Parsing json to azure sql db - mapping

Question

Hello

I have a blob storage with json files comming from API and loaded there ones per day. The case is to parse the jsons and import to azure sql db on a daily basis. The jsons contains about 70 attributes with values. The structure is not always the same. Some files have slightly more attibutes then other. I do not want to import them all but have a fixed list which I need.

I am trying the approach used in this tutorial:
upsert-to-azure-sql-db-with-azure-data-factory

The problem is my json files are nested and have a lot o records. Here is an example (the first part as it is too big to show it fully)

{
 "data": [
 {
 "id": "c5-jqrrb-dc5x6-yvkwc-8r30c-yyyy-xxxx",
 "type": "products",
 "attributes": {
 "report-date": "2020-08-01",
 "region": "DD",
 "online-store": "Amazon",
 "brand": "Gillette",
 "category": "Shave Care",
 "manufacturer": "ZZ",
 "is-competitor": false,
 "dimension1": null,
 "dimension2": null,
 "dimension3": "Male Shave Prep",
 "dimension4": null,
 "dimension5": null,
 "dimension6": "YES",
 "dimension7": null,
 "dimension8": "UNKNOWN",
 "trusted": {
 "rpc": "B0XXX",
 "upc": "03XXX",
 "mpc": null,
 "product-description": "Gillette Foamy Lemon Shaving Foam 200ml"
 },
 "harvested": {
 "url": "https://www.xxx.com",
 "product-image-url": "https://images-xxx_.jpg",
 "video-count": null,
 "gallery-video-count": null,
 "image-count": null,
 "duplicate-image-count": null
 },

My question is. How to create a custom data type as show in tutorial for nested jsons?
Is it possible to do so?
Let's say I want import to sql db these 3 attributes from my sample json:
[id]
[types]
[attribute][report-date]
As the [attribute][report-date] is on the lower hierarchy how to reference this in the custom data type sql code?

Answer 1

Hi @BartoszWachocki-4076,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform. Thanks for posting the query.

Below are few observations

• Using dataflows in Azure Data Factory, the upsert can be easily done without using Stored Procedure in SQL
• All the inner attributes in nested json can be accessed in dataflow as shown below and fixed set of attributes can be used in mapping
• Usually custom data types are used to enforce uniform rules across multiple columns. Can you please share more details on the reason for using custom data types for your requirement.
• Using "Get Metadata" and "Foreach activity" for looping on multiple source files and to trigger dataflow on each source file as in this link

Hope this helps! Please let us know if this is not aligning with your requirement or for further queries and we will be glad to assist.