encoded, 2 key is base64-encoded, 3 key is base64-url-encoded

dex::client::SHA256()

Compute the SHA256 digest for a data_ string. The resulting digest can be hex-, base64- or base64-url-encoded.

Arguments

  • data – the data string to compute the SHA256 digest for

  • digestEncoding – Optional argument to indicate how the SHA256 digest is encoded, possible values 1 (default) key is hex-encoded, 2 key is base64-encoded, 3 key is base64-url-encoded

dex::client::Base64Encode()

Base64 encode a data_ string. Depending on the flag urlEncoding, the result will be base64-encoded or base64-url-encoded.

Arguments

  • data – the data string to base64 encode.

  • base64Data – the resulting encoded string.

  • urlEncoding – Optional argument to indicate whether the result should be base64-encoded, or base64-url-encoded

dex::client::Base64Decode()

Base64 decode a base64Data string. Depending on the flag urlEncoding, the string is assumed to be base64-encoded or base64-url-encoded.

Arguments

  • base64Data – the encoded string to base64 decode.

  • data – the resulting decoded string.

  • urlEncoding – Optional argument to indicate whether the input is base64-encoded, or base64-url-encoded

dex::client::URLEncode()

URL encode a data_ string.

Arguments

  • data – the data string to URL encode.

  • urlEncodedData – the resulting encoded string.

HTTP Server methods

The Data Exchange library supports exposing procedures in your model as endpoints of an HTTP REST service. You can configure and use this service via the methods below.

dex::api::StartAPIService()

This function will collect all procedures with a dex::ServiceName annotation, and will start the HTTP service listener, to listen to, and handle incoming service requests. Prior to calling dex::api::StartAPIService, you can configure the listen port and maximum accepted request size in MB, through the configuration parameters:

  • dex::api::ListenerPort (default 8080)

  • dex::api::MaxRequestSize (default 128 MB)

Note

When deployed in the cloud, you should not call this function. The service is already running there for you.

dex::api::StopAPIService()

This function will stop the HTTP service listener waiting for incoming requests.

dex::api::Yield()

You can use this function yield control for a maximum of timeout milliseconds to the HTTP server component of the Data Exchange library to handle incoming requests synchronously. The function will return 1 if one or more requests were handled within the given timeout, or 0 on timeout.

Arguments

  • timeout – the maximum time in milliseconds to wait for, and handle, any incoming requests.

Memory streams

Any file

can also be a memory stream, i.e. a file stored in memory. Memory streams can be up to 1 MB big. Memory streams can help

  • improve performance because they do not incur disk I/O, or delay because of virus scanning generated files on disk,

  • reduce clutter in your project folder.

If the file name starts with a #, the Data Exchange library will assume that the specified file name is to be interpreted as a memory stream. Memory streams for the output file of the function dex::WriteToFile() and the response file of the function dex::client::NewRequest() will create a memory stream with the given file name as its key, while the input file of the function dex::ReadFromFile() and the request file of the function dex::client::NewRequest() will assume an existing memory stream with the given key.

Memory streams with keys starting with ## used as request or response files will be automatically deleted when the corresponding dex::client request is closed.

The following functions are available for management of the memory streams.

dex::DeleteStream()

Delete the memory stream corresponding to key streamName.

Arguments

  • streamName – name of the stream key to delete (including the #)

dex::DeleteAllStreams()

This function will delete all streams created via dex::WriteToFile() and dex::client::NewRequest().

dex::SetDefaultStreamSize()

Every stream created will hold space for streamSize bytes. When more bytes are written to a memory stream it will automatically double the available amount of memory but at the expense of copying the existing content. The initial default stream size is 64 KB.

Arguments

  • streamSize – the default stream size (in bytes) to use.

dex::ImportStreamContent()

Import the content of a string parameter into a new memory stream. The name of the stream should start with a #, to allow the stream to be used by other functions of the Data Exchange library. This function supports string parameters up to 16 KB of content.

Arguments

  • streamName – name of memory stream to import content into

  • content – input string parameter holding the string to import into the memory stream

dex::AppendStream()

Append the content of a string parameter into an existing memory stream. This function supports string parameters up to 16 KB of content.

Arguments

  • streamName – name of memory stream to append content to

  • content – input string parameter holding the string to append to the memory stream

dex::ExportStreamContent()

Export the content of an existing memory stream into a string parameter. This function supports exporting memory streams up to 16 KB.

