Data Integration

This section documents the various methods used to integrate with other system, for importing and exporting data, either on an ad-hoc/one-off basis, or for more automated synchronisation.

Data is normally held within the system in Tables. The mechanisms described import data into the Tables, or export the data from them, using industry standard protocols.

External Lookup Data Feed

Imports:

XML, RSS, & Atom feeds

When to use:

To import structured data from other servers into one or more Tables, for one-off transfer, ad-hoc queries, or for periodic synchronisation. This is the most powerful method for inter-server integration.

Scheduling:

Imports can be scheduled.

Notable features:

Can authenticate with secure feeds, handle failover urls, import into multiple tables, and trigger further lookups from separate feeds. It can be triggered by a user making a search. It can suppress making a lookup if the information is already in a Table.

Read more:

Summary of component capabilities
Configuration documentation
Configuring an External Lookup Data Feed to import an RSS feed
 

Bulk Import Script

Imports:

CSV files

When to use:

If your data is in a CSV file, and you have easy access to run operating system commands on the server running neatComponents

Scheduling:

This is designed for ad-hoc / one-off imports. (However you can schedule repeat imports using external operating system level scheduling tools)

Notable features:

It can see into zip files without you having to extract them. So if you need to import a large collection of images, you can upload a single zip file, and configure the script to iterate through all the files in it.

Read more:

Configuration documentation 
Example of usage importing images

CSV View

Exports:

CSV files

When to use:

To produce CSV files for use in third party applications: databases and spreadsheets.

Scheduling:

This is designed for ad-hoc usage. CSV reports are built in real-time in response to an HTTP request.
Usage: simply add the parameter  ?action=download  to the request.

For example: http://www.example.com/datasource-page?action=download

will download the first CSV view on the page with the DirectURL of /datasource-page. A third party tool, or the receiving application could be scheduled to request the file.

Read more:

RSS View

Exports:

RSS feed

When to use:

To produce RSS feeds for feed readers, or to synchronise data from one site with another.

Scheduling:

This is designed for scheduled access. Reports are cached once generated, and regenerated when their time-to-live has expired. This allows the feed to respond to heavy request load without overburdening the server.

Read more:

A third party tool could be scheduled to request file.