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Manage Models

Manage Profiles models efficiently by performing different model operations.

6 minute read

While using the Profiles models, you can apply certain operations on them by defining the model contracts, enable/disable run of a model, reuse models output, etc.

Model contracts

You can use the contract field to specify the constraints your model should adhere to while using the warehouse data.

Suppose a model (M1) is dependent on model (M2). Now, M1 can specify a contract defining the columns and entities that it needs from M2 to be executed successfully. Also, it becomes mandatory for M2 to provide the required columns and entities for contract validation.

Example 1

The following inputs.yaml file defines a contract:

- name: rsIdentifies
  contract:
    is_optional: false
    is_event_stream: true
    with_entity_ids:
      - user
    with_columns:
      - name: timestamp
      - name: user_id
      - name: anonymous_id

Here, the contract specifies that:

The input table (rsIdentifies) must exist in the warehouse.
The model is an event stream model where every row in the table must be an event.
There must be a column in the inputs table (rsIdentifies) which represents the user identifier for user entity.
The input table (rsIdentifies) must have the timestamp, user_id, and anonymous_id columns.

Example 2

Let’s consider a SQL model, rsSessionTable which takes shopify_session_features as an input:

models:
- name: rsSessionTable
  model_type: sql_template
  model_spec:
    ... # model specifications
    single_sql: |
      {% set contract = BuildContract('{"with_columns":[{"name":"user_id"}, {"name":"anonymous_id"}]}') %}
      {% with SessionFeature = this.DeRef("models/shopify_session_features",contract)%}
          select user_id as id1, anonymous_id as id2 from {{SessionFeature}}      
    contract:
      with_entity_ids:
        - user
      with_columns:
        - name: user_id
          type: string
        - name: anonymous_id
          type: string

There are two contracts defined in the above example:

Contract for shopify_session_features model which dictates that the user_id, and anonymous_id columns must be present.
Contract for rsSessionTable model which dictates that it must have a column representing the user identifier for user entity. Also, the user_id, and anonymous_id columns must be present.

This helps in improving the data quality, error handling, and enables static and dynamic validation of the project.

Enable/disable model run

When you have various interdependent models, you might want to run only the required ones for a specific output.

RudderStack provides the enable_status parameter which lets you specify whether to run a model or not. Using it, you can exclude the unnecessary models from the execution process. You can assign the following values to the enable_status field in your pb_project.yaml file:

good_to_have (default): It will not execute or cause a failure when it is not possible to execute the model.
must_have: It will cause a failure when is not possible to execute the model.
only_if_necessary: The model gets disabled if it has no dependency on the final output. It is the default value for a default ID stitcher model and ensures that the model is not executed if it is not required.
disabled: The model gets disabled and is not executed.

A sample pb_project.yaml file with enable_status parameter:

name: app_project
schema_version: 84
connection: test
model_folders:
  - models
entities:
  - name: user
    id_types:
      - user_id
      - anonymous_id
    default_id_stitcher:
      materialization:
        run_type: incremental
        enable_status: good_to_have
      incremental_timedelta: 12h # half a day

id_types:
  - name: user_id
    filters:
      - type: include
        regex: "([0-9a-z])*"
      - type: exclude
        value: ""
  - name: anonymous_id

Use-case

Consider a scenario where an ID stitcher model (ids) is dependent on tbl_a and tbl_b, and a feature table model (ft1) depends on the ID Stitcher (ids) and an input model tbl_a.

If the ID stitcher and feature table models are marked as only_if_necessary, there is no need to execute either of them. However, if the feature table is marked as good_to_have/must_have, then all the models must run to create final output.
If tbl_a is set to disabled, the ID stitcher and feature table will not run. If either of them is marked as must_have, the project will run into an error.

Reuse models output

This is an experimental feature.

You can define the time_grain parameter for a model to ensure the model runs only once in that time period. It lets you reuse the output material of that model within the time period, preventing unnecessary recalculations⁠.

For example, if you set the time_grain value for an ID stitcher model to a day and run the feature table model (based on the ID stitcher) multiple times during a day, the feature table model will reuse the ID stitcher’s output to compute the features. This will save a large amount of time and computations whenever you run the feature table model within that day.

Similarly, you can choose to run a feature such as weekly_spends only once a week, or last_active_day on a daily basis.

Setting time_grain parameter does not mean that the model will run automatically at the specified time period. It just ensures that the model runs only once during that time period and its outputs are reused within that duration. To schedule your project run, you must use the RudderStack dashboard.
For example, if time_grain for a model is set to a week, its outputs will be reused throughout the week and running it twice within the week won’t change its results.

You can define the time_grain parameter in the profiles.yaml file of your project:

models:
  - name: user_id_graph
    model_type: id_stitcher
    model_spec:
      entity_key: user
      time_grain: "hour"
      materialization:
        run_type: incremental
      edge_sources:
        - from: inputs/rsIdentifies
        - from: inputs/rsTracks
var_groups:
  - name: user_daily_vars
    time_grain: "day"
    entity_key: user
    vars:
      - entity_var:
          name: days_since_last_seen
          select: "{{macro_datediff('{{user.Var(\"max_timestamp\")}}')}}"
  - name: user_weekly_vars
    time_grain: "week"
    entity_key: user
    vars:
      - entity_var:
         name: weekly_amt_spent
         select: sum(total_price_usd) - coalesce(sum(total_price_usd_order_cancelled), 0)
         from: models/rsOrderCreatedOrderCancelled
         where: "{{macro_datediff_n('timestamp','7')}}"

In the above example, suppose you schedule your Profiles project to run every hour. The output for user_id_graph model will be computed every hour, the output for user_daily_vars will be computed once a day, and the output for user_weekly_vars will be computed once a week.

For a default ID stitcher model, you can define the time_grain value in the entities section as shown below:

entities:
  - name: user
    id_types:
      - test_id
      - exclude_id
    default_id_stitcher:
      time_grain: "day"

Supported values

You can set the following values for the time_grain field:

tick: Considers all the data up to the current moment (default value).
10minutes: Considers data up to the last 10-minute interval.
hour: Considers data up to the end of the previous hour.
day: Considers data up to the end of the previous day.
week: Considers data up to the end of the previous week.
month: Considers data up to the end of the previous month.
year: Considers data up to the end of the previous year.

Execute SQL before/after running a model

A pre hook enables you to execute an SQL before running a model, for example, if you want to change DB access, create a DB object, etc. Likewise, a post hook enables you to execute an SQL after running a model. The SQL can also be templatized. Here’s an example code snippet:

models:
  - name: test_id_stitcher
    model_type: id_stitcher
    hooks:
      pre_run: "CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW {{warehouse.ObjRef('V1')}} AS (SELECT * from {{warehouse.ObjRef('Temp_tbl_a')}});"
      post_run: 'CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW {{warehouse.ObjRef("V2")}} AS (SELECT * from {{warehouse.ObjRef("Temp_tbl_a")}});'
    model_spec:
      - # rest of model specs go here

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