Arguments

  • streamName – name of memory stream to export content from

  • content – output string parameter to hold the content (up to 16 KB) exported from the memory stream

dex::WriteStreamToFile()

Write the content of an existing memory stream to a file.

Arguments

  • streamName – name of memory stream to write content from

  • fileName – name of the to which the content of the stream needs to be written.

Generators

For JSON schema and OpenAPI specifications, the Data Exchange library can generate a runtime library with collections of identifiers for all schema contained in these files, and, for all operations defined in an OpenAPI specification, a synchronous or asynchronous procedure that will make the corresponding API call and will take care of all handling of parameters, request and response bodies associated with the operation.

dex::schema::ParseJSONSchema()

Generate a runtime library containing a collection of identifiers, along with a collection of mapping files that can read/write any JSON file that adheres to the schema into the identifiers in the runtime library. The function expects a JSON schema following the JSON meta schema https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema.

Arguments

  • schemaPath – absolute or relative path where to find the JSON schema file from which to generate the runtime library

  • schemaName – name of the schema for which to create a runtime library and mapping, will also serve as the name of the runtime library.

  • schemaPrefix – prefix of the runtime library to generate

  • explodeDefault – flag to indicate whether to add references to an instance of a subschema (0), to explode subschemas into a schema but still maintaining an instance index to allow multiple instances of the data (1, default), or to explode without an additional instance index (2)

  • externalBindsToPrefx – string parameter holding an additional index to prefix to the index domain of every generated identifier in the runtime library

  • externalBindingPrefix – string parameter holding the name of an element parameter to serve as the external binding for the externalBindsToPrefix_ argument

dex::schema::GenerateClientFromOpenAPISpec()

Generate a runtime library containing a collection procedures to call all operations defined in the OpenAPI specification, along with a collection of identifiers and their corresponding mappings, than are used to store the data of the request and response bodies associated with these operations. The function expects a OpenAPI 3.1 specification.

The library will be stored to disk, along with all generated mappings, in a subfolder of the folder located to by the string parameter dex::schema::libprj::LibraryRootFolder. The LibraryInitialization procedure from the generated library will read initialization data from a library-specific file in the folder located to by the string parameter dex::schema::libprj::ApiInitFolder. In that file you can, for instance, initialize settings such as the server URL, the API key to be used, or the OAuth2 credentials to be used.

Arguments

  • schemaPath – absolute or relative path where to find the OpenAPI specification file from which to generate the runtime library

  • schemaName – name of the OpenAPI specification for which to create a runtime library and mapping, will also serve as the name of the runtime library.

  • schemaPrefix – prefix of the runtime library to generate

  • explodeDefault – flag to indicate whether to add references to an instance of a subschema (0), to explode subschemas into a schema but still maintaining an instance index to allow multiple instances of the data (1, default), or to explode without an additional instance index (2). Values of 0 and 1 create asynchronous methods, that allow multiple API calls to be executed in parallel, while a value of 2 will generate a completely synchronous library, allowing only one API call to be executed at any time.

  • generateXMLData – flag to indicate whether the API expects JSON request and response bodies (0, default), XML request and response bodies (1), or both JSON and XML request and response bodies.

File transfer functions

The following functions in the Data Exchange library, allow you to upload, download, or delete files from a HTTP service like Azure Blob Storage, or AWS S3. For uploading and downloading files there are both synchronous as asynchronous variants. In the latter case, you can use the function dex::client::WaitForOutstandingFileRequests to wait for any outstanding asynchronous file request operations.

dex::client::GetFileAsync()

Download a file from a given URL asynchronously. The function will return 1 if the HTTP request could be submitted successfully. This function can be used, for instance, to retrieve files from Azure Blob Storage via a SAS URL. If necessary, additional headers for the HTTP request can be added via the string parameter dex::client::FileGetHeader.

Via the function dex::client::WaitForOutstandingFileRequests() you can wait for the download request to be completed. Via the parameter dex::client::LatestFileRequest you can retrieve the id of the file request submitted.

Arguments

  • url – the URL of the file to be downloaded

  • filePath – the file path where to store the downloaded file

dex::client::GetFile()

Download a file from a given URL synchronously. The function will return 1 if the file was successfully downloaded, or 0 otherwise. If necessary, additional headers for the HTTP request can be added via the string parameter dex::client::FileGetHeader.

If the function does not complete within the given timeout, you can use the function dex::client::WaitForOutstandingFileRequests() to wait for the download request to complete.

