The Event resource represents an event that has been created for a customer. Events are created when a customer's invoice is paid, and are updated when a customer's transaction is refunded.
- amend - Amend single event
- close_backfill - Close a backfill
- create - Create a backfill
- deprecate_event - Deprecate single event
- ingest - Ingest events
- list_backfills - List backfills
- revert_backfill - Revert a backfill
- search - Search events
This endpoint is used to amend a single usage event with a given event_id
. event_id
refers to the idempotency_key
passed in during ingestion. The event will maintain its existing event_id
after the amendment.
This endpoint will mark the existing event as ignored, and Orb will only use the new event passed in the body of this request as the source of truth for that event_id
. Note that a single event can be amended any number of times, so the same event can be overwritten in subsequent calls to this endpoint, or overwritten using the Amend customer usage endpoint. Only a single event with a given event_id
will be considered the source of truth at any given time.
This is a powerful and audit-safe mechanism to retroactively update a single event in cases where you need to:
- update an event with new metadata as you iterate on your pricing model
- update an event based on the result of an external API call (ex. call to a payment gateway succeeded or failed)
This amendment API is always audit-safe. The process will still retain the original event, though it will be ignored for billing calculations. For auditing and data fidelity purposes, Orb never overwrites or permanently deletes ingested usage data.
- The
timestamp
of the new event must match thetimestamp
of the existing event already ingested. As with ingestion, all timestamps must be sent in ISO8601 format with UTC timezone offset. - The
customer_id
orexternal_customer_id
of the new event must match thecustomer_id
orexternal_customer_id
of the existing event already ingested. Exactly one ofcustomer_id
andexternal_customer_id
should be specified, and similar to ingestion, the ID must identify a Customer resource within Orb. Unlike ingestion, for event amendment, we strictly enforce that the Customer must be in the Orb system, even during the initial integration period. We do not allow updating theCustomer
an event is associated with. - Orb does not accept an
idempotency_key
with the event in this endpoint, since this request is by design idempotent. On retryable errors, you should retry the request and assume the amendment operation has not succeeded until receipt of a 2xx. - The event's
timestamp
must fall within the customer's current subscription's billing period, or within the grace period of the customer's current subscription's previous billing period.
import orb
import dateutil.parser
from orb.models import operations, shared
s = orb.Orb(
security=shared.Security(
api_key_auth="",
),
)
res = s.event.amend('fQp2wSmK7CF9oPcu', shared.AmendedEvent(
customer_id='cum',
event_name='voluptate',
external_customer_id='dignissimos',
properties={
"amet": 'dolorum',
"numquam": 'veritatis',
"ipsa": 'ipsa',
"iure": 'odio',
},
timestamp=dateutil.parser.isoparse('2020-12-09T16:09:53Z'),
))
if res.amend_event_result is not None:
# handle response
Closing a backfill makes the updated usage visible in Orb. Upon closing a backfill, Orb will asynchronously reflect the updated usage in invoice amounts and usage graphs. Once all of the updates are complete, the backfill's status will transition to reflected
.
import orb
from orb.models import operations
s = orb.Orb(
security=shared.Security(
api_key_auth="",
),
)
res = s.event.close_backfill('quaerat')
if res.backfill is not None:
# handle response
Creating the backfill enables adding or replacing past events, even those that are older than the ingestion grace period. Performing a backfill in Orb involves 3 steps:
- Create the backfill, specifying its parameters.
- Ingest usage events, referencing the backfill (query parameter
backfill_id
). - Close the backfill, propagating the update in past usage throughout Orb.
Changes from a backfill are not reflected until the backfill is closed, so you won’t need to worry about your customers seeing partially updated usage data. Backfills are also reversible, so you’ll be able to revert a backfill if you’ve made a mistake.
This endpoint will return a backfill object, which contains an id
. That id
can then be used as the backfill_id
query parameter to the event ingestion endpoint to associate ingested events with this backfill. The effects (e.g. updated usage graphs) of this backfill will not take place until the backfill is closed.
