dhis2-devs team mailing list archive

[Jason Pickering <jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi James,

Another example you might want to have a look at is here

http://rpubs.com/jason_p_pickering/124722

This shows how an external script can interact with both the API as well as
the database. In certain cases, it may be much more efficient to
interact/query the database directly as opposed to going through the API,
for instance, with data intensive tasks better performed at the database
level, or for things which are perhaps not so convenient through the API
(unwinding category option combos is one example). This script (in R)
partially uses the WebAPI, as well as the database, to perform "validation
rule analytics", outside of the system.

I guess similar libraries to access the database directly with NodeJS are
available (https://www.npmjs.com/package/pg) to query the database directly
with Node.

So my point is, interacting directly with the API has advantages, as the
script can be run from anywhere, but accessing the database directly, may
be more efficient, or in certain cases, the only way, but you are then
obviously limited to running the script on a machine that actually has
access to the DHIS2 database directly (which of course, does not need to be
the same machine as is running the application).

Regards,
Jason





On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 7:00 AM, James Chang <jamesbchang@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Thanks, Jason.
>
> Looked at the 'integrity.js'.  Quite good to find that I can use NodeJS to
> make it run via cron job.
> Having it in java takes care of handling the JSON data quite easily.
>
> Will have to install related libraries, but that's a great option.  Much
> better than doing it via Java.
>
> Thanks for the file.
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 4:46 AM, Jason Pickering <
> jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Hi James,
>>
>> There are many different ways to do this, and it may or may not be
>> necessary to access the database at all.
>>
>> Really any scripting language can be used to automate tasks. Some of the
>> ones which I know are being used are Bash, NodeJS, Python and R. Likely
>> there are others out there.   There is no requirement to have a Java
>> executable by any means, but it of course could be done this way, if you
>> were so inclined. Anything which can interact with the WebAPI using HTTP
>> should be fine.
>>
>> Here is a good example in  NodeJS-
>> https://github.com/dhis2/dhis2-utils/blob/master/resources/nodejs/integrity/integrity.js
>> of a task which checks some special Integrity SQL views, and then sends out
>> a notification if any of them fail.
>>
>> The basic pattern though is to access some enpoint through the API,
>> process what you need in your script, and possibly post something back to
>> the server. The other way, as Pierre points out, would be to call an SQL
>> view with a cron job through the API, but It would seem not to be really
>> what you want to do, if you do not want to use PgAgent, which could do the
>> same thing.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Jason
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 8:59 AM, Pierre Dane <pierre@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> so I suggest using cron with curl to call the sqlview
>>>
>>> On Sunday, 29 November 2015, James Chang <jamesbchang@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> In DHIS Server, we are trying to create a scheduled task that checks
>>>> events and update some data in events.
>>>>
>>>> We like to avoid using database scheduler (like pgadmin III PgAgent)
>>>>
>>>> That leaves us (We think) with:
>>>>
>>>>   - cron job with shell script using database sql comments (in file)
>>>>   - cron job with java executable (and Web API calls within Java)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> We prefer to do this using Web API.
>>>>
>>>> Does that mean 'cron job with java executable' is the only choice we
>>>> could have for our operation?
>>>>
>>>> Any suggestion on other methods that we could use to set up a 'Web API
>>>> data checking/updating' scheduled task?  (If there is, could you also
>>>> provide us with example?)
>>>>
>>>> Thank you.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> *Pierre Dane*
>>>
>>> Jembi Health Systems
>>> Software Development Manager
>>> tel: +27 (0)21 701 0939
>>> cel: +27 (0)83 680 8274
>>> email: pierre@xxxxxxxxx
>>> web: www.jembi.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jason P. Pickering
>> email: jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx
>> tel:+46764147049
>>
>
>


-- 
Jason P. Pickering
email: jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx
tel:+46764147049