Arguments

  • url – the URL of the file to be downloaded

  • filePath – the file path where to store the downloaded file

  • timeout – optional parameter indicating the time to wait for the request to complete (default 30 seconds)

dex::client::PutFileAsync()

Upload a file to a given URL asynchronously. The function will return 1 if the HTTP request could be submitted successfully. This function can be used, for instance, to upload files to Azure Blob Storage via a SAS URL. Via the offset and requestSize arguments, files can be partially uploaded. If necessary, additional headers for the HTTP request can be added via the string parameter dex::client::FilePutHeader.

Via the function dex::client::WaitForOutstandingFileRequests() you can wait for the upload request to be completed. Via the parameter dex::client::LatestFileRequest you can retrieve the id of the file request submitted.

Arguments

  • filePath – the file path of the file to upload

  • url – the URL where to upload the file to

  • offset – (optional) offset in filePath where to start the upload (default 0)

  • requestSize – (optional) size of content to upload (default 0, from offset to end-of-file)

dex::client::PutFile()

Upload a file to a given URL synchronously. The function will return 1 if the file was successfully uploaded, or 0 otherwise. If necessary, additional headers for the HTTP request can be added via the string parameter dex::client::FilePutHeader. Via the offset and requestSize arguments, files can be partially uploaded.

If the function does not complete within the given timeout, you can use the function dex::client::WaitForOutstandingFileRequests() to wait for the upload request to complete.

Arguments

  • filePath – the file path of the file to upload

  • url – the URL where to upload the file to

  • timeout – optional parameter indicating the time to wait for the request to complete (default 30 seconds)

  • offset – (optional) offset in filePath where to start the upload (default 0)

  • requestSize – (optional) size of content to upload (default 0, from offset to end-of-file)

dex::client::DeleteFile()

Issue a DELETE request for a given URL synchronously. The function will return 1 if the file was successfully deleted, or 0 otherwise. If necessary, additional headers for the HTTP request can be added via the string parameter dex::client::FileDeleteHeader.

If the function does not complete within the given timeout, you can use the function dex::client::WaitForOutstandingFileRequests() to wait for the upload request to complete.

Arguments

  • url – the URL to delete

  • timeout – optional parameter indicating the time to wait for the request to complete (default 30 seconds)

dex::client::WaitForOutstandingFileRequests()

Wait for any outstanding file requests for a given timeout. The function returns 1 if all outstanding requests have been completed, or 0 otherwise.

You can check the status of individual file requests via the parameters dex::client::FileRequestStatusCode and dex::client::FileRequestErrorCode.

Arguments

  • timeout – optional parameter indicating the time to wait for any outstanding requests to complete (default 30 seconds)

Managing JWT Tokens

Normally, when using OAuth, you don’t need to worry about manipulating JWT tokens directly. However, some services, like for instance the Snowflake SQL API, support authentication through JWT tokens you sign yourself using your own private RSA key. To support this, the Data Exchange library supports the following functions for manipulating JWT tokens directly.

dex::jwt::Encode()

Generate a JWT token for a given payload, signed using a given private RSA key. The contents of the payload can be constructed using the pre-defined JWT mapping, and the identifiers in the dex::jwt section of the Data Exchange library. This mapping supports string, integer and boolean claims, as well as claims consisting of arrays of string or integers. If you need to specify other claims, you can obviously construct the JWT payload using mappings constructed specifically for that purpose.

Arguments

  • payLoad – the JWT payload used to create the JWT token.

  • rsaPrivateKey – the private RSA key used to sign the JWT token.

  • token – output string argument holding the signed JWT token.

dex::jwt::Decode()

Reconstruct the JWT payload contained in a given JWT token, but do not verify the token

Arguments

  • token – the given JWT token to decode

  • payLoad – output string argument holding the decoded JWT payload.

dex::jwt::Verify()

Verify the validity of a given JWT token. The function will verify the token signature using the given public RSA key, and check the iat, nbf and exp fields of the given token and verify that is used in the given time range. The function will return

Arguments

  • token – the given JWT token to verify

  • rsaPublicKey – the public RSA key to verify the signature with

dex::jwt::EpochTime()

Return the time in seconds since Unix epoch. You can use this function to construct the iat, nbf and exp fields of a JWT payload.

Creating SAS URL query strings

SAS tokens can be used to authorize Azure Blob Storage access. The Data Exchange library supports the following functions for generating SAS tokens.

dex::client::az::AccountSASQueryString()

Generate an Account SAS query string, to pre-authenticate, for instance, a request to Azure Blob Storage. For details about the allowed values for the various arguments, please refer to Create an account SAS.