If the replace_existing_events
is true
, existing events in the backfill's timeframe will be replaced with the newly ingested events associated with the backfill. If false
, newly ingested events will be added to the existing events.
import orb
import dateutil.parser
from orb.models import shared
s = orb.Orb(
security=shared.Security(
api_key_auth="",
),
)
req = shared.NewBackfill(
close_time=dateutil.parser.isoparse('2020-11-29T12:05:35.198Z'),
customer_id='voluptatibus',
external_customer_id='voluptas',
replace_existing_events=False,
timeframe_end=dateutil.parser.isoparse('2022-08-22T21:20:36.034Z'),
timeframe_start=dateutil.parser.isoparse('2022-12-13T23:37:42.244Z'),
)
res = s.event.create(req)
if res.backfill is not None:
# handle response
This endpoint is used to deprecate a single usage event with a given event_id
. event_id
refers to the idempotency_key
passed in during ingestion.
This endpoint will mark the existing event as ignored. Note that if you attempt to re-ingest an event with the same event_id
as a deprecated event, Orb will return an error.
This is a powerful and audit-safe mechanism to retroactively deprecate a single event in cases where you need to:
- no longer bill for an event that was improperly reported
- no longer bill for an event based on the result of an external API call (ex. call to a payment gateway failed and the user should not be billed)
If you want to only change specific properties of an event, but keep the event as part of the billing calculation, use the Amend single event endpoint instead.
This API is always audit-safe. The process will still retain the deprecated event, though it will be ignored for billing calculations. For auditing and data fidelity purposes, Orb never overwrites or permanently deletes ingested usage data.
- Orb does not accept an
idempotency_key
with the event in this endpoint, since this request is by design idempotent. On retryable errors, you should retry the request and assume the deprecation operation has not succeeded until receipt of a 2xx. - The event's
timestamp
must fall within the customer's current subscription's billing period, or within the grace period of the customer's current subscription's previous billing period. Orb does not allow deprecating events for billing periods that have already invoiced customers. - The
customer_id
or theexternal_customer_id
of the original event ingestion request must identify a Customer resource within Orb, even if this event was ingested during the initial integration period. We do not allow deprecating events for customers not in the Orb system.
import orb
from orb.models import operations
s = orb.Orb(
security=shared.Security(
api_key_auth="",
),
)
res = s.event.deprecate_event('fQp2wSmK7CF9oPcu')
if res.deprecated_event_result is not None:
# handle response
Orb's event ingestion model and API is designed around two core principles:
- Data fidelity: The accuracy of your billing model depends on a robust foundation of events. Orb's API protocol encourages usage patterns that ensure that your data is consistently complete and correct.
- Fast integration: Sending events into Orb requires no tedious setup steps or explicit field schema for your event shape, making it instant to start streaming in usage in real-time.
Events are the starting point for all usage calculations in the system, and are simple at their core:
{
// customer_id and external_customer_id are used to
// attribute usage to a given Customer. Exactly one of these
// should be specified in a given ingestion event.
// `customer_id` is the Orb generated identifier for the Customer,
// which is returned from the Create Customer API call.
customer_id: string,
// external_customer_id is an alternate identifier which is associated
// with a Customer at creation time. This is treated as an alias for
// customer_id, and is usually set to an identifier native to your system.
external_customer_id: string,
// A string name identifying the event, usually a usage
// action. By convention, this should not contain any whitespace.
event_name: string,
// An ISO 8601 format date with no timezone offset.
// This should represent the time that usage occurred
// and is important to attribute usage to a given
// billing period. See the notes below on determining the timestamp.
// e.g. 2020-12-09T16:09:53Z
timestamp: string,
// A unique value, generated by the client, that is
// used to de-duplicate events.
// Exactly one event with a given
// idempotency key will be ingested, which allows for
// safe request retries.
idempotency_key: string
// Optional custom metadata to attach to the event.
// This might include a numeric value used for aggregation,
// or a string/boolean value used for filtering.
