Using GoodData With Dates And Times

This example demonstrates support for time data built into GoodData CL.

Run gdi.sh with the forex.txt script as follows:

Windows:

c:> bin\gdi.bat -u <username> -p <password> examples\forex\forex.txt
Project id = 'f5977852bfec20271d4c9bc453a263cb' created.

Unix like OS (Linux, Mac OS X and others):

$ ./bin/gdi.sh -u <username> -p <password> examples/forex/forex.txt
Project id = 'f5977852bfec20271d4c9bc453a263cb' created.

What’s Inside?

There are two parts shown in this example - a GoodData provided date dimension (providing a hierarchy of days, weeks, months, years etc.) and a separate Time dimension (providing attributes such as AM/PM, hours, minutes, seconds). Both make use of the DATETIME column in the forex.csv data file.

First, we need to tell GoodData CL to set up the Date and Time dimensions in our project:

Here are the lines from forex.txt that take care of setting up the date & time dimensions:

Create/Use/OpenProject(...);
UseDateDimension(name="Forex", includeTime="true"); # with includeTime=false sets up just the date dimension
GenerateMaql(maqlFile="date.maql");
ExecuteMaql(maqlFile="date.maql");
TransferData();                                     # this line is necessary only when includeTime=true

Now that we have the date & time dimensions present in our project, we can define a mapping between the DATETIME column in forex.csv file and these dimensions. In the definition of your data model XML schema, the column entry for the DATETIME column has 4 important entries:

<column>
  ...
  <ldmType>DATE</ldmType>
  <datetime>true</datetime>
  <schemaReference>Forex</schemaReference>
  <format>dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss</format>          
  ...
</column>

• <ldmType>DATE</ldmType> - this tells GoodData CL to treat this field as a date field (by default without time support). GoodData CL parses this field according to the <format> and then connects it automatically to a Date dimension (identified by the <schemaReference>)

• <datetime>true</datetime> - this extents the LDM type DATE to include time support. GoodData CL will now be able to parse the field as DATETIME

• <schemaReference>Forex</schemaReference> - this specifies the name of the Date dimension to be used. Needs to correspond with the UseDateDimension() name parameter used in your script (here forext.txt)

• <format>dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss</format> - this field helps GoodData CL understand how to parse the datetime string