Quick BI:Create an API Data Source

Step 1: Establish API Connection

In this step, you need to configure the basic authentication information, connection method, and parameter settings for the API connection. The specific instructions are as follows.

1. Configure the information for each item under Basic Authentication.

   Parameter name	Description
   Connection Name	The custom name of the API interface displayed in the Quick BI data source list. The name can consist of Chinese characters, numbers, letters, underscores (_), or hyphens (-).
   Interface Address	Enter the request address of the API interface.
   Request Type	Select the request type of the API interface. Two types are supported: GET and POST. The default is GET. GET: Typically used to request resources on the server. It is a data retrieval behavior and cannot modify data on the server. POST: Typically used to transmit data to the server, such as submitting forms. It can modify data on the server.

2. Select the Connection method. You can choose either Extract or Direct connection.

   • Extract: Supports manual or periodic scheduled data updates. It is suitable for scenarios with low real-time data requirements.

   • Direct connection: Supports direct connection to the API for real-time data updates. It is suitable for small data volume scenarios with high real-time requirements.

     The direct connection method supports enabling Short-term cache, with cache time options of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 30 minutes. After enabling, it can avoid repeated requests within a certain period, protecting the source API service's access performance and saving API service call costs.

     Note

     In direct connection mode, the data volume returned by each request must meet the following conditions: no more than 10 MB, no more than 100 columns, and no more than 1,000 rows.

     

3. (Optional) Configure the data that needs to be passed as parameters in Parameter settings. You can decide whether to configure this based on your needs.

   Parameter name	Description
   Common Parameters	Parameters after the request address are common parameters, in the format url?key1=value1&key2=value2. You can click Add Parameter to pass parameters through common parameters. For example, for API interfaces with large data volumes, you can request through pagination by providing a dynamic parameter ${PageIndex} .For detailed information about parameters, see Parameter Introduction.
   Header Parameters	Parameters stored in the Header are header parameters. Typically, constant values are passed through the Header. You can manually add (①), delete (②), and modify (③) Header parameters. For detailed information about parameters, see Parameter Introduction.
   Request Body	When the Request type in Basic Authentication is POST, you can maintain request body information in the parameter settings. The request body is typically used to carry data that the user needs to send to the server. You need to write its specific content and format according to the field content of the current API. Quick BI supports two request body formats: JSON and x-www-form-urlencoded. JSON: Processes complex data structures, suitable for scenarios where data includes nested objects or arrays. x-www-form-urlencoded: Processes simple key-value pair data, suitable for simple form submission scenarios.
   Authorization Verification	You can choose no authorization verification, or select Basic Authentication or Digest Authentication. For specific information, see HTTP authentication 01 basic authentication and digest authentication.
   Pre-request	If you need to perform some preparation work or verification steps before requesting the API, for example, if you need to obtain a Token through an authentication interface to successfully call the current API, you can set a pre-request for the current API. After setting, the system will execute the added "pre-requests" in sequence before calling the main API. At the same time, it supports storing the response results of this request as dynamic parameters, which can be referenced in the main API's header parameters, common parameters, request body, or other pre-requests to achieve dynamic parameter acquisition. For examples of using pre-requests, see Operation Example. Note A maximum of 3 pre-requests are supported.

4. Click Test connection, and after success, proceed to the Next step.

Step 2: Parse Request Results

In the Data structure area under the Parse request results section, all fields returned by the current API request will be displayed. You can select fields as needed and modify their field types.

Step 3: Data Synchronization Settings

In the Data synchronization settings section, set the update cycle for the API data source.

1. Click the Update cycle selection box, and in the dropdown list, select the update cycle for the API data source. You can choose manual update or scheduled update.

   Note

   The update cycle only needs to be configured when the connection method in the connection settings is extract.

   

   • Select Manual update, and data synchronization will only occur when manually triggered.

   • Select Scheduled update and configure the update frequency (daily or hourly), and data synchronization will occur at the scheduled time each day.