Arguments

  • accessKey – the account access key to use for signing the SAS query string

  • accountName – the account name for which to create the SAS query string

  • services – the services to which the SAS query string can be applied

  • resourceTypes – the resource types to which the SAS query string can be applied

  • permissions – the permissions to apply

  • expiryDate – the expiry date until which the SAS query string can be used to authorize requests. You can use the function dex::client::az::ÈxpiryDateFromNow() to generate this argument

  • ip – the IP range from which requests can be made

  • queryString – the value of the generated SAS query string

dex::client::az::ContainerSASQueryString()

Generate a Service SAS query string, to pre-authenticate request to a specific container in Azure Blob Storage. For details about the allowed values for the various arguments, please refer to Create a service SAS.

Arguments

  • queryString – the value of the generated SAS query string

  • accessKey – the account access key to use for signing the SAS query string

  • accountName – the account name for which to create the SAS query string

  • container – the container name to which you want to limit access

  • permissions – the permissions to apply to the container

  • expiryDate – the expiry date until which the SAS query string can be used to authorize requests. You can use the function dex::client::az::ÈxpiryDateFromNow() to generate this argument

  • ip – optional argument providing the IP range from which requests can be made

  • storedAccessPolicy – optional argument providing the name of a stored Access Policy you want to apply to the created SAS token

  • encryptionScope – optional argument specifying the encryption scope that the client application can use.

dex::client::az::DirectorySASQueryString()

Generate a Service SAS query string, to pre-authenticate request to a specific directory within a container in Azure Blob Storage. For details about the allowed values for the various arguments, please refer to Create a service SAS.

Arguments

  • queryString – the value of the generated SAS query string

  • accessKey – the account access key to use for signing the SAS query string

  • accountName – the account name for which to create the SAS query string

  • container – the container name to which you want to limit access

  • path – path prefix representing the directory within the container to which you want to limit access

  • permissions – the permissions to apply to the container

  • expiryDate – the expiry date until which the SAS query string can be used to authorize requests. You can use the function dex::client::az::ÈxpiryDateFromNow() to generate this argument

  • ip – optional argument providing the IP range from which requests can be made

  • directoryDepth – optional argument to indicate the number of subdirectories under the root directory

  • storedAccessPolicy – optional argument providing the name of a stored Access Policy you want to apply to the created SAS token

  • encryptionScope – optional argument specifying the encryption scope that the client application can use.

dex::client::az::ExpiryDateFromNow()

Generate an expiry date for a SAS query string, ending at a given amount of seconds from now.

Arguments

  • expiry – the amount of seconds from now, at which time the SAS query string should expire

Data Lake Storage file systems

The following functions are available for managing Azure Data Lake Storage file systems (also known as containers), and for listing their contents.

These functions all require that the dex::dls::StorageAccount and dex::dls::StorageAccessKey parameters have been set. This happens automatically in the AIMMS Cloud, on your desktop you can set these parameters manually via the file api-init/Data_Lake_Storage.txt.

dex::dls::ListFileSystems()

List all file systems within an Azure Data Lake Storage account. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure.

Arguments

  • FileSystems – output set argument holding the file systems present in the storage account.

dex::dls::CreateFileSystem()

Create a new file system within an Azure Data Lake Storage account. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – string parameter holding the name of the file systems to create.

dex::dls::DeleteFileSystem()

Delete an existing file system within an Azure Data Lake Storage account. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – string parameter holding the name of the file systems to delete.

dex::dls::ListFiles()

List the files within a certain path prefix of a given file system. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – string parameter holding the name of the file systems.

  • pathPrefix – string parameter holding the prefix of the path of all files to be listed. This prefix must correspond to a complete directory within the file system, and may, but need not, end with a /.

  • Paths – output set arguments used to enumerate all listed files and directories. The set must be a subset of the predefined set Integers.

  • pathName – output string parameter over Paths holding the names of all files and directories found.

  • fileSize – output numeric parameter over Paths holding the file size of all files found.

  • isDirectory – output binary parameter over Paths indicating whether a given path is a directory and not a file.

  • recursive – optional parameter indicating whether only files within the given path prefix should be listed, or recursively.

dex::dls::DeletePath()

Delete a single file in a file system, or a complete directory. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – string parameter holding the name of the file systems.

