Hi Apptio community,

We recently encountered an issue with one of our data sources which resulted in incomplete data being supplied from the source.

Are there any capabilities available within Datalink notifications to be able to highlight issues with data as we are receiving it (versus later in the process when it may be too late).  i.e. can one set up file size range for the file expected and have it raise a flag via Datalink notification? etc.  We are trying to build this in and avoid someone manually watching and checking every time.

Thanks,
Drazen

CC: @Matthew Kincer

bellis@apptio.com">Brad Ellis do you know if Datalink can support this?

There is nothing configurable in DataLink for data validation -other than to indicate to use Apptio validation or not. Email notifications sent by DataLink are based on the success or failure of the connector run, not on the validity of the data loaded into the Apptio application. The Apptio application can send out a separate email notification based on the validity of the data that was uploaded. The Apptio application notification will be sent to all Apptio application users assigned either the Admin or Datalink Admin roles.

During the validation process within Apptio, the application flags the following changes in the data:

• The addition or deletion of columns.
• A change in the key of a column. By default, new columns added to an existing table will be given a type of Label.
• Format changes in the data. For example, one of the most common errors is caused by text being entered into a numeric column.
• Cardinality change. For example,a one-to-many relationship is changed to a many-to-one relationship.

The upload would need to trigger a validation exception on one of the criteria above. Not sure if there is an opportunity to build in a workaround within Apptio Studio. @John Adipietro can you think of any way to build a workaround? Barring a workaround, we'd need to submit a request for enhancement, likely for the Apptio application vs DataLink.

@John Adipietro is it possible to use transform logic to track record count then trigger a notification from Apptio?  If record count < previous period record count, or some such.

There is no way to trigger a validation error with a formula. The error can only be triggered by the raw data. Formulas evaluate in the dataset's transform layer. There is also no way to preserve a record count across data loads without some form of manual intervention (like a button click on a report).

We created a "Maintain Datalink" report with the last update date and Row Count.  This way you can easily see the status of the datalink loads easily.  Check out Creating a data maintenance report in Reporting Guide > Advance Report Features > Creating a data maintenance report.  It works great for us!

Jesus Muniz and this is why community is so great!  Here's your answer.  :-)  See you in class in 10!