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Writers

.qsp.write toAmazonS3 write to an object in Amazon S3 toConsole write to the console toDatabase write data to a kdb Insights Database toKafka publish data on a Kafka topic toKDB (Beta) write data to an on-disk partitioned table toProcess write data to a kdb+ process toStream write data using a kdb Insights stream toVariable write to a local variable

Writers are a specialized type of operator that allow users to push data from a streaming pipeline to different external data sources.

.qsp.write.toConsole

Write to the console

.qsp.write.toConsole[]
.qsp.write.toConsole[prefix]
.qsp.write.toConsole[prefix; .qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`split    ; split);
    (`timestamp; timestamp);
    (`qlog     ; qlog))]

Parameters:

name type description default
prefix string A prefix for output messages. ""

options:

name type description default
split boolean Controls how vectors are printed (see below). 0b
timestamp symbol Either local,utc, empty for no timestamp, or . to use the UTC time when qlog is false, and no timestamp when it is true. `.
qlog boolean Prints all console logs to a QLog stream. 0b

For all common arguments, refer to configuring operators

This operator adds a console writer to the current stream.

A console writer outputs content to standard out on the current process prefixed with the event timestamp.

Splitting output:

By default, all vectors (lists of the same type) are printed on a single line. By setting the split option to 1b, vectors will be printed on separate lines. Lists of mixed types are always printed on separate lines.

Examples:

Basic writer:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toConsole[];
// Callback takes lists of messages, so enlist the single message
publish enlist "hi!"

2021.03.08D19:19:08.171805000 | "hi!"

Write with prefix:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toConsole["INFO: "];

publish enlist "hi!"

INFO: 2021.03.08D19:19:08.171805000 | "hi!"

Write with split vectors:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toConsole[.qsp.use ``split!(::;1b)];

publish enlist 1 2 3 4

2021.09.30D14:01:50.359012847 | 1
2021.09.30D14:01:50.359012847 | 2
2021.09.30D14:01:50.359012847 | 3
2021.09.30D14:01:50.359012847 | 4

Write output to QLog format

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCalback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toConsole[.qsp.use ``qlog!(::;1b)]

publish ("hello"; "world")
publish "==="
publish ([] date: .z.p+til 2; open: 2?100f; high: 2?100f; low:2?100f; close: 2?100f)

2021-10-04 11:35:33.189 [console_f08427d1] INFO  "hello"
2021-10-04 11:35:33.189 [console_f08427d1] INFO  "world"
2021-10-04 11:35:33.189 [console_f08427d1] INFO  "==="
2021-10-04 11:36:12.193 [console_f08427d1] INFO  date                          open     high     low      close
2021-10-04 11:36:12.193 [console_f08427d1] INFO  -----------------------------------------------------------------
2021-10-04 11:36:12.194 [console_f08427d1] INFO  2021.10.04D11:36:12.193211900 74.84699 20.68577 85.28164 46.82838
2021-10-04 11:36:12.194 [console_f08427d1] INFO  2021.10.04D11:36:12.193211901 97.91903 36.07874 69.44221 4.251175

.qsp.write.toDatabase

Write data to a kdb Insights Database

.qsp.write.toDatabase[table; assembly]
.qsp.write.toDatabase[table; assembly; .qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`timeout    ; timeout);
    (`deduplicate; deduplicate);
    (`directWrite; directWrite);
    (`mountName  ; mountName))]

Parameters:

name type description default
table symbol A table name. Note that at present if using directWrite table name must be a symbol. Required
assembly symbol or string The assembly name Required

options:

name type description default
timeout int Timeout value 0Ni (no timeout)
deduplicate boolean If the outbound stream should drop duplicate messages that may have been created during a failure event. If enabled, the pipeline must produce deterministic data. If $KXI_ALLOW_NONDETERMINISM is set, this value will be forced to be false, potentially resulting in duplicate data after failure recover events. 1b
directWrite boolean Bypass RDB & IDB and write to HDB directly for historical data. Direct table writing is useful for large backfill ingestion where data is mostly historical. When using direct write, the system will use significantly less resources but the data will not be available for query until the entire ingest is complete. 0b
mountName symbol Name of mount. hdb

For all common arguments, refer to configuring operators

This operator writes data using kdb Insights Reliable Transport streams, except when doing a direct write.

Direct write configuration

When using directWrite, at present the table name specified must be a symbol value. This requirement will be removed in a future release.