  • path – string parameter holding the name of the file or directory within the file system to be deleted.

dex::dls::SetAccessPolicy()

Define up to 5 stored access policies that can be used to create container SAS query strings that can modified on the fly by adapting the stored access policy. Every call to dex::dls::SetAccessPolicy will override the previous values of all stored access policies.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – the Azure Blob Storage container for which to create stored access policies

  • Ids – set containing the names of all stored access policies to be defined

  • Start – 1-dimensional string parameter holding the start dates of all stored access policies

  • Expiry – 1-dimensional string parameter holding the expiry dates of all stored access policies

  • Permission – 1-dimensional string parameter holding the permissions of all stored access policies

dex::dls::GetAccessPolicy()

Get the list of stored access policies defined for a specific Azure Blob Storage container.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – the Azure Blob Storage container for which to retrieve the stored access policies

  • Ids – set containing the names of all stored access policies to be retrieved

  • Start – 1-dimensional string parameter holding the start dates of all stored access policies

  • Expiry – 1-dimensional string parameter holding the expiry dates of all stored access policies

  • Permission – 1-dimensional string parameter holding the permissions of all stored access policies

Data Lake Storage file transfer

The following functions are available in the Data Exchange library to upload file to or download files from Azure Data Lake Storage.

These functions all require that the dex::dls::StorageAccount and dex::dls::StorageAccessKey parameters have been set. This happens automatically in the AIMMS Cloud, on your desktop you can set these parameters manually via the file api-init/Data_Lake_Storage.txt.

dex::dls::GetAccountSASQueryString()

Create an account SAS query string for the storage account associated with an AIMMS cloud account.

Arguments

  • queryString – output string parameter holding the generated SAS query string

  • permissions – the permission string used in creating the SAS query string

  • expiry – the expiry in seconds from now for the generated SAS query string

dex::dls::GetContainerSASQueryString()

Create a container SAS query string for a container in the storage account associated with an AIMMS cloud account.

Arguments

  • queryString – output string parameter holding the generated SAS query string

  • fileSystem – the container for which the SAS query string is generated

  • permissions – the permissions of the SAS query string

  • expiry – the expiry in seconds from now for the generated SAS query string

  • storedAccessPolicy – the name of a stored access policy on the container to use in generating the SAS query string. If a stored access policy is used, the permissions and expiry arguments will be ignored

dex::dls::UploadFile()

Upload a single file to a path within a file system. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure. The method will wait for the upload to succeed for dex::dls::WaitRetries seconds, with a default of 500 seconds. In case of a slow internet connection, you can increase this value to make the upload succeed.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – string parameter holding the name of the file systems.

  • _file – local file path of the file to upload

  • pathPrefix – string parameter holding the path prefix of the directory within the file system to which the file must be uploaded

dex::dls::UploadFiles()

(Recursively) upload the files within a local directory to a path within a file system. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure. The method will wait for the upload to succeed for dex::dls::WaitRetries seconds, with a default of 500 seconds. In case of a slow internet connection, you can increase this value to make the upload succeed.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – string parameter holding the name of the file systems.

  • directory – local directory from which to upload files

  • pathPrefix – string parameter holding the path prefix of the directory within the file system to which the file must be uploaded.

  • recursive – optional parameter indicating whether only files within the given directory should be uploaded, or recursively.

dex::dls::DownloadFile()

Download a single file from a file system to a local directory. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure. The method will wait for the download to succeed for dex::dls::WaitRetries seconds, with a default of 500 seconds. In case of a slow internet connection, you can increase this value to make the download succeed.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – string parameter holding the name of the file systems.

  • urlPath – path of the file within the file system to download.

  • directory – string parameter holding the local directory to which the file must be downloaded.

dex::dls::DownloadFiles()

(Recursively) download the files within a path within a file system to a local directory. The function will return 1 upon success, or an error on failure. The method will wait for the download to succeed for dex::dls::WaitRetries seconds, with a default of 500 seconds. In case of a slow internet connection, you can increase this value to make the download succeed.

Arguments

  • fileSystem – string parameter holding the name of the file systems.

  • pathPrefix – string parameter holding the path prefix of the directory within the file system from which to download files.

  • directory – local directory to which to download files

  • recursive – optional parameter indicating whether only files within the given path prefix should be downloaded, or recursively.

Reading, writing and iterating arbitrary JSON documents

The Data Exchange library offers programmatic support for reading, writing and iterating any JSON file using a pre-defined generic JSONAny/JSONAny mapping. The following functions are available.

dex::json::ReadInstance()

Read an arbitrary JSON file using the pre-defined JSONAny/JSONAny mapping into identifiers within the dex::json namespace.

