12.3. Converter Processors

Converter processors (PutGeoMesa*) accept the following configuration parameters for specifying the input source. Each datastore-specific processor also has additional parameters for connecting to the datastore, detailed in the following sections.

Property

Description

SftName

Name of the SFT on the classpath to use. This property overrides SftSpec.

SftSpec

SFT specification String. Overridden by SftName if both are set.

FeatureNameOverride

Override the feature type name on ingest from SftName or SftSpec.

ConverterName

Name of converter on the classpath to use. This property overrides ConverterSpec.

ConverterSpec

Converter specification string. Overridden by ConverterName if both are set.

ConverterErrorMode

Override the converter error mode (skip-bad-records or raise-errors)

ConverterMetricReporters

Override the converter metrics reporters (see below)

ConvertFlowFileAttributes

Expose flow file attributes to the converter framework, referenced by name

12.3.1. Defining SimpleFeatureTypes and Converters

The GeoMesa NiFi processors package a set of predefined SimpleFeatureType schema definitions and GeoMesa converter definitions for popular data sources such as Twitter, GDelt and OpenStreetMaps.

The full list of provided sources can be found in Prepackaged Converter Definitions.

For custom data sources, there are two ways of providing custom SFTs and converters:

12.3.1.1. Providing SimpleFeatureTypes and Converters on the Classpath

To bundle configuration in a JAR file simply place your config in a file named reference.conf and place it at the root level of a JAR file:

$ jar cvf data-formats.jar reference.conf

You can verify your JAR was built properly:

$ jar tvf data-formats.jar
     0 Mon Mar 20 18:18:36 EDT 2017 META-INF/
    69 Mon Mar 20 18:18:36 EDT 2017 META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
 28473 Mon Mar 20 14:49:54 EDT 2017 reference.conf

Use the ExtraClasspaths property to point your processor to the JAR file. The property takes a list of comma-delimited resources. Once set, the SftName and/or ConverterName properties will update with the name of your converters. You will need to close the configuration panel and re-open it in order for the properties to update.

12.3.1.2. Defining SimpleFeatureTypes and Converters via the UI

You may also provide SimpleFeatureTypes and Converters directly in the Processor configuration via the NiFi UI. Simply paste your TypeSafe configuration into the SftSpec and ConverterSpec property fields.

12.3.1.3. Defining SimpleFeatureTypes and Converters via Flow File Attributes

You may also override the Processor configuration fields with flow file attributes. The following attributes are available:

  • geomesa.sft.name corresponds to the Processor configuration FeatureNameOverride

  • geomesa.sft.spec corresponds to the Processor configuration SftSpec

  • geomesa.converter corresponds to the Processor configuration ConverterSpec

Warning

Configuration via flow file attributes should be used with care, as any misconfigurations may multiply. For example, setting geomesa.sft.name to a non-recurring value could end up creating a new schema for each flow file, potentially crashing your database by creating too many tables.

12.3.2. Converter Metrics

GeoMesa supports publishing metrics on the ingest conversion process. See Metrics and GeoMesa Metrics for details. The GeoMesa NiFi converter processors allow the metrics reporters to be configured directly in NiFi with the ConverterMetricReporters property, instead of in the converter definition. The property expects a TypeSafe Config block defining the reporters or list of reporters, for example:

{
  type     = "slf4j"
  units    = "milliseconds"
  interval = "60 seconds"
  logger   = "org.locationtech.geomesa.metrics"
  level    = "debug"
}