7.2 KiB
xexe
xexe is Superhog's tool to ingest currency rates from xe.com into our DWH. xexe is a Python CLI application, and this is the repository where it lives.
How to use the tool
Note: the app has only been used so far in a Linux environment. Windows support is dubious.
Install
- Ensure you have Python 3.10> and
poetryinstalled. - Run
poetry installto install dependencies. - Activate the project's virtual environment. You can use
poetry shell. - Test that everything is working by running
xexe smoke-test. You should see a happy pig.
Set up credentials
To use xexe, you will need to have credentials for the xe.com API. Specifically, you need an account id and it's matching api key.
To write into the DWH, you will also need to pass credentials to connect to it.
To set up your environment, you should create a .env file and place it in ~/.xexe/.env. You will have to run xexe as the right user to ensure the .env file is found. You can use the .env-example file as a reference. We also recommend running chmod 400 or chmod 600 on it for safety.
Once you have done this, you can run:
xexe xe-healthcheckto validate the connection to the xe.com API. If the connection to the API was successful, you will see some output telling you so.xexe dwh-healthcheckto validate that the DWH is reachable. Again, you will see some happy output if things work.
DWH pre-requisites
To be able to write rates into the DWH, take these points into consideration:
xexeexpects to find the following: a database calleddwh, schema calledsync_xedotcom_currencies. These should already exist beforexexeruns.xexeshould run with a user that has permission to write intodwh/sync_xedotcom_currenciesand to create tables. It will create the right tables if it can't find them.- These details are hardcoded in the
constantsmodule. You might want to refactor them into run-time configuration options if you find yourself having to change them often.
General Usage
Remember to activate the project virtual environment.
You can use xexe to get rates and store them locally as a .csv file like this:
xexe get-rates --start-date "2024-01-01" --end-date "2024-01-10" --output my_rates.csv
By default, xexe runs against a mock rate generator. To get real rates from xe.com, you need to specify the --rates-source to xe like this:
xexe get-rates --rates-source xe --output my_xe_rates.csv
You can also be explicit about wanting mock rates like this:
xexe get-rates --rates-source mock --output my_mock_rates.csv
If you want to point writing to the DWH instead of a local file.
xexe get-rates --output dwh
If you don't want to write the rates anywhere, activate the --dry-run flag. You still need to specify some output.
xexe get-rates --dry-run --output my_rates.csv
You can also run without specifying dates. Not specifying end-date will get rates up to today. Not specifying start-date will get dates up to last week.
xexe get-rates --output my_rates.csv
xexe comes with a set of default currencies, but you can also specify the currencies you want to get data for by passing them like this:
# Currencies must be valid ISO 4217 codes and be comma-separated
xexe get-rates --currencies USD,EUR,GBP --output my_rates.csv
The output file for .csv outputs will follow this schema:
datefrom_currencyto_currencyexchange_rateexported_at
The file will contain all the combinations of the different currencies and dates passed. This includes inverse and equal rates.
This is better understood with an example. Find below a real call and its real CSV output:
xexe get-rates --start-date 2024-01-01 --end-date 2024-01-03 --rates-source xe --currencies EUR,USD,GBP --output file.csv
from_currency,to_currency,rate,rate_date,exported_at
GBP,EUR,1.15,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
GBP,USD,1.27,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,USD,1.10,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
GBP,EUR,1.15,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
GBP,USD,1.27,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,USD,1.10,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
GBP,EUR,1.15,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
GBP,USD,1.26,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,USD,1.09,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,GBP,0.87,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,GBP,0.79,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,EUR,0.91,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,GBP,0.87,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,GBP,0.79,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,EUR,0.91,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,GBP,0.87,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,GBP,0.79,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,EUR,0.92,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
GBP,GBP,1,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,USD,1,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,EUR,1,2024-01-01,2024-06-12T16:24:38
GBP,GBP,1,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,USD,1,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,EUR,1,2024-01-03,2024-06-12T16:24:38
GBP,GBP,1,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
USD,USD,1,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
EUR,EUR,1,2024-01-02,2024-06-12T16:24:38
A few more details:
- Running
get-rateswith anend-datebeyond the current date will ignore the future dates. The run will behave as if you had specified today as theend-date. - Trying to place an
end-datebefore astart-datewill cause an exception. - Running with the option
--dry-runwill run against a mock of the xe.com API. Format will be valid, but all rates will be fixed. This is for testing purposes.
Deploying for Superhog infra
This tool was made specifically to feed our DWH. These are the steps to perform to deploy it from scratch.
- Setup
- Prepare a Linux VM.
- Run the steps described in this readme in sections:
How to Use the tool > InstallHow to Use the tool > Set up credentialsHow to Use the tool > DWH pre-requisites
- Schedule
- Finally, schedule the execution in the Linux VM to fit your needs.
- Specifics are up to you and your circunstances.
- A general pattern would be to create a little bash script that calls the tool with the right parameters on it.
- Remember to use the
--ignore-warningsflag if necessary to allow large, automated runs without manually interaction.
- Backfilling
- If you are loading rates for the first time, you might need to backfill long periods of time manually at first.
- The tool is flexible enough. You can probably figure out the right commands by taking a look at
How to Use the tool > General Usage - Be careful since you might hit consumption limits set by xe.com.
Testing
This CLI app has three groups of tests:
tests_cli: simulate calling the CLI to check proper calls, not much attention paid to actual results.tests_unit: unit tests for some domain-heavy parts of the codebase.tests_integration: full executions that assert the end result of the calls to be as expected.
You can run everything with pytests tests, or narrow it down more if you want to.
There is a special test in tests_integration that runs against the real xe.com API. This tests is commented out to avoid repeteadly consuming API hits. You can use by uncommenting it manually. I know it's annoying, but then again, it shouldn't to be very annoying since you should only use that test sparingly.