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Loading Data from Soundcloud to Azure Synapse Using dlt in Python

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SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables users to upload, promote, and share audio. Azure Synapse Analytics is a limitless analytics service that combines enterprise data warehousing and Big Data analytics. This documentation will guide you on how to load data from SoundCloud to Azure Synapse using the open-source Python library dlt. The process involves extracting audio data from SoundCloud and efficiently loading it into Azure Synapse for analytics and reporting. For further information about SoundCloud, visit SoundCloud.

dlt Key Features

  • Pipeline Metadata: dlt pipelines leverage metadata to provide governance capabilities, including load IDs for incremental transformations and data vaulting. Read more about lineage.
  • Schema Enforcement and Curation: dlt empowers users to enforce and curate schemas, ensuring data consistency and quality. Learn more about adjusting schemas.
  • Schema Evolution Alerts: dlt notifies users of schema changes, allowing stakeholders to review and validate modifications as needed. Explore schema change alerts.
  • Scaling and Finetuning: dlt offers several mechanisms to scale and finetune pipelines, such as parallel execution and memory buffer adjustments. Read more about performance.
  • Advanced Usage: Use dlt init with branches, local folders, or git repos for advanced deployment scenarios. Find out more about dlt init.

Getting started with your pipeline locally

OpenAPI Source Generator dlt-init-openapi

This walkthrough makes use of the dlt-init-openapi generator cli tool. You can read more about it here. The code generated by this tool uses the dlt rest_api verified source, docs for this are here.

0. Prerequisites

dlt and dlt-init-openapi requires Python 3.9 or higher. Additionally, you need to have the pip package manager installed, and we recommend using a virtual environment to manage your dependencies. You can learn more about preparing your computer for dlt in our installation reference.

1. Install dlt and dlt-init-openapi

First you need to install the dlt-init-openapi cli tool.

pip install dlt-init-openapi

The dlt-init-openapi cli is a powerful generator which you can use to turn any OpenAPI spec into a dlt source to ingest data from that api. The quality of the generator source is dependent on how well the API is designed and how accurate the OpenAPI spec you are using is. You may need to make tweaks to the generated code, you can learn more about this here.

# generate pipeline
# NOTE: add_limit adds a global limit, you can remove this later
# NOTE: you will need to select which endpoints to render, you
# can just hit Enter and all will be rendered.
dlt-init-openapi soundcloud --url https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dlt-hub/openapi-specs/main/open_api_specs/Public/soundcloud.yaml --global-limit 2
cd soundcloud_pipeline
# install generated requirements
pip install -r requirements.txt

The last command will install the required dependencies for your pipeline. The dependencies are listed in the requirements.txt:

dlt>=0.4.12

You now have the following folder structure in your project:

soundcloud_pipeline/
├── .dlt/
│ ├── config.toml # configs for your pipeline
│ └── secrets.toml # secrets for your pipeline
├── rest_api/ # The rest api verified source
│ └── ...
├── soundcloud/
│ └── __init__.py # TODO: possibly tweak this file
├── soundcloud_pipeline.py # your main pipeline script
├── requirements.txt # dependencies for your pipeline
└── .gitignore # ignore files for git (not required)

1.1. Tweak soundcloud/__init__.py

This file contains the generated configuration of your rest_api. You can continue with the next steps and leave it as is, but you might want to come back here and make adjustments if you need your rest_api source set up in a different way. The generated file for the soundcloud source will look like this:

Click to view full file (568 lines)

from typing import List

import dlt
from dlt.extract.source import DltResource
from rest_api import rest_api_source
from rest_api.typing import RESTAPIConfig


@dlt.source(name="soundcloud_source", max_table_nesting=2)
def soundcloud_source(
api_key: str = dlt.secrets.value,
base_url: str = dlt.config.value,
) -> List[DltResource]:

# source configuration
source_config: RESTAPIConfig = {
"client": {
"base_url": base_url,
"auth": {

"type": "api_key",
"api_key": api_key,
"name": "Authorization",
"location": "header"

