Connected data: Using BigQuery to analyse user behaviour in response to webhooks

README.md

This gist contains code samples for the blog post "Connected data: Using BigQuery to analyse user behaviour in response to webhooks".

https://blog.lawrencejones.dev/

query.sql

/*
extractIDs takes the webhook request payload, which is structured like so:
{
  "events": [
    { "links": { "<resource-name>": "ID", ... } },
    ...,
  ]
}

And extracts the unique set of resource IDs referenced by the webhook.
*/
CREATE TEMP FUNCTION
  extractIDs(json STRING)
  RETURNS ARRAY<string>
  LANGUAGE js AS """
  return [
    ... new Set(
      JSON.parse(json)["events"]
        .map(e=>Object.values(e["links"]))
        .flat()
    )
  ];
""";

WITH
  -- Expand each webhook into a row per resource ID from the request_body
  -- payload. Use the Javascript extractIDs function to parse all the events,
  -- then UNNEST the parsed array into separate rows.
  webhook_resources AS (
  SELECT
    id,
    created_at,
    resource_id
  FROM (
    SELECT
      id,
      created_at,
      extractIDs(request_body) AS resource_ids
    FROM
      webhooks ) AS webhook_resources
    -- UNNEST transforms the array of resources IDs into a row per resource ID,
    -- while the CROSS JOIN finds every pairing from the original webhook (1) to
    -- every resource ID (n).
    CROSS JOIN
    UNNEST(resource_ids) AS resource_id
  ),

  -- Join each HTTP request log onto webhook_resources. Set the
  -- webhook_work_duration field to be the duration of the request, if we can
  -- find a webhook that was sent within 1m either side of the request.
  requests AS (
  SELECT
    merchant_activity._log_timestamp AS timestamp,
    merchant_activity.handler,
    merchant_activity.resource_id,
    merchant_activity.duration,
    (
      CASE webhook_resources.resource_id IS NULL
      WHEN TRUE THEN 0.0
      ELSE merchant_activity.duration
      END
    ) AS webhook_work_duration
  FROM
    merchant_activity
  -- OUTER JOIN to ensure we produce a row for every merchant_activity entry, as
  -- we'll want to understand the ratio of webhook work to other API activity,
  -- which is best measured in duration spent serving each request.
  LEFT OUTER JOIN
    webhook_resources
  -- Allow for matching against a request either side by 1m of our API request.
  -- This permits for slippage, as the log has a timestamp set at the completion
  -- of a request and some integrators may respond to webhooks inline, rather
  -- than asynchronously.
  ON
    webhook_resources.resource_id=merchant_activity.resource_id
    AND ABS(UNIX_SECONDS(_log_timestamp) - UNIX_SECONDS(created_at)) < 60
    AND merchant_activity.resource_id IS NOT NULL
    AND merchant_activity._log_timestamp > '2020-10-29'
  )

-- Present work ratio rolled-up to each minute of our results. Provide total
-- durations so we can perform additional roll-ups later.
SELECT
  TIMESTAMP_TRUNC(timestamp, MINUTE) AS timestamp,
  COUNT(*) AS count,
  SUM(duration) AS duration,
  SUM(webhook_work_duration) AS webhook_work_duration,
  SUM(webhook_work_duration) / SUM(duration) AS work_ratio
FROM
  requests
GROUP BY
  1
ORDER BY
  1;