Full Refresh - Overwrite
Overview
The Full Refresh modes are the simplest methods that Airbyte uses to sync data, as they always retrieve all available information requested from the source, regardless of whether it has been synced before. This contrasts with Incremental sync, which does not sync data that has already been synced before.
In the Overwrite variant, new syncs will destroy all data in the existing destination table and then pull the new data in. Therefore, data that has been removed from the source after an old sync will be deleted in the destination table.
Example Behavior
On the nth sync of a full refresh connection:
Replace existing data with new data. The connection does not create any new tables.
data in the destination before the sync:
| Languages |
|---|
| Python |
| Java |
| Bash |
new data in the source:
| Languages |
|---|
| Python |
| Java |
| Ruby |
data in the destination after the sync (note how the old value of "bash" is no longer present):
| Languages |
|---|
| Python |
| Java |
| Ruby |
Destination-specific mechanism for full refresh
The mechanism by which a destination connector accomplishes the full refresh will vary wildly from destination to destination. For our certified database and data warehouse destinations, we will be recreating the final table each sync. This allows us leave the previous sync's data viewable by writing to a "final-table-tmp" location as the sync is running, and at the end dropping the old "final" table, and renaming the new one into place. That said, this may not possible for all destinations, and we may need to erase the existing data at the start of each full-refresh sync.