},
"paginator": {
"type":
"offset",
"limit":
200,
"offset_param":
"offset",
"limit_param":
"limit",
"total_path":
"",
"maximum_offset":
20,
},
},
"resources":
[
{
"name": "get_meactivities",
"table_name": "activity",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/activities",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_trackstrack_idcomments",
"table_name": "comment",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/tracks/{track_id}/comments",
"params": {
"track_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idcomments",
"table_name": "comment",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/comments",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# <h3>Security Advice</h3> * Using the [implicit OAuth authorization flow](https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-oauth-security-topics-16#section-2.1.2) (`response_type=token`) is **not recommended**. It can suffer from access token leakage and access token replay attacks. Use `response_type=code` instead. * Use the `state` parameter for [CSRF protection](https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-oauth-security-topics-16#section-4.7). Pass a sufficient random nonce here and verify this nonce again after retrieving the token.
{
"name": "get_connect",
"table_name": "connect",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/connect",
"params": {
"client_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
"redirect_uri": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
"response_type": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
"scope": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "state": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_meconnections",
"table_name": "connection",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/connections",
}
},
{
"name": "get_meconnectionsconnection_id",
"table_name": "connection",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/connections/{connection_id}",
"params": {
"connection_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idfavorites",
"table_name": "favorite",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/favorites",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_trackstrack_idfavoriters",
"table_name": "favoriter",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/tracks/{track_id}/favoriters",
"params": {
"track_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_mefollowers",
"table_name": "follower",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/followers",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_mefollowersfollower_id",
"table_name": "follower",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/followers/{follower_id}",
"params": {
"follower_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# Returns a list of users that follows (user_id).
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idfollowers",
"table_name": "follower",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/followers",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_mefollowings",
"table_name": "following",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/followings",
}
},
{
"name": "get_mefollowingsuser_id",
"table_name": "following",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/followings/{user_id}",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# Returns list of users that (user_id) follows.
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idfollowings",
"table_name": "following",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/followings",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
# Returns (following_id) that is followed by (user_id).
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idfollowingsfollowing_id",
"table_name": "following",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/followings/{following_id}",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
"following_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_mefavoritesids",
"table_name": "id",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/favorites/ids",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_me",
"table_name": "me",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me",
}
},
{
"name": "get_meactivitiesallown",
"table_name": "own",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/activities/all/own",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
# Returns playlist info, playlist tracks and tracks owner info.
{
"name": "get_meplaylists",
"table_name": "playlist",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/playlists",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_meplaylistsplaylist_id",
"table_name": "playlist",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/playlists/{playlist_id}",
"params": {
"playlist_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_playlists",
"table_name": "playlist",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/playlists",
"params": {
"q": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_playlistsplaylist_id",
"table_name": "playlist",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/playlists/{playlist_id}",
"params": {
"playlist_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "secret_token": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "access": "playable,preview",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idplaylists",
"table_name": "playlist",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/playlists",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "limit": "50",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_trackstrack_idrelated",
"table_name": "related",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/tracks/{track_id}/related",
"params": {
"track_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_playlistsplaylist_idreposters",
"table_name": "reposter",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/playlists/{playlist_id}/reposters",
"params": {
"playlist_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_trackstrack_idreposters",
"table_name": "reposter",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/tracks/{track_id}/reposters",
"params": {
"track_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_resolve",
"table_name": "resolve",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/resolve",
"params": {
"url": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_trackstrack_idstreams",
"table_name": "stream",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/tracks/{track_id}/streams",
"params": {
"track_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "secret_token": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_meactivitiestracks",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/activities/tracks",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_mefollowingstracks",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/followings/tracks",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_melikestracks",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/likes/tracks",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_metracks",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/tracks",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_metrackstrack_id",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/me/tracks/{track_id}",
"params": {
"track_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_playlistsplaylist_idtracks",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/playlists/{playlist_id}/tracks",
"params": {
"playlist_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "secret_token": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_tracks",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/tracks",
"params": {
"q": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "ids": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "genres": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "tags": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "bpm": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "duration": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "created_at": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_trackstrack_id",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/tracks/{track_id}",
"params": {
"track_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "secret_token": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idlikestracks",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/likes/tracks",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "limit": "50",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idtracks",
"table_name": "track",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/tracks",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "access": "playable,preview",
# "limit": "50",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_users",
"table_name": "user",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users",
"params": {
"q": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "ids": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "linked_partitioning": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_usersuser_id",
"table_name": "user",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_usersuser_idweb_profiles",
"table_name": "web_profile",
"endpoint": {
"path": "/users/{user_id}/web-profiles",
"params": {
"user_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "limit": "50",

},
}
},
]
}

return rest_api_source(source_config)

2. Configuring your source and destination credentials

info

dlt-init-openapi will try to detect which authentication mechanism (if any) is used by the API in question and add a placeholder in your secrets.toml.

  • If you know your API needs authentication, but none was detected, you can learn more about adding authentication to the rest_api here.
  • OAuth detection currently is not supported, but you can supply your own authentication mechanism as outlined here.

