Azure Data Lake Storage

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Actions

This section lists the actions supported by the connector. To understand how to configure the actions, see Action examples.

DownloadFile action

This action lets you download the contents of a particular blob from a directory or a container.

Input parameters of the DownloadFile action

Output parameters of the DownloadFile action

If the action is successful, it returns the contents of the file or the blob.

For example on how to configure the DownloadFile action, see Action examples.

CreateFile action

This action lets your create a blob or a file in a container or a directory.

Input parameters of the CreateFile action

For example on how to configure the CreateFile action, see Action examples.

CopyFile action

This action lets you copy the contents of a file or a blob to another file or blob in the same container or directory.

Input parameters of the CopyFile action

For example on how to configure the CopyFile action, see Action examples.

DeleteObject action

This action lets you delete a file or a blob.

Input parameters of the DeleteObject action

For example on how to configure the DeleteObject action, see Action examples.

LeaseBlob action

This action lets you create and manage a lock on a blob.

Input parameters of the LeaseBlob action

For example on how to configure the LeaseBlob action, see Action examples.

UploadFile Action

This action let users upload the contents to a particular blob or container.

Input parameters of the UploadFile action

For example on how to configure the UploadFile action, see Action examples.

RenameObject Action

This action lets you rename a file or a folder.

Input parameters of the RenameObject action

For example on how to configure the RenameObject action, see Action examples.

Action examples

Example - Download a file

This example downloads a binary file.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the DownloadFile action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Path": "testdirectory1/test1.pdf",
   "HasBytes": true
   }

If the action is successful, the DownloadFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "True",
"ContentBytes": "UEsDBBQABgAIAAAAIQCj77sdZQEAAFIFAAATAAgCW0NvbnRlbnRfVHlwZXNdLnhtbCCiBAIooA"
}]

Example - Upload a file

This example uploads content as a blob.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the UploadFile action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Path": "testblob4",
   "HasBytes": true,
   "Content": "abcdef\nabcdef"
   }

If the action is successful, the UploadFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Create a file

This example creates a file in the specified directory.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the CreateFile action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "path": "testdirectory1/testblob"
   }

If the action is successful, the CreateFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Copy a file

This example copies a file from one location to another location.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the CopyFile action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "SourcePath": "testdirectory1/testblob",
   "DestinationPath": "testblob"
   }

If the action is successful, the CopyFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Delete a blob

This example deletes the specified blob.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the DeleteObject action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "path": "testdirectory1/testblob"
   }

If the action is successful, the DeleteObject task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Lease a blob

This example leases the specified blob.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the LeaseBlob action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Path": "testblob2",
   "LeaseAction": "Acquire",
   "LeaseDuration": 60.0
   }

If the action is successful, the LeaseBlob task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"LeaseId": "7aae9ca2-f015-41b6-9bdf-5fd3401fc493",
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Rename a blob

This example renames a blob.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the RenameObject action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Path": "testblob",
   "RenameTo": "testblob6"
   }

If the action is successful, the RenameObject task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": true
}]

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - List all the records

This example lists all the records in the Resource entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Resource from the Entity list.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
4. Optionally, in Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can filter your result set by specifying a filter clause. Specify the filter clause value always within the single quotes (').

Example - Get a record

This example gets a record with the specified ID from the Resource entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Resource from the Entity list.
3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click EntityId and then enter testdirectory1/testblob1 in the Default Value field.

   Here, testdirectory1/testblob1 is a unique record ID in the Resource entity.