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Building pipelines with Intercom Reader

You can read from Intercom using the Intercom Reader and write to any target supported by Striim. Typically, you will set up pipelines in two phases—initial load, followed by continuous incremental replication—as explained in Pipelines.

  • For initial load, use Intercom Reader in Initial Load mode to create a point-in-time copy of selected objects at the target.

  • After initial load has completed, start continuous replication by reading new or changed records created in the same objects after the initial load began, then writing those changes to the target. For real-time continuous replication of new source data, use the Intercom Reader in Incremental mode.

You can use automated pipeline wizards to build Intercom pipelines that Striim manages end-to-end, or you can manually create separate applications for initial load and continuous incremental replication and manage the lifecycle yourself. Since the Intercom Reader supports both initial load and continuous replication, you can handle both with a single application.

Using an automated pipeline wizard: if you want to build near-real-time pipelines from Intercom and write to a supported target, we recommend using an automated pipeline wizard with an Intercom Reader source. These wizards perform the following steps automatically:

  • Create two applications: one for initial load and the other for continuous incremental replication (polling).

  • Create a schema and tables in the target that match the objects to be synced from Intercom.

  • Run the initial-load application to copy existing data from Intercom to the target.

  • When initial load completes, run the incremental application to replicate new or changed records using the configured watermark field and polling interval.

Not using an automated pipeline wizard: if your use case or policies do not allow using an automated pipeline, create separate applications for initial load and continuous replication:

  • Before performing initial load, identify a stable, monotonically increasing watermark field for each object (for Intercom, this is typically updatedAt).

  • Create a schema and tables in the target and perform initial load: use a wizard with an Intercom Reader source. (Alternatively, you may pre-create target tables using native or third-party utilities.)

  • Perform an initial load when the schema and tables already exist in the target: use a wizard with an Intercom Reader source configured for full export.

  • Switch from initial load to continuous replication: provide the last successful watermark value (for example, the last updatedAt) from the initial load as the starting offset.

  • Replicate new data: use a wizard with an Intercom Reader source configured for incremental polling (set the watermark field and polling interval). Configure the target for upsert semantics using appropriate key columns.

Alternatively, instead of using wizards, you can create applications using Flow Designer, TQL, or Striim’s REST API.

Pre-requisite – The initial setup and configuration you do in Intercom are described in the Initial setup section.

Create an Intercom Reader application using the Flow Designer

This procedure outlines how to use Striim’s Flow Designer to build and configure data pipelines. Flow Designer enables you to visually create applications with minimal or no coding.

  1. Go to the Apps page in the Striim UI and click Start from scratch.

  2. Provide the Name and Namespace for your app. The namespace helps organize related apps.

  3. In the component section, expand Sources, and enter a keyword such as Intercom Reader in the search field to filter available sources.

  4. Select the desired source (Intercom).

  5. In the properties panel, provide the properties for the reader. Typical settings include:

    • Authentication mode: API key or OAuth. Supply the API key or Access token accordingly.

    • Mode: Initial load, Incremental load, or Automated (when available).

    • Tables: Semicolon-delimited list of objects (supports % wildcard).

    • Incremental load marker: Typically updatedAt.

    • Start position: For example, %=-1 to start from “now”.

    • Polling interval: For example, 5m.

    • Migrate schema (initial load only): Enable to create target schema from source.

  6. Click Save to complete the properties configuration.

  7. Drag and drop processors, enrichers, and targets to complete your pipeline logic. Configure the target for idempotent upserts as appropriate.

  8. Deploy and start the application to begin data flow.

Create an Intercom Reader application using TQL

The following sample TQL uses Striim’s Intercom Reader to read all supported objects and run in automated mode.

CREATE SOURCE IntercomSrc USING Global.IntercomReader (
  AuthenticationMode: 'APIKey',
  ApiKey: '<YOUR_SERVER_ACCESS_TOKEN>',
  Mode: 'Automated',
  Tables: '%',
  IncrementalLoadMarker: 'updatedAt',
  StartPosition: '%=-1',
  PollingInterval: '5m',
  MigrateSchema: true
)
OUTPUT TO IntercomStream;