On September 27, 2016,
Syncfusion Product Manager Chad Church presented Data to Dashboard with the Syncfusion
Integration Platform, a webinar
showing how to employ all the power of the Syncfusion Integration Platform from data integration to data exporting,
which can be delivered to the Syncfusion Dashboard Platform for data visualization.
The end of the webinar
was open to audience questions, which are presented here with answers.
Can I create a REST
service to receive JSON data so that I can process it and store in a SQL
database?
Yes. This is quite simple to do. You
can create a REST service using any technology that meets your needs, and you
can have the JSON data automatically processed by a workflow running inside the
Syncfusion Data Preparation Platform. You can also use GetHTTP as a
processor. This can poll a URL and write results to a file for further
processing.
Can
one create forks and joins in the workflow?
Yes, absolutely. Most things you can
do in code can instead be accomplished using the configuration system. This
makes the system powerful and easy to maintain.
Do
we have the capability to be a “sort of” database source from any of these
processes that can be read using SQL in a subsequent process?
Yes. You can merge from any source and
process into tabular format. You can then store into a SQL store for exposure
downstream.
Can
I create a process to read a SQL database and post JSON to AWS?
Yes. Your workflow will do the
conversion inside the Syncfusion Data Preparation Platform. The final step will
call InvokeHTTP, or something similar, to post to AWS.
Can
you call any custom service to post data without a problem? It is possible to
store it in an intermediate SQL store, but I would like to know if the process
itself can mimic a SQL store.
Not that we know of. It will be
possible to have a custom SQL processor implemented, which will make the
caching transparent. We can implement internally with SQLite or something similar.
Alternatively, you can also push into a Hive table store to process SQL that
way.
With
regards to reading SQL databases, should I create a cycle—for example, reading
the database each five minutes—or is there another flow to start the process?
Yes. This is configurable.
Can
you read or write SQL Azure?
Yes.
How
do you add your own processes?
Typically, you implement a custom
processor using Java. You can also use a Java template and invoke C# to do the
actual work. Syncfusion can help through our Direct-Trac support system.
What's
the next step you recommend in learning how to design with the Data Integration
Platform?
We recommend that you download the
beta version and play with the samples to get a feel for it. It is pretty
straight forward to work with and start using for even complex ETL.
What
limitations does the free license have?
Our free Community
License is for companies with less than a million dollars (US) in annual
revenue.
As
a developer, can I get it free?
Yes, absolutely.
When
would you use this tool versus SSIS?
Both are comparable. Licensing is the
main difference.
Is
it possible to define a data model that is filled using different
processes—data flow metaphor versus process flow?
Yes.
What
are some things to take care of during installation?
It installs with MSI. No configuration
or special requirements are needed.
Can
I use DB2 instead of SQL Server?
Yes. All JDBC sources are supported.
What
are the costs for the production environment when a developer has a free
license?
There are no production fees. If you
qualify to use it, you qualify for production too. There are no run-time fees
or distribution fees either.
Can
the processes be triggered by request (e.g., from a dashboard)?
It is completely configurable.
Is
SharePoint supported?
Yes. It is supported through standard
API points.
How
we can manage different types of data in a database? For example, if I’m
working on a website that will contain different game scores—like football,
cricket, etc.—the games will have different styles for scoring. How do I save
them in one database?
Typically, the OLAP data source will
be custom-designed to accommodate all your OLTP data in a form that can be
easily consumed.
The entire webinar can be viewed at https://youtu.be/ST0u5QyDFmc.