2. Click Finish to create the API data source. After success, you can see the data source you created in the API data source management interface.

   You can edit the API data source by clicking the icon to the right of the API data source.

   Note

   The connection method cannot be edited.

   

Step 1: Establish API Connection

In the establish API connection phase, configure the information according to the following steps.

1. Configure Basic Authentication information.

   • Connection name: In this example, we use the business meaning of the API interface as the name, entering Get User Attendance Data.

   • Interface address: Obtain the request address from the API documentation page.

   • Request type: Obtain the request type from the API documentation page. In this example, it is POST.

2. Configure the Connection method.

   In this example, we only need to obtain attendance data for the current day, with low real-time requirements, so the connection method is set to Extract.

   

3. Configure Pre-request.

   Before calling the Get User Attendance Data interface (hereinafter referred to as the main API interface), you need to obtain an access_token through the Get enterprise internal application access_token interface and inject it into the request address of the main API interface to successfully call the main API interface to obtain attendance data. Therefore, in this example, we need to configure the step of obtaining the access_token in the pre-request and use it as a common parameter to append to the request address of the main API interface. The specific pre-request configuration operations are as follows.

   1. Click Add pre-request under the Pre-request tab.

   2. In the Add pre-request dialog box, complete the following configuration.

      • Connection name: In this example, we enter the business meaning of the authentication interface, which is Get enterprise internal application access_token.

      • Interface address: Obtain the request address of the authentication interface through the interface documentation.

      • Request type: Obtain the request type of the authentication interface through the interface documentation. In this example, it is GET.

      • Common parameters: According to the interface documentation, the request address needs to carry appkey and appsecret parameters, so add appkey and appsecret in the common parameters and enter the corresponding values. After completion, the parameters will be automatically appended to the request address.

      • Header parameters: In this example, we keep the default settings, i.e., select Content-Type as application/json to tell the server receiving the request that the data transmission format is JSON; Connection as keep-alive to tell the server receiving the request that the current request requires a persistent connection.

   3. Click Test connection, and you can view the return information of the current request in the Request result module. At the same time, Quick BI will automatically parse the fields contained in the request result for you. You can select fields as needed in the Dynamic parameters module to use as dynamic parameters, and reference them in the main API through the ${parameter name} method; or you can execute the pre-request without passing dynamic parameters (i.e., not setting dynamic parameters).

      In this example, we need to pass the access_token obtained in the pre-request as a dynamic parameter to the main API, so we create the access_token dynamic parameter.

      Note

      A maximum of 10 dynamic parameters can be added.

      

4. Configure Common parameters.

   In this example, according to the main API call requirements, we need to reference the dynamic parameter access_token created in the pre-request to the common parameters of the main API through the ${parameter name} method, so click Add parameter under the Common parameters tab.

   Note

   Dynamic parameters can be referenced to the common parameters, header parameters, request body of the main API, or other pre-requests. You can choose as needed in actual operations.

   

5. Enter the parameter name, click the icon in the parameter value input box, select parameters as needed from the variable panel that appears, and then click the icon to save the configuration.

   In this example, we need to switch the variable panel to the Dynamic parameters tab, which displays the dynamic parameters already created in the current flow, and select ${access_token}.

6. Configure the Request body.

   In this example, the request type is POST, so we need to write the request body according to the field content of the Get enterprise internal application access_token API's request parameters.

   • JSON format example code is as follows:

     {
         "work_date": "2024-11-14",
         "userid": "user01"
     }

   • x-www-form-urlencoded format example code is as follows:

     work_date=2024-11-14&userid=user01

7. Other parameter configurations.

   In this example, header parameters and authorization verification maintain the default settings.

8. Click Test connection, and after success, proceed to the Next step.

Step 2: Parse Request Results

In the Parse request results section, select the required fields and adjust their field types, then click Next step.

Step 3: Data Synchronization Settings

1. In the data synchronization settings section, set the update cycle of this example's API data source to Manual update.

   

2. Click Finish to successfully create the Get User Attendance Data API data source.