Connector Lifecycle
Overview
Section titled “Overview”Connectors bring external data into Rokks through provider-specific lifecycles. Airtable, Zabbix, Kafka, NetFlow, and Web Data share scoping and monitoring concepts, but they do not share one universal discovery, mapping, or execution workflow.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”An Airtable connection selects tables and fact roles for a constellation and snapshots provider fields and types automatically. Zabbix synchronizes configuration metadata and receives live values through the streaming path. Kafka and NetFlow configure long-lived streams. Web Data defines interfaces, endpoints, transforms, and schedules. Validate the lifecycle that belongs to the selected provider.
Step-by-step
Section titled “Step-by-step”- Select the connector and read its provider-specific form.
- Configure credentials or transport without copying settings from another connector.
- Use the provider’s supported selection model: Airtable tables and fact roles, Zabbix configuration, Kafka topics and codecs, NetFlow transport, or Web Data endpoints and streams.
- Start the supported sync or stream path.
- Validate the resulting tables, rows, metadata, and dashboard usability.
- Monitor recurring jobs or stream health and create alerts from continuous signals when needed.
For Web API streams, the current supported execution path is a Dispatcher schedule. Manual Sync and Full Sync actions are unavailable in the UI and Sidekick, so validate the first scheduled job before relying on its data. Airtable instead exposes Save constellation and Save & Sync; streaming connectors use their own long-lived ingestion controls.
Common mistakes
Section titled “Common mistakes”Do not assume a connection test proves the complete extraction, transform, and load path. Validate the first supported sync before using its data operationally.
Do not assume every connector exposes a field-mapping editor. Where the provider workflow snapshots fields automatically, review and refine display metadata after the governed tables exist.