Detamaps

Detamaps are JSON or TOML configuration files that the detakon library uses to process data converstion.

Internally, detamaps are stored as dictionaries. A suitably formatted python dictionary may be passed as a detamap, as well as any other suitably formatted source that is converted to a dictionary.

Warning

TOML Detamap compatibility is still in development, and not available at this time.

Vocabulary at a Glance

This documentation is making a concious decision to use Python terminology when referring to Detamap structure, instead of JSON, or TOML terminology.

Detamap Vocabulary Comparison

Detamap Term

Description

JSON Term

TOML Term

Dictionary

Key-value pairs contained in curly braces: {}

Object

Table

Item

A single key-value pair in a dictionary.

Member

Key/Value Pair

Key

The value on the left side of a key-value pair.

Name

Key

Value

The value on the right side of a key-value pair.

Value

Value

List

A sequence of values contained in brackets: []

Array

Array
Nested Dictionary

A dictionary inside of another dictionary.

Section

A root item that instead of a value, the key contains either a nested dictionary, or list of operations.

Operation

A nested dictionary that contains the name of a function, method, or transformation to run as it’s key, and items in the value that define how the function will operate.

Field

Individual name of a value from the data source or destination. Also can be thought of as a column name in tablular data.

Setting

Any item in the Source section, Output section, or connected to the root structure. Settings will be referred to as the name of the key for the setting. Such as the lang setting.

Major Sections

Detamaps have five primary sections:

  • Mappings - A dictionary of source fields mapped to the output field names.

  • Defaults (optional) - A dictionary containing default values to be used for given source fields.

  • Operations (optional) - A list of operations/transformations to be performed in order.

  • Source - A dictionary of configuration arguments to read the data source.

  • Output - A dictionary of configuration arguments used for outputting data.

Settings & Configuration

Detamaps have the following items for settings and configuration:

  • lang (optional) - A string indicating the language the Detamap is written in (default: “en-us”).

Detailed Specifications