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  1. DZone
  2. Data Engineering
  3. Data
  4. Generating Simulated Streaming Data

Generating Simulated Streaming Data

In this article, learn more about using the Python library, Faker, to build synthetic data for tests and utilize Pulsar to send messages to topics at scale.

By 
Tim Spann user avatar
Tim Spann
DZone Core CORE ·
Timothy Spann user avatar
Timothy Spann
·
Mar. 06, 22 · Tutorial
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For demos, system tests, and other purposes, it is good to have a way to easily produce realistic data at scale utilizing a schema of our own choice.

Fortunately, there is a great library for Python called Faker that lets us build synthetic data for tests. With a simple loop and a Pulsar produce call, we can send messages to topics at scale.

pip3 install Faker

Let's build a topic to send data to as below:

bin/pulsar-admin topics create persistent://public/default/fakeuser


Step 1:  

We build a Faker record by adding providers to the Faker object.

Python
 
from faker import Faker
from faker.providers import internet, address, automotive, barcode, company, date_time, geo, job, misc, person
from faker.providers import phone_number, user_agent

fake = Faker()
fake.add_provider(internet)


Step 2:  

Create or Import Your Schema to model your data and have consistent data in your Pulsar topic for consumers to consume.

Python
 
# Pulsar Message Schema
class PulsarUser (Record):
    created_dt = String()
    user_id = String()
    ipv4_public = String()
    email = String()
    user_name = String()
    cluster_name = String()
    city = String()
    country = String()
    postcode = String()
    street_address = String()
    license_plate = String()
    ean13 = String()
    response  = String()
    comment   = String()
    company = String()
    latitude = Float()
    longitude = Float()
    job = String()
    email_me = Boolean()
    secret_code = String()
    password = String()
    first_name = String()
    last_name = String()
    phone_number = String()
    user_agent = String()


Step 3:  

Connect to your cluster and build a producer.

Python
 
client = pulsar.Client('pulsar://pulsar1:6650')
producer = client.create_producer(topic='persistent://public/default/fakeuser',
                                  schema=JsonSchema(PulsarUser),
                                  properties={"producer-name": "fake-py-sensor","producer-id": "fake-user" })


Step 4: 

Create records (you can do this in a finite or infinite loop).

Python
 
userRecord = PulsarUser()
uuid_key = '{0}_{1}'.format(strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S",gmtime()),uuid.uuid4())
userRecord.created_dt = fake.date() 
userRecord.user_id = uuid_key
userRecord.ipv4_public = fake.ipv4_public()


Step 5:  

Send record:

Python
 
producer.send(userRecord,partition_key=str(uuid_key))


An example row of produced JSON data is as follows:

JSON
 
{
 'created_dt': '1974-01-07', 
  'user_id': '20220304192446_045a2724-6f9e-4968-ae19-a5a1a095e57b', 
  'ipv4_public': '207.116.194.88', 
  'email': '[email protected]', 
  'user_name': 'qpearson', 
  'cluster_name': 'memory-story-see', 
  'city': 'Elizabethview', 
  'country': 'Mauritius', 
  'postcode': '01045', 
  'street_address': '352 Rodriguez Rue', 
  'license_plate': '6-79707I', 
  'ean13': '3151191404713', 
  'response': 'Quality-focused logistical conglomeration', 
  'comment': 'implement value-added relationships', 
  'company': 'Harper LLC', 
  'latitude': 88.5392145, 'longitude': -7.466258, 
  'job': 'Development worker, community', 
  'email_me': None,
  'secret_code': '28b5519f4bb38cd9fc52aa9bb7bca1aa', 
  'password': '+5u&%TTkHt', 
  'first_name': 'Johnny', 
  'last_name': 'Hoffman', 
  'phone_number': '9669534677', 
 'user_agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.2; Trident/3.1)'
}


We can check that our schema is loaded for the topic with the following command.

bin/pulsar-admin schemas get persistent://public/default/fakeuser

We can consume the test messagges with a command line consumer.

bin/pulsar-client consume "persistent://public/default/fakeuser" -s fakeuser-consumer -n 0

We can query the topic like a table via Pulsar SQL.

fakeuser table

fakeuser table 2

Source

https://github.com/tspannhw/FLiP-PY-FakeDataPulsar

Data (computing)

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Cutting Data Pipeline Costs and Data Freshness Issues With Netflix Maestro and Apache Iceberg: A Practical Tutorial
  • From ETL to Lakeflow: Shifting to a Declarative Data Paradigm
  • Stop Loading Everything into Redshift: A Spectrum + Iceberg Pattern for Hybrid Analytics
  • Operationalizing Enterprise AI at Scale: Architecture, Governance, and Adoption

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