Arguments

  • instName – string parameter holding the name of the element within the set dex::json::JSONInstances.

  • instFile – string parameter holding the file name of the JSON document to read.

dex::json::WriteInstance()

Write an arbitrary JSON file using the pre-defined JSONAny/JSONAny mapping using the content of the identifiers within the dex::json namespace, for the slice corresponding to the _inst argument.

Arguments

  • _inst – element parameter holding the element within the set dex::json::JSONInstances for which to write a JSON file.

  • instFile – string parameter holding the file name of the JSON document to read.

  • pretty – optional parameter indicating whether the generated JSON file should be pretty-printed.

dex::json::EmptyInstance()

Empty the content of the identifiers within the dex::json namespace, for the slice corresponding to the _inst argument.

Arguments

  • _inst – element parameter holding the element within the set dex::json::JSONInstances for which to empty the identifiers within the dex::json namespace.

dex::json::CreateInstance()

Create a new JSON instance in the set dex::json::JSONInstances, and prepare the identifiers in the dex::json namespace to programmatically create a new JSON document. The function returns the element in the set dex::json::Nodes representing the root node of the newly created JSON document.

Arguments

  • instName – string parameter holding the name of JSON instance to create.

dex::json::SetBool()

Assign a boolean value to either the JSON root node of a JSON document or an array member of an array value in the JSON document.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document for which to set the value.

  • bool – boolean value to assign to the _nde

dex::json::SetInt()

Assign an integer value to either the JSON root node of a JSON document or an array member of an array value in the JSON document.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document for which to set the value.

  • int – integer value to assign to the _nde

dex::json::SetNumber()

Assign a double value to either the JSON root node of a JSON document or an array member of an array value in the JSON document.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document for which to set the value.

  • number – double value to assign to the _nde

dex::json::SetString()

Assign a string value to either the JSON root node of a JSON document or an array member of an array value in the JSON document.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document for which to set the value.

  • _string – double value to assign to the _nde, the assigned value can be up to 256 KB in size.

dex::json::SetObject()

Assign an object value to either the JSON root node of a JSON document or an array member of an array value in the JSON document. The function returns the element in the set dex::json::Nodes representing the added object.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document for which to set the value.

dex::json::SetArray()

Assign an array value to either the JSON root node of a JSON document or an array member of an array value in the JSON document. The function returns the element in the set dex::json::Nodes representing the added array.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document for which to set the value.

dex::json::AddArrayMember()

Assign a new member to a _nde representing an array valuer. The function will return the element of dex::json::Nodes representing the array member.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document representing the array value.

dex::json::AddBoolProperty()

Add a new boolean property to a _nde representing an object in the JSON document.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document representing the object to which to add the property.

  • prop – string parameter holding the name of the property to add to the object

  • bool – parameter holding the boolean value of the property to add.

dex::json::AddIntProperty()

Add a new integer property to a _nde representing an object in the JSON document.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document representing the object to which to add the property.

  • prop – string parameter holding the name of the property to add to the object

  • int – parameter holding the integer value of the property to add.

dex::json::AddNumberProperty()

Add a new double property to a _nde representing an object in the JSON document.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document representing the object to which to add the property.

  • prop – string parameter holding the name of the property to add to the object

  • number – parameter holding the double value of the property to add.

dex::json::AddStringProperty()

Add a new string property to a _nde representing an object in the JSON document.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document representing the object to which to add the property.

  • prop – string parameter holding the name of the property to add to the object

  • _string – parameter holding the string value of the property to add.

dex::json::AddObjectProperty()

Add a new object property to a _nde representing an object in the JSON document. The function will return the element in the set dex::json::Nodes representing the newly added object.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document representing the object to which to add the property.

  • prop – string parameter holding the name of the property to add to the object

dex::json::AddArrayProperty()

Add a new array property to a _nde representing an object in the JSON document. The function will return the element in the set dex::json::Nodes representing the newly added array. You can use the function dex::json::AddArrayMember() to add new members to the array.

Arguments

  • _nde – element parameter holding the node in the JSON document representing the object to which to add the property.

  • prop – string parameter holding the name of the property to add to the object

dex::json::RootNode()

Return the root node of the last JSON document read using dex::json::ReadInstance(). If the root node is an object or array, you can directly access the object properties or array members.