The dlt cli will have created a .dlt directory in your project folder. This directory contains a config.toml file and a secrets.toml file that you can use to configure your pipeline. The automatically created version of these files look like this:

generated config.toml


[runtime]
log_level="INFO"

[sources.soundcloud]
# Base URL for the API
base_url = "https://api.soundcloud.com"

generated secrets.toml


[sources.soundcloud]
# secrets for your soundcloud source
api_key = "FILL ME OUT" # TODO: fill in your credentials

2.1. Adjust the generated code to your usecase

Further help setting up your source and destinations

At this time, the dlt-init-openapi cli tool will always create pipelines that load to a local duckdb instance. Switching to a different destination is trivial, all you need to do is change the destination parameter in soundcloud_pipeline.py to synapse and supply the credentials as outlined in the destination doc linked below.

  • Read more about setting up the rest_api source in our docs.
  • Read more about setting up the Azure Synapse destination in our docs.

3. Running your pipeline for the first time

The dlt cli has also created a main pipeline script for you at soundcloud_pipeline.py, as well as a folder soundcloud that contains additional python files for your source. These files are your local copies which you can modify to fit your needs. In some cases you may find that you only need to do small changes to your pipelines or add some configurations, in other cases these files can serve as a working starting point for your code, but will need to be adjusted to do what you need them to do.

The main pipeline script will look something like this:


import dlt

from soundcloud import soundcloud_source


if __name__ == "__main__":
pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
pipeline_name="soundcloud_pipeline",
destination='duckdb',
dataset_name="soundcloud_data",
progress="log",
export_schema_path="schemas/export"
)
source = soundcloud_source()
info = pipeline.run(source)
print(info)

Provided you have set up your credentials, you can run your pipeline like a regular python script with the following command:

python soundcloud_pipeline.py

4. Inspecting your load result

You can now inspect the state of your pipeline with the dlt cli:

dlt pipeline soundcloud_pipeline info

You can also use streamlit to inspect the contents of your Azure Synapse destination for this:

# install streamlit
pip install streamlit
# run the streamlit app for your pipeline with the dlt cli:
dlt pipeline soundcloud_pipeline show

5. Next steps to get your pipeline running in production

One of the beauties of dlt is, that we are just a plain Python library, so you can run your pipeline in any environment that supports Python >= 3.8. We have a couple of helpers and guides in our docs to get you there:

The Deploy section will show you how to deploy your pipeline to

  • Deploy with Github Actions: Learn how to set up continuous integration and deployment for your dlt pipeline using Github Actions.
  • Deploy with Airflow: Follow this guide to deploy your dlt pipeline with Airflow.
  • Deploy with Google Cloud Functions: Discover how to deploy your dlt pipeline using Google Cloud Functions.
  • Explore Other Deployment Options: Find more ways to deploy your dlt pipeline in the deployment walkthroughs.

The running in production section will teach you about:

  • How to Monitor your pipeline: Learn how to effectively monitor your dlt pipeline in production to ensure it runs smoothly and efficiently. How to Monitor your pipeline
  • Set up alerts: Set up alerts to be notified of any issues or changes in your dlt pipeline. This helps in proactive management and quick resolution of problems. Set up alerts
  • Set up tracing: Implement tracing in your dlt pipeline to track the flow of data and understand the performance of various stages in your pipeline. And set up tracing

Available Sources and Resources

For this verified source the following sources and resources are available

Source Soundcloud

Streams SoundCloud user activities, interactions, and track details.

Resource NameWrite DispositionDescription
favoriterappendUsers who have favorited a particular track
ownappendTracks uploaded by the authenticated user
trackappendIndividual audio tracks available on SoundCloud
streamappendStream of activities related to the authenticated user
meappendProfile information of the authenticated user
followerappendUsers who follow the authenticated user
activityappendRecent activities of the authenticated user
connectappendConnection requests related to the authenticated user
connectionappendEstablished connections of the authenticated user
favoriteappendTracks favorited by the authenticated user
reposterappendUsers who have reposted a particular track
resolveappendResolves SoundCloud URLs to API resources
idappendIdentifiers for various SoundCloud resources
userappendProfile information of any user on SoundCloud
commentappendComments made on tracks
playlistappendPlaylists created by users
web_profileappendExternal web profiles linked to a user's SoundCloud account
relatedappendTracks related to a particular track
followingappendUsers that the authenticated user is following

Additional pipeline guides

This demo works on codespaces. Codespaces is a development environment available for free to anyone with a Github account. You'll be asked to fork the demo repository and from there the README guides you with further steps.
The demo uses the Continue VSCode extension.

Off to codespaces!

DHelp

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