Ticket #1028: batchimport.txt

File batchimport.txt, 11.9 KB (added by Nicklas Nordborg, 16 years ago)

First draft of a developers view

Line 
1=====================
2Generic item importer
3=====================
4
5This is a description of an import plug-in that can be used to import almost any
6kind of item from a tab-separated text file (or compatible). The plug-in should
7be able to create new items or update existing items. In both cases it should be
8able to set values for:
9
10 * Simple properties. Eg. string values, numeric values, dates, etc.
11 * Single-item references: Eg. protocol, label, software, owner, etc.
12 * Multi-item references: Eg. the labeled extracts of a hybridization,
13 pooled samples, etc. In some cases a multi-item reference is bundled
14 with simple values. Eg. used quantity of a source biomaterial, the array
15 index a labeled extract is used on, etc. Multi-item references are never
16 removed by the importer, only added or updated. Removing an item from a
17 multi-item reference is a manual procedure to be done using the web
18 interface.
19
20The importer should not be able to set values for annotations since this is handled
21by the already existing annotation importer plug-in. The annotation importer
22and item importer should have similar behaviour and functionality to minimize
23the learning cost for users.
24
25Key features
26------------
27
28The item importer is only expected to work on a single type of item at each use
29and should read data from a single file.
30
31The importer should be able to work in 'dry-run' mode. Eg. everything is performed
32as if a real import is taking place, but the work (transaction) is not committed
33to the database.
34
35The importer should implement user-controlled error handling. Summary results,
36eg. number items importer, number of failed items, etc. should be kept track of
37and reported as the job status message. More details about the error handling
38options can be found later in this document.
39
40The plug-in should support logging more detailed error message. Eg. reasons for
41failed items, line numbers, etc. to a separate file (in the BASE file system).
42[IMPLEMENTATION NOTE] This file needs to be handled in a separate transaction,
43otherwise a complete failure will erase the file as well when the transaction
44is rolled back.
45
46The plug-in should be configurable and be able to store file parsing settings,
47including column mappings, etc. as plug-in configurations.
48
49File format
50-----------
51
52The input file should be organised into columns separated by a specified character.
53Eg. tab, comma, etc. Fixed-width columns are not supported. Eg. the file is a
54file that can be parsed with the FlatFileParser class.
55
56The first data line contains the column headers which defines the contents of each
57column. The column headers can be mapped to item properties at each use of the
58plug-in or by saving predefined settings as a plug-in configuration. This also
59includes separator character and other information that is needed to parse the
60file. Saved configurations should implement auto-detection functionality.
61
62Data for a single item may be split onto multiple lines. The first line contains
63simple properties and single-item references, and the first multi-item reference.
64If there are more multi-item references they should be on the following lines with
65empty values in all other columns, except for the column holding the item
66identifier, which must have the same value on all lines. If the following
67lines contains other data, this should be ignored, or it may be considered an
68error condition. It may be caused by giving two items the same name by accident.
69
70When reading data for an item the plug-in needs to know if it should create a new
71item or update an existing item. First, we need to know the method for identifying
72items. Depending on the item type there are two or three options:
73
74 * Using the internal 'id'. This is always unique.
75 * Using the 'name'. This may or may not be unique.
76 * Some items have an 'externalId'. This may or may not be unique.
77
78The plug-in should ask the user which method to use. The user must also tell the
79plug-in among which items it should look for an item with a given 'name' or
80'externalID'. There are four options, and the user may select one or several
81of them:
82
83 * Owned by the logged in user
84 * Shared to the logged in user
85 * In the current project
86 * Owned by other users (only available if the logged in user has enough
87 permissions, eg. generic read permission for the item type)
88
89If the 'id' method is used, the above options are not used. When the plug-in
90is looking for an item there are three possible outcomes.
91
92 * No item is found. This can be handled in different ways:
93 - An error condition which aborts the plug-in
94 - The line is ignored
95 - A new item is created
96 * One item is found. This is the item that is going to be updated.
97 * More than one item is found. This can be handled in different ways:
98 - An error condition which aborts the plug-in
99 - The line is ignored
100
101
102Parsing the data.
103=================
104
105Simple properties
106-----------------
107We need to know the data type of each property as a Type object.
108The string values can then be parsed with Type.parseString().
109
110Single-item references
111-----------------------
112
113This is either the 'id', 'name' or 'externalId' of the item. The plug-in should
114support those cases by a single column mapping and an option to select which
115method to use.
116
117[NOTE]
118This creates two input parameters for each columns which may be too many...
119Alternative options are:
120
121 * A global option for all item references. This doesn't give the user
122 any chance to use different method for different items.
123 * A global option with an 'auto' alternative that uses the 'id' method
124 for numeric values, otherwise first the 'name' and if no item is
125 found the 'externalId'.
126------
127
128When looking for item references the plug-in doesn't have to use the same
129setting for 'owned by', 'shared to', etc as when looking for the main items.
130In fact, this is not desired since many of those items are owned by the root
131user or a system administrator. Eg. labels, software, hardware, etc. I don't
132think it is practical to have another option for selecting this for each type
