Redis Connector for Dell Boomi

The Redis Connector for Dell Boomi is a custom connector implementation that enables connectivity to Redis standalone and clustered instances.

Purpose

Dell Boomi currently has no solution for a caching layer that persists between process executions. The Redis Connector allows developers to cache the results of API requests and expensive I/O operations inside of a Redis database. Any process execution can then use the contents of the Redis cache to pull cached data instead of performing expensive and duplicative processing.

Capabilities

The connector can be used to store any data structure in a Redis database, and currently supports the following Redis data types and operations:

Redis Data Type	Boomi Operation	TTL Support	Remarks
String	GET	Read
String	UPSERT	Write
String	DELETE
HashSet	GET	Read	GET operations will return the entire hashset by default. If the Redis Cache document property 'field' is provided, operation will return a single hash field value if it exists.
HashSet	UPSERT	Write
HashSet	DELETE		DELETE operations will delete the entire hashset by default. If the Redis Cache document property 'field' is provided, operation will delete a single hash field

Getting Started

Installation of a custom connector for Dell Boomi is relatively simple, but it will require Dell Boomi account administrator access to upload and release the connector files.

Download the latest release

Download the latest Redis Connector release from the Releases page.

Extract the connector

Extract the release zip file into an accessible location. You should now see the following files:

• RedisConnector-<version>--car.zip
• connector-descriptor.xml

Create a Boomi Connector Group

Add a custom connector group to your Boomi account by following the instructions described in the Boomi documentation located here: https://help.boomi.com/bundle/connectors/page/t-atm-Adding_a_connector_group.html

Upload the connector

Using the files that you extracted from the release download, upload the connector to the new connector group by following the instructions described in the Boomi documentation located here: https://help.boomi.com/bundle/connectors/page/t-atm-Adding_a_version_to_a_connector_group.html

Upgrading the connector version

You can upgrade your Redis Connector version by clicking the "Add Version" button in your existing Redis Connector connector group.

Using The Connector

Once you install the connector to your account, you can begin using it like any other application connector on the Boomi Web IDE.

Creating a connection

The first step is to create a Redis connection component and enter one or more hosts.

The 'Redis Host(s)' field expects one or more semi-colon delimited Redis URIs. A Redis URI is similar to other database connection string URIs and can be used to store host, authentication, and database index configurations among many other interesting properties. You can find more on Redis URI syntax at https://github.com/lettuce-io/lettuce-core/wiki/Redis-URI-and-connection-details.

You can use the 'Test Connection' button to ensure that your atoms are able to connect to the Redis host(s).

Note: The cloud or local atom that you select must have network access to the Redis host(s). If you're using AWS Elasticache, the Redis cluster security group is not accessible over the WAN by default. You'll need to use a cloud or local atom with appropriate network access through the security group that has access to the Redis host(s).

Creating an operation

The steps to create any operation type is the same, although the operation options differ once created. Begin by creating a Redis connector operation component and clicking the Import button to complete the operation creation. The wizard will ask you to select the Redis data type being accessed by the new operation.

Configuring an operation

Find a description of the different operation properties below:

Property	Operations	Default	Description	Remarks
Key Prefix	GET, UPSERT, DELETE	<Empty>	Used as a cache key prefix	Key prefix allows developers to create logical cache key taxonomies to help separate caching operations made by multiple application domains.
Throw On Not Found	GET	true	When enabled, GET operations for cache keys that do not exist throw an application error. When disabled, GET operations for for cache keys that do not exist result in a success with no output documents	By enabling 'Return Application Error Responses', a developer can handle GET failures without the use of a try/catch. However, the connector returns empty documents; any handling of GET failures must be done using dynamic document properties.

Document Properties

Find a description of the different document properties used by the connector below:

Property	Operations	Direction	Required	Description	Remarks
key	UPSERT	Input	true	Stores the cache key to use when upserting the document data into Redis.
ttl	UPSERT	Input	false	Stores cache key time-to-live (ttl/expiration) to use in seconds.	Cache keys do not expire by default. Developers can optionally specify the cache key ttl using this property
field	GET	Input	false	When specified, GET operations will return only the individual field within key	Only used on hashset operations
ttl	GET	Output	false	Stores the current cache key time-to-live in seconds.	When getting a cache key, this output property will store the current ttl in seconds if the cache key is configured with an expiration.
field	DELETE	Input	false	When specified, DELETE operations will delete only the individual field within the key	Only used on hashset operations