Package Entrypoints

Entrypoints define the q/Python files which are used as the initialization script for a package. When loading a package using q or Python, entrypoints provide a method by which you can specify the sub-sections of your package code to be loaded.

The default entrypoint used when loading a package is default and is defined as init.q. This file is used when a package is loaded with no specific entrypoint defined.

You can update this entrypoint to be any file relative to the package root as shown below:

entrypoints:
    default: src/init.q

You can also specify additional entrypoints for a package, allowing you to define entrypoints to be loaded independently by different components of the deployment.

component	entrypoint `name`	usage
Aggregator	`aggregator`
Data Access Process	`data-access`
Resource Coordinator	`resource-coordinator`
Storage Manager	`storage-manager`

The value of the entrypoint name is important.

This name needs to be used as the value of --name when calling the package add entrypoint command

Though you can include arbitrarily named entrypoints (e.g. myentry), only the above will be used by default by the kdb Insights Enterprise platform. Any component that does not have its own entrypoint in the manifest file will load the default entrypoint.

The entrypoints named data-access and aggregator are used when defining Custom APIs in kdb Insights Enterprise. These entrypoints determine the code that is loaded by the Data Access and Aggregator processes respectively. To add entrypoints for the Data Access and Aggregator processes you can run the following:

kxi package add --to mypkg entrypoint --name aggregator --path src/agg.q
kxi package add --to mypkg entrypoint --name data-access --path src/da.q

Running the kxi package add commands above will update the entrypoints section of the manifest as follows:

entrypoints:
    default: init.q
    data-access: src/da.q
    aggregator: src/agg.q

Currently only q code is supported for entrypoints that are loaded by the Data Access and Aggregator processes

Within the Python and q package APIs it is possible to load these entrypoints separately.

Pythonq

Load the default entrypoint for version 1.0.0 of a package named test_pkg:

import kxi.packages as 
pakx.init()
pakx.packages.load("test_pkg", "1.0.0")

Load the non-default entrypoint myentry for the same package version and name:

import kxi.packages as pakx
pakx.init()
pakx.packages.load("test_pkg", "1.0.0", "myentry")

Load the default entrypoint for version 1.0.0 of a package named test_pkg:
```
q).kxi.packages.load["test_pkg";"1.0.0"]
```
Load the non-default entrypoint myentry for the same package version and name:
```
q).kxi.packages.load["test_pkg";"1.0.0";"myentry"]
```

Associating entrypoints with a database

To apply a Custom API to a database you need to add environment flags to the Data Access Process and Aggregator specification. This ensures the entrypoints in the manifest file are loaded. A simple way to do this is to add a deployment-config which will set these env vars across all processes.

To apply a Custom API with a database, follow these steps:

Add a database to the package:

export PKG=mypackage
kxi package init $PKG --force
kxi package add --to $PKG database --name mydb

Creating package at location: mypackage
Writing mypackage/manifest.yaml
Writing mypackage/manifest.yaml

Add an entrypoint for the data-access process:

kxi package add --to $PKG entrypoint --name data-access --path src/da.q

Writing mypackage/manifest.yaml

Add a Deployment Configuration to a package:

kxi package add --to $PKG deployment-config

Writing mypackage/manifest.yaml

Update the deployment_config.yaml file to include the environment flag variable:

echo "env: [{name: KXI_PACKAGES, value: ${PKG}:0.0.1}]" >> $PKG/deployment_config/deployment_config.yaml
kxi package info $PKG

==PATH==
/builds/kxdev/kxinsights/documentation/code-kx-com/mypackage

==OBJECT==
Package

==Manifest==
uuid: e8c4fcc2-6a46-459d-b200-a9b8b62a2e89
name: mypackage
version: 0.0.1
metadata:
  description: ''
  authors:
  - {}
entrypoints:
  default: init.q
  data-access: src/da.q
databases:
  mydb:
    dir: databases/mydb
    shards:
    - mydb-shard
    tables: []
deployment_config: deployment_config/deployment_config.yaml