Also when using directWrite, you must set an environment variable KXI_SP_DIRECT_WRITE_ASSEMBLY to point to the assembly you want to write to. If you want to set the mountName to something other than hdb, you must set KXI_SP_DIRECT_WRITE_MOUNT_NAME to the desired mount name. These variables are required for assembly deployments and REST-based deployments. They are not needed for UI based deployments. This requirement will be removed in a future release.

Note that these environment variables must be set using either the pipeline environment variable config, not in the pipeline spec's code.

Pipeline create request body example: 

{
    "name": "myPipeline",
    "type": "spec",
    "config": {
        "content": ".qsp.run .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish] .qsp.write.toDatabase[`myTable; `myAssembly; .qsp.use``directWrite!(::; 1b)]"
    },
    "env": {
        "KXI_SP_DIRECT_WRITE_ASSEMBLY": "myAssembly"
    }
}

Pipeline assembly configuration example: 

...
spec:
  elements:
    pipelines:
      myPipeline:
        spec: |-
          .qsp.run
              .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
              .qsp.write.toDatabase[`myTable; `myAssembly; .qsp.use``directWrite!(::;1b)]
        env:
          - name: "KXI_SP_DIRECT_WRITE_ASSEMBLY"
            value: "myAssembly"
...

Basic example publishing streaming data: 

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toDatabase[`quotes; `assembly];

quotes: flip `time`ticker`bid`bidSize`ask`askSize!enlist each (.z.P; `test; 99.9; 100i; 100.1; 200i)
publish quotes

Using directWrite for historical data: 

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toDatabase[`quotes; `assembly; .qsp.use enlist[`directWrite]!enlist 1b];

quotesOld: flip `time`ticker`bid`bidSize`ask`askSize!enlist each (.z.P-1D; `test; 99.9; 100i; 100.1; 200i)
quotesNew: flip `time`ticker`bid`bidSize`ask`askSize!enlist each (.z.P; `test2; 99.9; 100i; 100.1; 200i)

where quotesOld is: 

time                          ticker bid  bidSize ask   askSize
---------------------------------------------------------------
2022.12.20D14:32:18.949795000 test   99.9 100     100.1 200

and quotesNew is 

time                          ticker bid  bidSize ask   askSize
---------------------------------------------------------------
2022.12.21D14:37:35.971644000 test2  99.9 100     100.1 200


publish quotesOld    // directly write old data to HDB bypass RDB & IDB
publish quotesNew    // write new data using a stream

Direct write purviews

When using direct write, data that is older than the purview of the HDB will go directly to disk but will not be available for query until the pipeline completes. All other data will be streamed to the database and be ready for query immediately.

.qsp.write.toKafka

Publish data on a Kafka topic

.qsp.write.toKafka[topic]
.qsp.write.toKafka[topic; brokers]
.qsp.write.toKafka[topic; brokers; .qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`retries     ; retries);
    (`retryWait   ; retryWait);
    (`topicConfig ; topicConfig);
    (`registry    ; registry);
    (`subject     ; subject);
    (`autoRegister; autoRegister);
    (`schemaType  ; schemaType))]

Parameters:

name type description default
topic symbol A Kafka topic name to publish on. `
broker string or string[] One or more brokers as host:port. "localhost:9092"

options:

name type description default
retries long Max retry attempts for Kafka API calls. 10
retryWait timespan Period to wait between retry attempts. 0D00:00:02
topicConfig dictionary A dictionary of Kafka topic configuration options (see below). ()!()
registry string Optional URL to a Kafka Schema Registry. When provided, Kafka Schema Registry mode is enabled, allowing for automatic payload encoding. ""
subject string A Kafka subject to read schemas from and publish schemas to. If none is provided, uses "-value". ""
autoRegister boolean Controls whether or not to generate and publish schemas automatically. 0b
schemaType string Schema type to generate, one of: "JSON", "PROTOBUF", "AVRO" "JSON"

For all common arguments, refer to configuring operators

This operator acts as a Kafka producer, pushing data to a Kafka topic.

A Kafka producer will publish data to a Kafka broker which can then be consumed by any downstream listeners. All data published to Kafka must be encoded as either strings or serialized as bytes. If data reaches the Kafka publish point that is not encoded, it is converted to q IPC serialization representation. Data can also be linked to Kafka Schema Registry to use automatic type conversion.

AVRO is not supported

Encoding messages with AVRO using the Kafka Schema Registry integration is currently not supported.

