- The toolset also comes with Smartype feature which translates JSON based data model into strongly-typed code
- It also pairs mParticle’s Data Planning application program interface (API), the command-line interface (CLI), and static code analysis (linting)
Customer Data Platform mParticle has announced the beta release of a new open source developer toolset. It said that this will give engineering teams instant data quality protection and feedback in their integrated development environments (IDE).
The toolset also comes with Smartype feature. It translates any JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) based data model into strongly-typed code. It also pairs mParticle’s Data Planning application program interface (API), the command-line interface (CLI), and static code analysis (linting).
In the earlier part of this year, mParticle released the next generation of its Data Master product. It allows engineering, product, and marketing teams to collaboratively design and enforce a consistent data model. But once a development team has created a data plan, developers still need an easy and foolproof way to implement the plan without having to leave their editor to cross-reference a web UI.
Store data plans in their source code
As per the company, this newly available Data Planning API will allow engineering teams to use Data Master programmatically through an HTTP API. Developers will be able to store data plans in their source code and use their own Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and approval processes to define the data model to best suit their needs.
As per a statement by the company, “The Data Planning API can create, read, update, and delete Data Plans, as well as integrate mParticle’s suite of Data Planning tools to perform compile-time and runtime data quality verification. Together, the Data Planning API and Smartype allow developers to translate a Data Plan (or more generally, Data Model) into usable code to improve implementations and minimize data quality issues by improving instrumentation quality and consistency.”
The company said that all constants called for in the Data Plan (event names, attribute names, enum values) will be available as a machine-readable JSON Schema. Smartype will programmatically perform all CRUD operations on Data Plans to decrease the time-to-data-quality and time to implement. Feedback developers can use to conform to a Data Plan.
Strongly typed client library
This will lead to limiting the likelihood of an implementation issue. It will also programmatically generate a strongly typed client library across a range of languages from a centrally defined Data Model. As it is built on Kotlin, the user can share Data Plan implementations across platforms (Android, iOS, Web, and server-side environments). Any changes to data plans will result in a regenerated type-safe library that is always in-sync with the latest Data Plan.
The new CLI will offer an easy way to interface with the mParticle platform through the command-line instead of the user interface as per mParticle. Developers can create, maintain, update, or delete data plans with version control provided by a git repository by using the CLI. The CLI also enables developers to use linting tools to statically lint code against a data plan. This helps to ensure adherence to their data plan and that only high-quality data is logged to their workspace. This tool can also be used within CI to have validity throughout the entire development lifecycle.
