Teradata

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Actions

This connector supports execution of the following actions:

• User-defined stored procedures and functions. If you have any stored procedures and functions in your backend, those are listed in the Actions column of the Configure connector task dialog.
• Custom SQL queries. To execute custom SQL queries, the connector provides the Execute custom query action.

  To create a custom query, follow these steps:

  1. Follow the detailed instructions to add a connectors task.
  2. When you configure the connector task, in the type of action you want to perform, select Actions.
  3. In the Action list, select Execute custom query, and then click Done.

     

  4. Expand the Task input section, and then do the following:
     1. In the Timeout after field, enter the number of seconds to wait till the query executes.

        Default value: 180 seconds.

     2. In the Maximum number of rows field, enter the maximum number of rows to be returned from the database.

        Default value: 25.

     3. To update the custom query, click Edit Custom Script. The Script editor dialog opens.

        

     4. In the Script editor dialog, enter the SQL query and click Save.

        You can use a question mark (?) in a SQL statement to represent a single parameter that must be specified in the query parameters list. For example, the following SQL query selects all rows from the Employees table that matches the values specified for the LastName column:

        SELECT * FROM Employees where LastName=?

     5. If you've used question marks in your SQL query, you must add the parameter by clicking + Add Parameter Name for each question mark. While executing the integration, these parameters replace the question marks (?) in the SQL query sequentially. For example, if you have added three question marks (?), then you must add three parameters in order of sequence.

        

        To add query parameters, do the following:

        1. From the Type list, select the data type of the parameter.
        2. In the Value field, enter the value of the parameter.
        3. To add multiple parameters, click + Add Query Parameter.

Supported data types

The following are the supported data types for this connector:

• BIGINT
• BINARY
• BIT
• BOOLEAN
• CHAR
• DATE
• DECIMAL
• DOUBLE
• FLOAT
• INTEGER
• LONGN VARCHAR
• LONG VARCHAR
• NCHAR
• NUMERIC
• NVARCHAR
• REAL
• SMALL INT
• TIME
• TIMESTAMP
• TINY INT
• VARBINARY
• VARCHAR

Action examples

This section describes how to perform some of the actions in this connector.

Example - Execute a group by query

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the ExecuteCustomQuery action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "query": "select E.EMPLOYEE_ID,E.EMPLOYEE_NAME,E.CITY from EMPLOYEES E LEFT JOIN EMPLOYEE_DEPARTMENT ED ON E.EMPLOYEE_ID=ED.ID where E.EMPLOYEE_NAME = 'John' Group by E.CITY,E.EMPLOYEE_ID,E.EMPLOYEE_NAME"
   }

This example selects the employee records from the EMPLOYEES and the EMPLOYEE_DEPARTMENT tables. If the action is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have the query result set.

Example - Execute a parameterized query

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the ExecuteCustomQuery action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "query": "select C.ID,C.NAME,C.CITY,C.O_DATE,E.EMPLOYEE_ID from customqueries C,Employees E where C.ID=E.Employee_id and C.NAME=?",
   "queryParameters": [{
         "value": "John",
         "dataType": "VARCHAR"
   }],
   "timeout":10,
   "maxRows":3
   }

This example selects employee records where the name of the employee is John. Notice that the name of the employee is parameterized by using the queryParameters parameter. If the action is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"NAME": "John",
"O_DATE": "2023-06-01 00:00:00.0",
"EMPLOYEE_ID": 1.0
}, {
"NAME": "John",
"O_DATE": "2021-07-01 00:00:00.0",
"EMPLOYEE_ID": 3.0
}, {
"NAME": "John",
"O_DATE": "2022-09-01 00:00:00.0",
"EMPLOYEE_ID": 4.0
}]

Example - Insert a record by using a sequence value

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the ExecuteCustomQuery action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "query": "INSERT INTO AUTHOR(id,title) VALUES(author_table_id_seq.NEXTVAL,'Sample_book_title')"
   }

This example inserts a record in the AUTHOR table, by using an existing author_table_id_seq sequence object. If the action is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
}]

Example - Execute a query with an aggregate function

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the ExecuteCustomQuery action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "query": "SELECT SUM(SALARY) as Total FROM EMPLOYEES"
   }

This example calculates the aggregate value of salaries in the EMPLOYEES table. If the action is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"TOTAL": 13000.0
}]  
  

Example - Create a new table

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the ExecuteCustomQuery action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "query": "CREATE TABLE TEST1 (ID INT, NAME VARCHAR(40),DEPT VARCHAR(20),CITY VARCHAR(10))"
   }

This example creates the TEST1 table. If the action is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
}]

Entity operation examples

Example - List all the employees

This example lists all the employees in the Employee entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Employee from the Entity list.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
4. Optionally, in Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can filter your result set by specifying a filter clause.

Example - Get employee details

This example gets the details of the employee with the specified ID, from the Employee entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Employee from the Entity list.
3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click EntityId and then enter 45 in the Default Value field.

   Here, 45 is the primary key value of the Employee entity.

Example - Create a employee record

This example adds a new employee record in the Employee entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Employee from the Entity list.
3. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "EMPLOYEE_ID": 69.0,
   "EMPLOYEE_NAME": "John",
   "CITY": "Bangalore"
   }

   If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

    {
   "ROWID": "AAAoU0AABAAAc3hAAF"
   }

Example - Update an employee record

This example updates the employee record whose ID is 69 in the Employee entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Employee from the Entity list.
3. Select the Update operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "EMPLOYEE_NAME": "John",
   "CITY": "Mumbai"
   }

5. Click entityId, and then enter 69 in the Default Value field.

   Alternately, instead of specifying the entityId, you can also set the filterClause to 69.

   If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

   {
   }

Example - Delete an employee record

This example deletes the employee record with the specified ID in the Employee entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Employee from the Entity list.
3. Select the Delete operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click entityId and then enter 35 in the Default Value field.