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To use REST API as a data source you have to do the following steps:

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Incremental import

By default, REST API import will always re-import all data. During the import the old imported data will be deleted and then replaced by new returned data. If REST API returns many pages of results then each data import might take long time as well as reports might return incomplete data while the old data are deleted and not all new data are imported.

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• Select Use incremental import to enable it.
• If REST API does not provide parameters for selecting just the recent updated data then you can use the option "Stop incremental import when no source data are changed in a returned page". If during the import some REST API results page will have all the same data that have been imported before then the import will be stopped. But, please, be aware that if data are changed when stored in flex.bi (e.g. decimal numbers are truncated when stored), then the source data page will not be exactly the same as in flex.bi.

• Therefore it is recommended to specify Additional URL parameters to limit just the recently updated source data. Typically you need to specify a URL date parameter that limits results to recently updated source data.
  For example, in our GitHub issues example REST API has since parameter to return only issues updated at or after the specified date and time. We can use the following additional URL parameter:
  

  Code Block
  since={{ 3 days ago | %Y-%m-%d }}

  This will dynamically get a relative date and time 3 days ago and will format it using a strftime format string %Y-%m-%d (see available strftime format options). The following relative time units can be used – years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds. And instead of ago also from now can be used to get a date and time in future.

If incremental import is used then it will be required to specify a Source ID column in the source columns mapping step. Source ID column value should provide a unique results row identifier. It is used to identify when some existing imported rows in flex.bi should be replaced with updated source data during the incremental import.

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