Kafka topic configuration options

All the Kafka topic configuration options are supported by providing a config dictionary as the argument for topicConfig.

This includes properties such as request.timeout.ms, queuing.strategy, socket.timeout.ms, connection.max.idle.ms, etc.

Note that metadata.broker.list and producer.id are reserved values and are maintained directly by the Kafka writer.

Localhost broker:

// Write data from a function called 'publish' and write to a Kafka topic
// 'words' with a default broker at 'localhost:9092'.
.qsp.run .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish] .qsp.write.toKafka[`words]

// Both 'Hello' and 'World' are sent to the Kafka topic as independent events.
publish "Hello"
publish "World"

Multiple brokers:

// Write data from a function called 'publish' and write to a Kafka topic
// 'words' to multiple Kafka brokers.
.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toKafka[`words; ("localhost:1234"; "localhost:1235")]

// Both 'Hello' and 'World' are sent to the Kafka topic as independent events.
publish "Hello"
publish "World"

Advanced configuration:

// Writes data to a topic 'words' with a default broker setting custom values
// for advanced producer configuration.
.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toKafka[.qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`topic                     ; `words);
    (`socket.timeout.ms         ; 60000);        // Wait 1 minute for socket timeout
    (`socket.send.buffer.bytes  ; 4*1024*1024);  // Buffer up to 4MiB max msg size
    (`max.in.flight             ; 100000))];     // Allow up to 100k inflight msgs

// Publish 'Hello' and 'World' as a single batch publish
publish ("Hello"; "World")

Kafka Schema Registry with existing schema:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toKafka[.qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`topic    ; `words);
    (`brokers  ; "localhost:9092");
    (`registry ; "http://localhost:8081"))];

Kafka Schema Registry with generated schema:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toKafka[.qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`topic        ; `words);
    (`brokers      ; "localhost:9092");
    (`registry     ; "http://localhost:8081");
    (`autoRegister ; 1b);
    (`schemaType   ; "JSON"))];

Kafka Schema Registry with custom subject:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toKafka[.qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`topic    ; `words);
    (`brokers  ; "localhost:9092");
    (`registry ; "http://localhost:8081");
    (`subject  ; "custom-subject"))];

Writing to explicit partitions

Future versions of the Kafka writer will allow writing to explicit partitions/keys.

However, the current Kafka writer will write to unassigned partitions without using an explicit key.

.qsp.write.toKDB

(Beta Feature) Writes data to an on-disk partition table

Beta Features

To enable beta features, set the environment variable KXI_SP_BETA_FEATURES to true.

.qsp.write.toKDB[path;prtnCol;table]

Parameters:

name type description default
path symbol The database path. Required
prtnCol symbol The name of the partition column. Required
table symbol The name of the table. Required

For all common arguments, refer to configuring operators

This operator writes an on-disk partition table.

Writing keyed columns

Plugin supports keyed columns but writes to disk as an unkeyed table.

Stream data into a table: 

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toKDB[`db;`date;`myTable];

publish ([] date: 2022.01.01 2022.01.02 2022.01.03 2022.01.04 2022.01.05; open: 1 2 3 4 5; close: 6 7 8 9 10);

.qsp.write.toProcess

Write data to a kdb+ process

.qsp.write.toProcess[handle]
.qsp.write.toProcess[.qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`mode       ; mode);
    (`target     ; target);
    (`async      ; async);
    (`queueLength; queueLength);
    (`queueSize  ; queueSize);
    (`spread     ; spread);
    (`handle     ; handle);
    (`retries    ; retries);
    (`retryWait  ; retryWait))]

Parameters:

name type description default
handle symbol Handle of destination process to write to. `

options:

name type description default
mode symbol `function (call) or `table (upsert) (symbol). `function
target symbol Target function name or table name. ""
async boolean Whether writing should be async. 1b
queueLength long Max async message queue length before flush. 0Wj
queueSize long Max number of bytes to buffer before flushing. 1MB
spread boolean Treat the pipeline data as a list of arguments in function mode (can not be set with params also set). 0b
params symbol[] List of any parameters that should appear before the message data in function mode. ()
retries long Max number of retry attempts. 5
retryWait timespan Wait time between connection retry attempts. 1 second

For all common arguments, refer to configuring operators

This operator writes data to another kdb+ process using IPC.

During a retry loop, on connection loss and on startup, all processing on the Worker is halted until the connection to the output process is re-established or the max number of retries is reached.

