datacraft 0.6.0

Data Generation Through Specification

Datacraft

Overview

Datacraft is a tool for generating synthetic data. We do this by providing a JSON based domain specific language (DSL) for specifying the fields present in a record apart from what form the record takes. The goal is to separate the structure of the data from the values that populate it. We do this by defining two core concepts: the Data Spec and the Field Spec. A Data Spec is used to define all the fields that should be generated for a record. The Data Spec does not care about the structure of the records it will populate. A single Data Spec could be used to generate JSON, XML, a csv file, or rows in a Database. Each field in the Data Spec is described by a Field Spec. A Field Spec defines how the values for a field should be generated. There are a variety of built-in field types that can be used to describe the data structure and format for fields. Where the built-in types are not sufficient, there is an easy way to create custom types and handlers for them using Custom Code Loading. The datacraft tool supports templating using the Jinja2 templating engine format.

Data is a key part of any application. Synthetic data can be used to test and exercise a system while it is under development or modification. By using a Data Spec to generate this synthetic data, it is more compact and easier to modify, update, and manage. It also lends itself to sharing and reuse. Instead of hosting large data files full of synthetic test data, you can build Data Specs that encapsulate the information needed to generate the data. If well-designed, these can be easier to inspect and reason through compared with scanning thousands of lines of a csv file. datacraft makes it easy to generate millions or billions of records to use for development and testing of new or existing systems.

Docs

Find the latest documentation and detailed usage information here: datacraft.readthedocs.io

Installation

$ pip install datacraft

$ datacraft -h # for full command line usage

Basic Usage

$ datacraft type-list # list all available field spec types ...

$ datacraft --type-help combine
INFO [05-Jun-2050 05:52:59 PM] Starting Loading Configurations...
INFO [05-Jun-2050 05:52:59 PM] Loading custom type loader: core
INFO [05-Jun-2050 05:52:59 PM] Loading custom type loader: xeger
-------------------------------------
combine | Example Spec:
{
  "name": {
    "type": "combine",
    "refs": ["first", "last"],
    "config": {
      "join_with": " "
    }
  },
  "refs": {
    "first": {
      "type": "values",
      "data": ["zebra", "hedgehog", "llama", "flamingo"]
    },
    "last": {
      "type": "values",
      "data": ["jones", "smith", "williams"]
    }
  }
}
datacraft -s spec.json -i 3 --format json -x -l off
[{"name": "zebra jones"}, {"name": "hedgehog smith"}, {"name": "llama williams"}]

For more detailed documentation please see: datacraft.readthedocs.io