MPParsley/node_service_adlib-backend

Adlib backend

adlib-backend extracts, transforms and loads from an Adlib API into a database. This database is then used by eventstream-api that exposes event streams*.

* an event stream is a collection of versioned objects (a version is like an event) and can be updated anytime at their own pace (slow and fast data). This way, consumers can easily discover and harvest the latest changes.

Install

git clone https://github.com/StadGent/node_service_adlib-backend.git
cd node_service_adlib-backend
npm install

Configuration

Fill in config.tml with the password of the Adlib API you want to use.

adlib-backend uses an ORM (Sequelize) to support following databases: Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite and Microsoft SQL Server. Fill in the connection URI in config.tml of the database you want to use. For example: 'sqlite://./eventstream.db' or 'postgresql://postgres:yourPassword@127.0.0.1:5432' or 'postgresql://postgres:yourPassword@yourDockerContainer:5432'

How to add a mapping

1. Add a new block to config.tml with the abbrevation of the institution/dataset, for example ['dmg'] with dmg = Design Museum Ghent. This abbreviation will be used for the creation of URIs and as namespace for the event stream in the Web API. Fill in:

• institutionName with the exact spelling (institution.name field) used in Adlib
• institutionURI with a URI of the organization

2. Create a new start... function inside app.js for your dataset/institution. Copy one of the start functions (e.g. startDmg) and rename it with your abbreviation.
3. Add the new start... function inside the start function of app.js
4. Adapt the option object so that the value of institution matches with abbreviation used in the configuration file.
5. Adapt the option object so that the value of adlibDatabase matches with the database name in Adlib that needs to be harvested
6. Adapt the option object so that the value of checkEuropeanaFlag whether the EUROPEANA field of a record needs to be "checked" in order to be published.
7. Create a specific mapper (for example: TestMapper.js) in the folder mappers for your dataset. Copy (e.g. dmgMapper.js) and rename an existing mapper to do this.
8. Import your mapper in app.js by adding an import statement, for example import TestMapper from './lib/mappers/TestMapper'; Also, rename the mapper in the start... function
9. To add new mapping functions for your mapper, create a new function in mappers/utils.js in a similar way as the existing functions.

Run

CLI

Run following command to start harvesting the Adlib API:

npm start

By running with the NPM command above, versioning is enabled by default using environment variable npm_package_version created from package.json. If you want to run with node app.js,then you need to manually set environment variable npm_package_version to enable versioning:

npm_package_version=0.0.1 node app.js

When npm_package_version is not defined, then the Members table will be emptied and all objects from Adlib will be harvested again. When npm_package_version is updated, all objects from Adlib will be harvested BUT the already harvested objects will still be maintained (append to the event stream).

Cronjob

You can configure in config.tml when to periodically run app.js. Fill in schedule following the cron syntax, for example every day at midnight (0 0 * * *)

Clean data

If you want to clean up your database (e.g. you updated the mapping of the event stream), then you need to clean the Members table of the database manually.

This can be configured in the future if preferred.