Sometimes, for projects where we handle a lot of content, we’re tasked with building a synchronization mechanism to feed data from different sources into Drupal. During the synchronization, data needs to be sanitized, manipulated, and then imported into a single type of entity in Drupal. And the synchronization happens daily.

In this session, we’ll walk you through the process of building a custom import mechanism on top of Feeds. In our example, we’ll show you how to handle data coming from Microsoft Power BI. We’ll show you the process of building a custom Fetcher, a custom Processor, and different ways to alter data prior to the importation.

We’ll also talk about how we expanded the solution to support relational data and handle sequential feed imports.

In this session, you’ll see the full implementation in code that gives you as a developer full control over how to manipulate external data and channel them into Drupal.

Learning Objectives

- Analyze data source, propose cleaning up data from the source if possible
- Build the synchronization with Feeds
- Extend the solution, support relational data and handle sequential importation

Prerequisites

Experience developing a Drupal module, general Drupal knowledge

Synopsis

Learn how to develop a custom module on top of Feeds to fetch, transform and import data into Drupal. And how Feeds can make your importation mechanism more manageable and more robust.