// The schema of this dictionary need not be pre-declared, and
// properties can be added at any time.
properties: {
[key: string]?: string | number | boolean,
},
}
Because events streamed to Orb are meant to be as flexible as possible, there are only a few required fields in every event.
- We recommend that
idempotency_key
are unique strings that you generated with V4 UUIDs, but only require that they uniquely identify an event (i.e. don’t collide). - The
timestamp
field in the event body will be used to determine which billable period a given event falls into. For example, with a monthly billing cycle starting from the first of December, Orb will calculate metrics based on events that fall into the range12-01 00:00:00 <= timestamp < 01-01 00:00:00
.
Orb allows tagging events with metadata using a flexible properties dictionary. Since Orb does not enforce a rigid schema for this field-set, key-value pairs can be added dynamically as your events evolve.
This dictionary can be helpful for a wide variety of use cases:
- Numeric properties on events like
compute_time_ms
can later be inputs to our flexible query engine to determine usage. - Logging a region or cluster with each event can help you provide customers more granular visibility into their usage.
We encourage logging this metadata with an eye towards future use cases to ensure full coverage for historical data. The datatype of the value in the properties dictionary is important for metric creation from an event source. Values that you wish to numerically aggregate should be of numeric type in the event.
For cases where usage is being reported in real time as it is occurring, timestamp should correspond to the time that usage occurred.
In cases where usage is reported in aggregate for a historical timeframe at a regular interval, we recommend setting the event timestamp
to the midpoint of the interval. As an example, if you have an hourly reporter that sends data once an hour for the previous hour of usage, setting the timestamp
to the half-hour mark will ensure that the usage is counted within the correct period.
Note that other time-related fields (e.g. time elapsed) can be added to the properties dictionary as necessary.
In cases where usage is reported in aggregate for a historical timeframe, the timestamp must be within the grace period set for your account. Events with timestamp < current_time - grace_period
will not be accepted as a valid event, and will throw validation errors. Enforcing the grace period enables Orb to accurately map usage to the correct billing cycle and ensure that all usage is billed for in the corresponding billing period.
Orb’s validation ensures that you recognize errors in your events as quickly as possible, and the API provides informative error messages to help you fix problems quickly.
We validate the following:
- Exactly one of
customer_id
andexternal_customer_id
should be specified. - If specified,
customer_id
must identify a Customer resource within Orb. We do not support sending events for customers that have not been provisioned. Similarly, if specified,external_customer_id
must be an identifier that is associated with an Orb Customer resource. Note: During our initial integration period, this enforcement will be temporarily turned into a warning to ensure smooth customer migration. timestamp
must conform to ISO 8601 and represent a timestamp at most 1 hour in the future. This timestamp should be sent in UTC timezone (no timezone offset).
Orb's idempotency guarantees allow you to implement safe retry logic in the event of network or machine failures, ensuring data fidelity. Each event in the request payload is associated with an idempotency key, and Orb guarantees that a single idempotency key will be successfully ingested at most once.
- Successful responses return a 200 HTTP status code. The response contains information about previously processed events.
- Requests that return a
4xx
HTTP status code indicate a payload error and contain at least one event with a validation failure. An event with a validation failure can be re-sent to the ingestion endpoint (after the payload is fixed) with the original idempotency key since that key is not marked as processed. - Requests that return a
5xx
HTTP status code indicate a server-side failure. These requests should be retried in their entirety.
The ingestion API is designed made for real-time streaming ingestion and architected for high throughput. Even if events are later deemed unnecessary or filtered out, we encourage you to log them to Orb if they may be relevant to billing calculations in the future.
To take advantage of the real-time features of the Orb platform and avoid any chance of dropped events by producers, we recommend reporting events to Orb frequently. Optionally, events can also be briefly aggregated at the source, as this API accepts an array of event bodies.
Orb does not currently enforce a hard rate-limit for API usage or a maximum request payload size, but please give us a heads up if you’re changing either of these factors by an order of magnitude from initial setup.
The ingestion API supports a debug mode, which returns additional verbose output to indicate which event idempotency keys were newly ingested or duplicates from previous requests. To enable this mode, mark debug=true
as a query parameter.