133of item reference, or....???
134well... maybe the code can be prepared for it, but the default should be to
135look among all items the user has access to...
136
137In any case, there are three outcomes:
138
139 * No item is found.
140 - This can be an error condition that aborts the plug-in. If it is a
141 required property this will always happen.
142 - The link is ignored. No call is made to setABC() method. Note that this
143 case is different from having an empty column in which case
144 setABC(null) would be called.
145 * One item is found. This is the item we link to.
146 * Multiple items are found.
147 - This can be an error condition that aborts the plug-in.
148 - The link is ignored.
149
150
151Multi-item references
152---------------------
153
154This should work in the same way as single item references.
155
156
157Using the plug-in
158=================
159
160Configuring the plug-in is done with the usual wizard. There will be plenty of
161parameters so it is probably a good idea to use a multi-step wizard. This may have
162to be tried out by actual users before we make any final decisions.
163
164Step 1
165------
166
167The user selects a file and enter values for the regular expressions and other
168options for parsing the file. Column mappings are also specifiec in this
169step. The "Test with file" function should be supported. Parameters that are
170needed:
171
172 * A file to parse
173 * Data header: Regular expression for finding the start of data
174 * Data splitter: Regular expression that splits data lines into columns
175 * Remove quotes: boolean option that removes "quotes" around values
176 * Ignore: Regular expression that matches lines to be ignored
177 * Data footer: Regular expression for finding the end of data
178 * Min/max data columns: The number of columns a data line must have, otherwise
179 it is ignored
180 * Character set: The characeter set (eg. iso-8859-1, utf-8, etc.) used in the file
181 * Decimal separator: if dot or comma is used as a decimal separator for numeric values
182
183The above parameter are the same as thos found in many of the existing import
184plug-ins.
185
186Since each type of item has different properties, colum mapping parameters vary
187from case to to case. Column mapping parameters may need to be divided into
188subsections for clarity.
189
190For the ID property we need one column mapping parameter, one enum parameter
191to select which identification method to use and one enum parameter for selecting
192which items to search (multi-choice).
193
194For simple properties we need a single column mapping parameter.
195
196For single-item references we need one column mapping parameter and one enum
197parameter to select which identification method to use.
198
199All options (except the file to parse) in this step should also be available
200to store as a plug-in configuration. But in this case we need a 'step 0' which
201asks us about which type of item the configuration is to be used with. Otherwise
202we don't know which properties, etc. to provide column mappings for.
203
204
205Step 2
206------
207
208This step is mainly about error handling options. Default values are marked with
209*stars*.
210
211 * Default error handling: *fail*, skip line
212 * Item not found: fail, *create*, skip line
213 * Multiple items found: *fail*, skip line
214 * Referenced item not found: *fail*, ignore, skip line
215 * Multiple referenced items found: *fail*, ignore, skip line
216 * Missing a required property: *fail*, ignore if updating, skip line
217 * String too long: *fail*, crop, ignore
218 * Invalid numeric value: *fail*, ignore
219 * Numeric value out of range: *fail*, ignore
220 * A log file for detailed error messages
221
222If there are multi-item references the 'skip line' option above means that we
223should skip all lines that are related to the same item.
224
225Implementation details
226======================
227
228We need some kind of basic, generic functionality that is handling the file parsing,
229property mapping, item lookup, error handling, logging, etc.
230
231We also need functionality that is specific for each type of item the plug-in
232should support. We need to know which properties that exists on the items. For each
233property we need to know the data type or if the property is a single-item or '
234multi-item reference. We need factory methods for creating new items etc.
235
236If possible, it should also be relatively easy to extend the item importer with
237support for other item types in the future.
238
239One possible approach is to use an abstract base class for the common functionality.
240This class defines some abstract methods that must be implemented by subclasses
241where each subclass handles a single type of item. This approach makes it relatively
242easy to add support for other item types just by creating a new subclass. This
243approach creates a separate plug-in for each item type. Eg. SampleImporter,
244ExtractImporter, etc.
245
246
247Item specific functionality that is needed
248------------------------------------------
249
250 * List of properties that can be imported. For each property we must know:
251 - if it is a simple value, a single-item reference or a multi-item reference
252 - the data type, eg. string, float, int, SAMPLE, PROTOCOL, etc.
253 - if the property is required or not
254 - name and description and other details for better user experience
255 This may be implemented as a 'Property' interface, with concrete implementations
256 for each type. The implementation should also know how to set a value on items.
257 Eg. NameProperty.setValue(item, theName) --> item.setName(theName). Note! some
258 properties may require multiple parameters. Eg. setting the source item and
259 used quantity: BioMaterialEvent.addSource(source, usedQuantity).
260
261 * A factory method for creating new items. Some items can be created without
262 any parameters (eg. Sample.getNew()), some requires one or more parameters
263 (eg. LabeledExtract.getNew(Label).
264
265 * Find an item. This functionality is alredy implemented by the annotation importer,
266 but it is not very flexible since it uses reflection to find the getQuery() method.
267 The annotation importer only works with items were the getQuery() method doesn't
268 require any parameters.
269
270Supported item types
271====================
272
273TO BE DONE.