Publish to table:

q -p 1234

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toProcess[.qsp.use `handle`mode`target!`::1234`table`output]

q)publish ([] til 2)
q)`::1234 `output
x
-
0
1

Publish to function:

q -p 1234 <<< "upd: {x set y}"

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.map[{ (`table; x) }]
  .qsp.write.toProcess[.qsp.use `handle`target`spread!(`::1234; `upd; 1b)]

q)publish ([] til 2)
q)`::1234 `data
x
-
0
1

Re-connection to output process:

# Quit the process after some time to force a reconnect
q -p 1234

// Set number of retries to 2 and wait time between retries to 2 seconds
.qsp.run  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toProcess[.qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`handle   ; `::1234);
    (`mode     ; `table);
    (`target   ; `destTable);
    (`retries  ; 2);
    (`retryWait; 0D00:00:02) ]

WARN  [] SPWRITE Connection lost to IPC output process, attempting to reconnect, writer=ipc-91f585df
INFO  [] CONN Closing connection, h=9
INFO  [] SPWRITE Connection re-established, handle=::1234

.qsp.write.toStream

Write data using a KX Reliable Transport stream

.qsp.write.toStream[table]
.qsp.write.toStream[table; stream]
.qsp.write.toStream[table; stream; .qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`prefix     ; prefix);
    (`deduplicate; deduplicate))]

Parameters:

name type description default
table symbol or string A table name. Required
stream symbol or string The outbound stream $RT_PUB_TOPIC

options:

name type description default
prefix string Stream prefix for URL mapping $RT_TOPIC_PREFIX
deduplicate boolean If the outbound stream should drop duplicate messages that may have been created during a failure event. If enabled, the pipeline must produce deterministic data. If $KXI_ALLOW_NONDETERMINISM is set, this value will be forced to be false, potentially resulting in duplicate data after failure recover events. 1b

For all common arguments, refer to configuring operators

This operator writes data using kdb Insights Reliable Transport streams.

.qsp.write.toAmazonS3

Writes data to an object in an Amazon S3 bucket

.qsp.write.toAmazonS3[path]
.qsp.write.toAmazonS3[path; isComplete]
.qsp.write.toAmazonS3[path; isComplete; .qsp.use (!) . flip (
    (`tenant       ; tenant);
    (`region       ; region);
    (`credentials  ; credentials);
    (`onTeardown   ; onTeardown))]
Parameters:

name type description default
path string or symbol or function The path of an object to read from S3. A function can also be provide that can dynamically set the file path for a given batch of data. Required
isComplete function A binary function that accepts a metadata dictionary as its first argument and data as its second. The return is a boolean to indicate if the upload of the current file should be marked as completed. This will cause any further writes to the given file path to fail. By default, writes will finish when the first non-partial batch is received for a given path. ::

options:

name type description default
tenant symbol The authentication tenant. `
region string The AWS region to authenticate against. us-east-1
credentials string Name of a credentials secret to mount. See the authentication section below for details ""
onTeardown symbol For an in-flight uploads at the time of upload, this indicates the behavior. By default, all in-flight uploads will be left pending (none). This is useful for pipelines that need to resume an upload between teardowns (ex. an upgrade). Alternatively, you can either chose to abort any pending uploads or complete any pending uploads none

For all common arguments, refer to configuring operators

This operator reads an object from an Amazon Web Services S3 bucket as either text or binary.

Teardown Behavior

By default, teardown will leave pending uploads queued so that when the pipeline is restarted the pending uploads are resumed. This behaviour is useful for allowing pipelines to stop and restart for regularly scheduled maintenance (i.e. version upgrades). When an upload remains in a pending state, it will consume resources in Amazon S3 as a partial file upload. By default, Amazon will expunge these partial uploads after 7 days.

If this behavior is undesired, the teardown behavior can be modified to be either abort or complete. If marked as abort, any pending uploads will be terminated. If the upload is resumed, any already processed data will be lost. If marked as complete, any pending uploads will be pushed to S3. However, if the pipeline was to resume, it will start overwriting the previous object with a new object. It is recommended to only use the complete behavior when a path function is provided that will ensure a new file path is used when resuming.

Authentication

The S3 writer uses kurl for credential discovery. See credential discovery in the AWS tab for more information.

Environment variable authentication:

To setup authentication using environment variables, set AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY.

