GeneratorActor

The GeneratorActor is a Coral Actor that enables the generation of data based on a JSON input template. The JSON input template defines the fields and structure of the JSON object to emit, and the values of the JSON template define the distribution of the data to generate.

Creating a GeneratorActor

The GeneratorActor has "type": "generator". The params value is a JSON object with the following fields:

field	type	required	description
`format`	JObject	yes	The format of the object to return. The complete object will be returned as the top-level JSON object. The fields provide the distribution of the data to generate.
`timer`: `rate`	Int	yes	The number of objects to generate per second.
`timer`: `times`	Int	no	The total number of objects to generate. After this number is reached, output is stopped.
`timer`: `delay`	Int	no	The number of seconds to wait until the first object is emitted. Not required, if no delay is given, a delay of 0 seconds is used.

The GeneratorActor currently has three different generator functions:

name	format	description	example
Normal	`N(mu, sigma)`	Samples a value from the normal distribution as given by the mu (average) and sigma (standard deviation) parameters.	`N(100.2,53.8)`
Uniform	`U(max)`	Samples a value from a uniform distribution from 0 to `max`	`U(42)`
List choice	`['s1','s2','s3']`	Samples a value uniformly from any of the given string choices `s1`, `s2` or `s3`.	`['a','b','c']`

Creation example

{
  "type": "generator",
  "params": {
    "format": {
      "field1": "N(100, 10)",
      "field2": "['a', 'b', 'c']",
      "field3": {
        "nested1": "U(100)",
        "nested2": "U(20.3)",
        "nested3": "N(20.5, 5.2)"
      }
    }, "timer": {
      "rate": 10,
      "times": 100,
      "delay": 1000
    }
  }
}

This will create a GeneratorActor that emits 10 objects per second, of which a couple of examples follow:

{
  "field1": 82.85,
  "field2": "a",
  "field3": {
     "nested1": 57.42,
     "nested2": 4.75,
     "nested3": 18.97
  }
}

Next, the following object may be emitted:

{
  "field1": 113.45,
  "field2": "b",
  "field3": {
     "nested1": 25.18,
     "nested2": 12.8,
     "nested3": 17.85
  }
}

Because the delay is set to 1 second, it waits 1 second before emitting the first object. When it has emitted 100 objects, it stops.

Trigger

The GeneratorActor is not triggered by external events, but rather generates data autonomously.

Emit

The GeneratorActor emits data based on the rate parameter. When rate is set to 10, it emits an object every 100 milliseconds.

State

The state of the GeneratorActor returns the following fields:

field	type	description
`rate`	Int	The number of objects per second that will be emitted.
`times`	Int	The maximum number of objects to emit.
`delay`	Int	The number of seconds that the actor has waited before emitting the first object.
`format`	JObject	The format that was specified in the constructor.
`count`	Int	The total number of objects emitted until now.

Collect

The GeneratorActor does not collect state from other actors.

Timer

The GeneratorActor periodically emits data according to its rate, times and delay settings.

Overview

Getting started

Documentation