In Usage Engine, every Function provides different logical functionality.In general, the Functions could be logically categorized as following functionalities:
- Data Collection
- Collector Functions that interface and collect data source from external systems into the stream before the data can be manipulated or transformed.
- Example Functions are Amazon S3, SFTP, HTTP Client, and PubNub.
- Normalization
- Processor Functions that eliminate unstructured data and data redundancy.The aim is to harmonize data formats from different sources and construct the target logical data structure to be further manipulate and present for the downstream.
- Example Functions are Field Organizer and Map.
- Data Quality
- Processor Functions that improve and enhance data quality by handling data erroneous and removing any duplicate records.
- Example Functions are Deduplicate and Validate.
- Aggregation & Correlation
- Processor Functions that merge multiple records into one record, perform aggregation operation(e.g.,accumulate the value), and flush out based on the defined life cycle.
- Example Function is Data Aggregator.
- Usage Binding
- Processor Functions that bind, enrich,and elevate the value of the processing data.
- A typical use case would be to enrich the processing usage data with detail user’s account and product information by performing lookup ona reference database.
- Example Functions are Database Query, SAP Subscription Billing Query, and Salesforce Query.
- Business Logic
- Processor Functions that allow user to configure custom logic to manipulate the processing data based on the business requirements.
- Example Functions are Encryption, Decryption, and Script.
- Enable/ Data Distribution
- Processor and Forwarder Functions that interface and route actionable usage data/events from the stream to external systems.
- Example Functions are Amazon S3, SFTP, Email Notification, SAP Subscription Billing, and Salesforce Bulk Upload.