Lab: Read JSON from a REST call

You can use the REST protocols to incorporate IBM DataStage Flow Designer features in your custom application. You use the REST protocol to perform actions such as compiling jobs, running jobs, and getting job status.

The following REST calls are supported:

• XML
• JSON

For more info check out the REST API documentation.

In this lab we'll learn how to call a JSON endpoint and pipe those results to a file using DataStage.

This lab consists of the following steps:

1. Create job layout
2. Customize with Assembly Editor
3. Compile and run the job
4. View output

Before you start: Launching DataStage Flow Designer

Before we start the lab, let's switch to the iis-client VM and launch Firefox.

Launch the desktop client by going to the start menu and searching for DataStage Designer.

1. Create job layout

Start a new Parallel Job project and create a job that looks like the image below. Remember to wire the elements together. It should have:

• 1 x Hierarchical Data
• 1 x Peek
• 1 X Sequential File

Double click on the Hierarchical Data node and click on Edit assembly.

2. Customize with Assembly Editor

The "Assembly Editor" will launch. This allows for fine tuning the properties of certain jobs.

Click on Palette and add a REST step and a JSON Parser step.

From the REST step, in the General tab, specify the following URL:

http://dummy.restapiexample.com/api/v1/employees

From the REST step, in the Response tab, specify the content type to be test/plain:

From the REST step, in the Mappings tab, click on the Map Automatically button:

Before proceeding to the JSON Parser step click on the Libraries button on the top left and choose the New Library button.

Download the file employees.json to the desktop.

Click on Import New Resource and browse to the newly downloaded file.

DataStage will automatically use this file as a JSON schema

From the JSON Parser step, in the Configuration tab, choose the String set option and use the drop down menu. There is only one result.

From the JSON Parser step, in the Documentation Root tab, specify the documentation root to be the new library from the previous step, likely called employees.

From the Output step, in the Mappings tab, click on the Map Automatically button. Remove the image profile and any others you do not want to use.

Click OK to exit out of the Assembly Editor.

3. Compile and run the job

Before running the job we need to modify the Sequential File by double clicking on its icon on the designer. Specify an output file, say output.csv.

Also update the columns by adding the id, employee_name, employee_salary, and employee_age fields.

Finally, compile and run the job.

You may see an error message: Message bundle error Can't find resource for bundle com.ibm.e2.Bundle_E2_engine_msgs, key OperatorException.operatorTransitionFailedAtRuntime. To resolve this, go to the iis-server machine, go to the temp directory cd /tmp and delete the XML files rm -rf XML*. This should resolve the issue. Re-compile and re-run the job. For more info check out IBM support.

4. View output

The output file will be saved on the server. Switch to the server VM by clicking the first icon on the Environment VMs panel and selecting iis-server. Login as the root user with the password inf0Xerver.

Change your direcotory using cd to the location where you had stored the file. If you provided a path starting at "/", then it will be stored at that location in the server. Since we had only provided output.csv as the file path in the File connector, the file will be available in the Transformation project's folder, i.e.,

cd /opt/IBM/InformationServer/Server/Projects/<project-name>/

Finally, output your results using the cat command.

cat output.csv

CONGRATULATIONS!! You have completed this lab!