Event Streaming Overview

Anodot's Event streaming functionality enables you to stream events into Anodot in an ongoing manner. Similar in set up to Data Collectors, Event streaming lets you easily import events from existing databases and CSV files.

This article describes the basic steps you need to perform to get started with Event streaming, and includes:

• Choose the source for your event data
• Create the stream

Choose the source for your event data

The Event streaming functionality enables you to use existing data sources that connect to databases to collect the relevant event information from database tables or a CSV file.

Once your account is enabled with the Event streaming functionality, you can select the relevant source in one of two ways: directly from the Catalog, or through the Sources screen.

To select a source from the Catalog:

1. Ensure the relevant database source or CSV file has been defined and is in the Anodot system. 
2. In the Navigation Panel, click Catalog.
3. Use the Search box to locate the data source. Then hover over the relevant tile, and click Start.
4. Depending on the source, you can proceed in one of two ways:
   • If the source is File Upload, you are prompted to upload a CSV file. Once uploaded, click Create New Stream > Events Stream.
     
     
     
     
   • If the source you select has existing sources in use (typically for database collectors), click the relevant source in the displayed list of sources. Then click the arrow icon on the Metrics Stream button, and then click Event Stream.
     
     
     
     Note that you can also create a new source by clicking Add a New Source. You are then prompted to define the source's details; for more information about creating a new source, see the relevant data collector section.
     
     You can now define the event stream settings, as described in Create the stream.

To select a source from the Sources screen:

1. In the Sources screen (Integrations > Sources in the Navigation Panel), locate the relevant source and then click New Stream.
2. In the displayed popup menu, select Event Stream.
   
   
   
   You can now define the event stream settings, as described in Create the stream.

(For your convenience, there are two sample event files attached to this articles - event input file sample which demonstrates events with all the new capabilities and US_holidays_and_special_days which shows how a simple calendar event file looks like). 

Create the stream

After you have selected the relevant data source (see section above), you are prompted to create the event stream via the Create a New Stream wizard. The wizard includes three main steps:

1. In the first step, Extract, define the following:
   • In the Stream Information section, define the name, owner, and description for the stream.
     
     
     
     
   • In the Table section, choose the table containing the data you want to load as events. First select the relevant schema from the dropdown list, and then the table. This table is queried periodically and new records will be used to create and/or update events in Anodot.
   • In the Data Mapper section, you can map the columns in the table to the relevant place in the event. Note that the following mapping fields are mandatory: Title, StartDate, Progress indicator.
   • In the Events category section, select the relevant category.
   • In the Schedule section, define how far back to query user events and how often the stream should query for new ones.
2. Click Next. Step 2 of the wizard is displayed, Transform, which shows a preview of the data you chose to collect.
3. Click Next. Step 3 of the wizard is displayed. Load, in which you define the relevant notifications and recipients.
4. Click Done.
   
   Note that once the event stream has been defined you can see it in the Sources screen under the relevant data source. To differentiate event streams from metric streams, they are marked with a calendar icon next to the stream name, as shown below.