If debug=true
is not specified, the response will only contain validation_failed
. Orb will still honor the idempotency guarantees set here in all cases.
We strongly recommend that you only use debug mode as part of testing your initial Orb integration. Once you're ready to switch to production, disable debug mode to take advantage of improved performance and maximal throughput.
{
"debug": {
"duplicate": [],
"ingested": [
"B7E83HDMfJPAunXW",
"SJs5DQJ3TnwSqEZE",
"8SivfDsNKwCeAXim"
]
},
"validation_failed": []
}
{
"validation_failed": []
}
import orb
from orb.models import operations, shared
s = orb.Orb(
security=shared.Security(
api_key_auth="",
),
)
res = s.event.ingest([
shared.Event(
customer_id='ab',
event_name='soluta',
external_customer_id='dolorum',
idempotency_key='iusto',
properties={
"dolorum": 'deleniti',
"omnis": 'necessitatibus',
},
timestamp='2020-12-09T16:09:53Z',
),
shared.Event(
customer_id='distinctio',
event_name='asperiores',
external_customer_id='nihil',
idempotency_key='ipsum',
properties={
"id": 'saepe',
"eius": 'aspernatur',
},
timestamp='2020-12-09T16:09:53Z',
),
shared.Event(
customer_id='perferendis',
event_name='amet',
external_customer_id='optio',
idempotency_key='accusamus',
properties={
"saepe": 'suscipit',
"deserunt": 'provident',
},
timestamp='2020-12-09T16:09:53Z',
),
shared.Event(
customer_id='minima',
event_name='repellendus',
external_customer_id='totam',
idempotency_key='similique',
properties={
"at": 'quaerat',
},
timestamp='2020-12-09T16:09:53Z',
),
], 'backfill_123', shared.Debug(
duplicate=[
'vel',
'quod',
],
ingested=[
'qui',
'dolorum',
'a',
'esse',
],
))
if res.ingestion_response is not None:
# handle response
This endpoint returns a list of all backfills in a list format.
The list of backfills is ordered starting from the most recently created backfill. The response also includes pagination_metadata
, which lets the caller retrieve the next page of results if they exist. More information about pagination can be found in the Pagination-metadata schema.
import orb
s = orb.Orb(
security=shared.Security(
api_key_auth="",
),
)
res = s.event.list_backfills()
if res.backfills is not None:
# handle response
Reverting a backfill undoes all the effects of closing the backfill. If the backfill is reflected, the status will transition to pending_revert
while the effects of the backfill are undone. Once all effects are undone, the backfill will transition to reverted
.
If a backfill is reverted before its closed, no usage will be updated as a result of the backfill and it will immediately transition to reverted
.
import orb
from orb.models import operations
s = orb.Orb(
security=shared.Security(
api_key_auth="",
),
)
res = s.event.revert_backfill('harum')
if res.backfill is not None:
# handle response
This endpoint returns a filtered set of events for an account in a paginated list format.
Note that this is a POST
endpoint rather than a GET
endpoint because it employs a JSON body for search criteria rather than query parameters, allowing for a more flexible search syntax.
Note that a search criteria must be specified. Currently, Orb supports the following criteria:
event_ids
: This is an explicit array of IDs to filter by. Note that an event's ID is theidempotency_key
that was originally used for ingestion.invoice_id
: This is an issued Orb invoice ID (see also List Invoices). Orb will fetch all events that were used to calculate the invoice. In the common case, this will be a list of events whosetimestamp
property falls within the billing period specified by the invoice.
By default, Orb does not return deprecated events in this endpoint.
By default, Orb will not throw a 404
if no events matched, Orb will return an empty array for data
instead.
import orb
from orb.models import shared
s = orb.Orb(
security=shared.Security(
api_key_auth="",
),
)
req = shared.EventSearchCriteria(
event_ids=[
'ipsum',
'quisquam',
],
invoice_id='tenetur',
)
res = s.event.search(req)
if res.event_search_results is not None:
# handle response