For Docker based configurations, set the variables in the worker image configuration.

docker-compose: 

version: "3.3"
services:
  worker:
    image: registry.dl.kx.com/kxi-sp-worker:1.4.0
    environment:
      AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: "abcd"
      AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: "iamasecret"

Docker credentials file for authentication:

To load a custom configuration file into a Docker deployment, mount the credentials file directory into the container and set KXI_SP_CONFIG_PATH to point to the configuration directory.

version: "3.3"
services:
  worker:
    image: registry.dl.kx.com/kxi-sp-worker:1.4.0
    volumes:
      - $HOME/.aws/:/config/awscreds
    environment:
      KXI_SP_CONFIG_PATH: "/config"

Next, add the secret name to the S3 reader configuration

.qsp.write.toAmazonS3[`:s3://bucket/hello; .qsp.use``credentials!``awscreds]

Now deploying the pipeline will read the credentials from the AWS credentials file. Note that the credentials file name must be credentials.

For Kubernetes deployments, environment variables can be passed via the REST request sent when launching a job.

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/pipeline/create -d \
    "$(jq -n  --arg spec "$(cat spec.q)" \
    '{
        name     : "s3-writer",
        type     : "spec",
        config   : { content: $spec },
        settings : { minWorkers: "1", maxWorkers: "10" },
        env      : { AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: "abcd", AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: "iamasecret" }
    }' | jq -asR .)"

Kubernetes secrets for authentication:

When using a Kubernetes deployment, Kubernetes secrets can be used to install credentials into the worker.

First, create a secret using an AWS credentials file.

kubectl create secret generic --from-file credentials=$HOME/.aws/credentials awscreds

Next, add the secret name to the S3 reader configuration

.qsp.write.toAmazonS3[`:s3://bucket/hello; .qsp.use``credentials!``awscreds]

Lastly, when deploying the worker, add a secret to the Kubernetes configuration in the request.

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/pipeline/create -d \
    "$(jq -n  --arg spec "$(cat spec.q)" \
    '{
        name       : "s3-writer",
        type       : "spec",
        config     : { content: $spec },
        settings   : { minWorkers: "1", maxWorkers: "10" },
        kubeConfig : { secrets : ["awscreds"] }
    }' | jq -asR .)"

Examples

Uploading a local file:

Permissions

When running this example inside a kxi-sp-worker image, you must first run system "cd /tmp" to avoid encountering permissions errors.

t:([] date: .z.d; name: 1000?10?`3; id: 1000?0ng; units: 1000?100f; price: 1000?1000f);
`:data.csv 0: csv 0: t;

.qsp.run
    .qsp.read.fromFile[`:data.csv]
    .qsp.write.toAmazonS3[`:s3://mybucket/file.csv]

Uploading a stream:

// The second argument to `write.toAmazonS3` indicates that data should not be uploaded
// until an empty batch is received in the stream.
.qsp.run
    .qsp.read.fromCallback[`pub]
    .qsp.write.toAmazonS3[`:s3://mybucket/file.txt; {[md;data] 0 ~ count data}]

pub "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, "
pub "sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. "
pub "Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat."

// At this point, the chunks have been buffered and are waiting to be converted to
// an S3 object. Flush the file and write it to S3.
pub ()

.qsp.write.toVariable

Writes data to a variable in the local process

.qsp.write.toVariable[variable]
.qsp.write.toVariable[variable; mode]

Parameters:

name type description default
variable symbol The name of the variable to write the output to. Required
mode symbol The writing behavior. Mode can be one of the following options:
- append outputs the stream into a variable
- overwrite sets the variable to the last output of the pipeline
- upsert performs an upsert on table data to the output variable.		 append

For all common arguments, refer to configuring operators

This operator writes to a local variable, either overwriting, appending, or upserting to the variable depending on the selected mode.

Append joins data

When using append as the write mode, values will be joined, even if they do not have matching types. If tables are being used in the stream, the result will also be a table. If a matching schema is desired, consider using upsert mode to force a type error for table schema mismatches.

Join data in a single output:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toVariable[`output]

publish 1 2 3
publish "abc"
output

1
2
3
"abc"

Capture an output value:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toVariable[`output; `overwrite];

publish 1 2 3
publish 4 5 6
output

4 5 6

Stream data into a table:

.qsp.run
  .qsp.read.fromCallback[`publish]
  .qsp.write.toVariable[`output; `upsert];

publish ([] x: 1 2 3; y: "abc");
publish ([] x: 4 5; y: "de");
output

x y
---
1 a
2 b
3 c
4 d
5 e