dataflow

dataflow is a CLI script running on the gl-calcs Linux server that hosts the InfluxDB time series database. The script scans folders for files and tries to assign a filetype to each found file. If a filetype was successfully assigned to a specific file, dataflow uploads the data of the respective file using the settings for the respectively assigned filetype.

dataflow scans folders for files. Then, dataflow uses the POET script dbc-influxdb for:

• reading found files
• scanning found files for variables
• uploading found data to the database

dataflow configurations, including the different filetypes, are given in the configs folder.

Configurations for accessing the database are not included in the configs folder for security reasons.

dataflow uses poetry for dependency management.

Currently defined filetypes

Filetypes are defined in the configs, see here: Filetypes

Installation on the database server gl-calcs using pipx

• gl-calcs is a Linux computer running CentOS 7
• Source archive is built via poetry with poetry build.
  • Example: dataflow-0.3.0.tar.gz
• The resulting .tar.gz file is uploaded to the server gl-calcs.
• On the server, the script is installed using pipx, e.g., pipx install /path/to/file/dataflow-0.3.0.tar.gz.
• This also installs the script dbc-influxdb for uploading data to the database.
• The script can also be installed directly from source to install a specific version with pipx install https://github.com/holukas/dataflow/archive/refs/tags/v0.10.3.tar.gz. This example would install script v0.10.3.

Starting the script using the CLI

Overview of CLI arguments

Accessed using the help argument with python .\main.py -h.

usage: main.py [-h] [-y YEAR] [-m MONTH] [-l FILELIMIT] [-n NEWESTFILES] site datatype access filegroup dirconf                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                     
dataflow                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                     
positional arguments:                                                                                                                                                
  site                  Site abbreviation, e.g. ch-dav, ch-lae                                                                                                       
  datatype              Data type: 'raw' for raw data, 'processed' for processed data                                                                                     
  access                Access to data via 'server' address (e.g. outside gl-calcs) or 'mount' path (e.g. on gl-calcs)                                               
  filegroup             Data group, e.g. '10_meteo'                                                                                                                  
  dirconf               Path to folder with configuration settings                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                                     
optional arguments:                                                                                                                                                  
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit                                                                                                              
  -y YEAR, --year YEAR  Year (default: None)                                                                                                                         
  -m MONTH, --month MONTH                                                                                                                                            
                        Month (default: None)                                                                                                                        
  -l FILELIMIT, --filelimit FILELIMIT                                                                                                                                
                        File limit, 0 corresponds to no limit. (default: 0)                                                                                          
  -n NEWESTFILES, --newestfiles NEWESTFILES                                                                                                                          
                        Consider newest files only, 0 means keep all files, e.g. 3 means keep 3 newest files. Is applied after FILELIMIT was considered. (default: 0)

Example for starting the script on a Linux computer

With the dataflow script installed via pipx (see above) it can be called with

dataflow ch-aws raw mount 10_meteo /home/holukas/source_code/configs -y 2023 -n 10

• dataflow uses the script installed with pipx
• ch-aws is the site
• raw is the datatype, in this case we want to upload raw data
• mount means we are using the mounted server locations defined in the configs
• 10_meteo is the filegroup, basically this is the subfolder we use to store this kind of data on the raw data server.
• /home/holukas/source_code/configs is the location of the config files, in this case we are using the location on the Linux computer.
• -y 2023 means that only data for the year 2023 are considered (i.e., searched and uploaded to the database)
• -n 10 means that of all files found, only the newest 10 files are considered

This command can easily be used to automate execution e.g. via cronjobs.

Alternatively the script can be called directly using the local Python version and source code:

python .\main.py ch-aws raw mount 10_meteo /home/holukas/source_code/configs -y 2023 -n 10

Example for starting the script locally on a Windows computer

This example executes the script on a Windows computer using the CLI.

python .\main.py ch-aws raw server 10_meteo "F:\Sync\luhk_work\20 - CODING\22 - POET\configs" -y 2023 -n 1

• python is the used Python version, e.g. in a conda environment
• main.py is the entry point for the script
• ch-aws is the site
• raw is the datatype, in this case we want to upload raw data
• server means we are using the network addresses such as \\serverxyz.ethz.ch\archive\FluxData
• 10_meteo is the filegroup, basically this is the subfolder we use to store this kind of data on the raw data server.
• "F:\Sync\luhk_work\20 - CODING\22 - POET\configs" is the location of the config files, in this case we are using a local Windows folder.
• -y 2023 means that only data for the year 2023 are considered (i.e., searched and uploaded to the database)
• -n 10 means that of all files found, only the newest 10 files are considered