Data Sources - Setting up your external test data
Creating a data source
Data sources can be created at the organisation level, meaning that the Data sources you create can be shared among the members of your organisation.
To create a data source:
Navigate to the Data Sources page.
Click on the button,
+Create new data source.
- Choose the CSV file containing your data.
Provide a name for your data source.
Click
saveat the bottom of the page.
Editing a data source
Data sources can be updated after creation.
To edit a data source:
- Navigate to the Data Sources page.
- Click on the data source you wish to edit, from the list provided.
- Update your data source.
- Click on the blue button(
save) at the bottom of the page.
Once in the data source page, you will be able to:
- Replace the csv file
- Rename the data source
- Change the column types
Columns
Column names
When uploading the CSV file, please ensure the following requirements for the column names:
- Column names must be unique within the CSV file.
- Column names must be between 1 and 128 characters in length.
- Column names can only contain letters, digits, the underscore character and spaces.
Also notice that column names will be lowered case.
Column types
Before saving the data source(or when editing it), you are able to amend the column data types. You will find a
setting icon below the column name and, when clicking on it, you will be able to select the correct type for the column, as shown in the following figure.
The default data type is String, however you can pick any of the following types:
| Data source type |
|---|
BOOLEAN |
DECIMAL |
INTEGER |
STRING |
DATE |
TIME (time zoned) |
TIME (not time zoned) |
DATETIME (time zoned) |
DATETIME (not time zoned) |
Example
| username(string) | age(integer) | first_name(string) | height(decimal) | email(string) | dob(datetime) | premium(boolean) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| admin | 64 | Bob | 1.8 | bob@example.com | 1962-12-31T16:50:31+05:00 | true |
| bill | 27 | Bill | 1.92 | bill@example.com | 1997-05-24T19:18:12Z | false |
| jill | 15 | Jill | 1.70 | jill@example.com | 2009-11-07T04:34:01+01:00[Europe/Paris] | false |
| jane | 74 | Jane | 1.81 | jane@example.com | 1952-01-13T10:10:10-12:00 | true |
Date type
You can specify your own format string using the elements in the following table:
| Letter | Date or Time Component | Presentation | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
G | Era designator | Text | AD |
y | Year | Year | 1996; 96 |
Y | Week year | Year | 2009; 09 |
M | Month in year | Month | July; Jul; 07 |
w | Week in year | Number | 27 |
W | Week in month | Number | 2 |
D | Day in year | Number | 189 |
d | Day in month | Number | 10 |
F | Day of week in month | Number | 2 |
E | Day name in week | Text | Tuesday; Tue |
u | Day number of week (1 = Monday, ..., 7 = Sunday) | Number | 1 |
a | Am/pm marker | Text | PM |
H | Hour in day (0-23) | Number | 0 |
k | Hour in day (1-24) | Number | 24 |
K | Hour in am/pm (0-11) | Number | 0 |
h | Hour in am/pm (1-12) | Number | 12 |
m | Minute in hour | Number | 30 |
s | Second in minute | Number | 55 |
S | Millisecond | Number | 978 |
z | Time zone | General time zone | Pacific Standard Time; PST; GMT-08:00 |
Z | Time zone | RFC 822 time zone | -0800 |
X | Time zone | ISO 8601 time zone | -08; -0800; -08:00 |
Deleting a Data Source
Data sources can be deleted from your organisation. To delete a data source:
- Navigate to the Data sources page.
- Click on the delete icon for the data source you want to remove.
Clicking on the delete icon will open a confirmation dialog. Click the Confirm button to confirm the deletion or Cancel to close the dialog without deleting the data source.
Clicking Confirm will delete the data source, but it will not remove the data source from any stubs that are using it. These stubs will continue to reference the deleted data source, but will act as if no data was returned when the data source is queried. See below for more details on stub matching and response templating when a data source is deleted.
When a data source is deleted, any data source limits you may have reached will be re-evaluated. If you have any disabled data sources, they will be re-enabled if you now have available capacity within your data source limits. You can read more about plan limits and disabled data sources here.
Any stubs that are using the deleted data source will now have a warning message displayed on the stub informing you that The data source that this stub was referencing no longer exists. You will also see a warning icon next to the data source summary in the stub form.
If you have other data sources within your organisation you can attach one of these to the stub to replace the deleted data source. If you do not have another data source that you can use, you will need to update the stub to remove the reference to the deleted data source.
You can do this by clicking on the delete icon next to the data source in the stub form.
Stub Matching
If a stub is using a data source that has been deleted, the stub will no longer match incoming requests if the Matches stub only if data is found tick box is checked on the Stub form. If this tick box is not checked, the stub will continue to match incoming requests, but the data source will not be queried.
Data source response templating
If a data source is deleted, any response templates that are using the data source will no longer be able to access the data source data. The response template will still be rendered, but the data source data will not be available.