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Elastic Docs ›Filebeat Reference [7.13] ›Configure Filebeat ›Configure inputs

HTTP JSON input

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HTTP JSON input

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Use the httpjson input to read messages from an HTTP API with JSON payloads.

This input supports:

  • Auth

    • Basic
    • OAuth2
  • Retrieval at a configurable interval
  • Pagination
  • Retries
  • Rate limiting
  • Proxying
  • Request transformations
  • Response transformations

Example configurations:

filebeat.inputs:
# Fetch your public IP every minute.
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  interval: 1m
  request.url: https://api.ipify.org/?format=json
  processors:
    - decode_json_fields:
        fields: ["message"]
        target: "json"
filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  request.url: http://localhost:9200/_search?scroll=5m
  request.method: POST
  response.split:
    target: body.hits.hits
  response.pagination:
    - set:
        target: url.value
        value: http://localhost:9200/_search/scroll
    - set:
        target: url.params.scroll_id
        value: '[[.last_response.body._scroll_id]]'
    - set:
        target: body.scroll
        value: 5m

Additionally, it supports authentication via Basic auth, HTTP Headers or oauth2.

Example configurations with authentication:

filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  request.url: http://localhost
  request.transforms:
    - set:
        target: header.Authorization
        value: 'Basic aGVsbG86d29ybGQ='
filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  auth.oauth2:
    client.id: 12345678901234567890abcdef
    client.secret: abcdef12345678901234567890
    token_url: http://localhost/oauth2/token
  request.url: http://localhost

Input state

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The httpjson input keeps a runtime state between requests. This state can be accessed by some configuration options and transforms.

The state has the following elements:

  • last_response.url.value: The full URL with params and fragments from the last request with a successful response.
  • last_response.url.params: A map containing the params from the URL in last_response.url.value.
  • last_response.header: A map containing the headers from the last successful response.
  • last_response.body: A map containing the parsed JSON body from the last successful response. This is the response as it comes from the remote server.
  • last_response.page: A number indicating the page number of the last response.
  • first_event: A map representing the first event sent to the output (result from applying transforms to last_response.body).
  • last_event: A map representing the last event sent to the output (result from applying transforms to last_response.body).
  • url.value: The full URL with params and fragments.
  • url.params: A map containing the URL params.
  • header: A map containing the headers. References request headers when used in request.transforms or request.rate_limit.limit configuration sections, and to the last response headers when used in response.transforms, response.split or response.pagination configuration sections.
  • body: A map containing the body. References request body when used in request.transforms configuration section, and to the last response body when used in response.transforms, response.split or response.pagination configuration sections.
  • cursor: A map containing any data the user configured to be stored between restarts (See cursor).

All of the mentioned objects are only stored at runtime, except cursor, which has values that are persisted between restarts.

Transforms

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A transform is an action that lets the user modify the input state. Depending on where the transform is defined, it will have access for reading or writing different elements of the state.

The access limitations are described in the corresponding configuration sections.

append

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Appends a value to an array. If the field does not exist, the first entry will create a new array. If the field exists, the value is appended to the existing field and converted to a list.

- append:
    target: body.foo.bar
    value: '[[.cursor.baz]]'
    default: "a default value"
  • target defines the destination field where the value is stored.
  • value defines the value that will be stored and it is a value template.
  • default defines the fallback value whenever value is empty or the template parsing fails. Default templates do not have access to any state, only to functions.
  • fail_on_template_error if set to true an error will be returned and the request will be aborted when the template evaluation fails. Default is false.

delete

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Deletes the target field.

- delete:
    target: body.foo.bar
  • target defines the destination field to delete. If target is a list and not a single element, the complete list will be deleted.

set

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Sets a value.

- set:
    target: body.foo.bar
    value: '[[.cursor.baz]]'
    default: "a default value"
  • target defines the destination field where the value is stored.
  • value defines the value that will be stored and it is a value template.
  • default defines the fallback value whenever value is empty or the template parsing fails. Default templates do not have access to any state, only to functions.
  • fail_on_template_error if set to true an error will be returned and the request will be aborted when the template evaluation fails. Default is false.

Value templates

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Some configuration options and transforms can use value templates. Value templates are Go templates with access to the input state and to some built-in functions. Please note that delimiters are changed from the default {{ }} to [[ ]] to improve interoperability with other templating mechanisms.

To see which state elements and operations are available, see the documentation for the option or transform where you want to use a value template.

A value template looks like:

- set:
    target: body.foo.bar
    value: '[[.cursor.baz]] more data'
    default: "a default value"

The content inside the brackets [[ ]] is evaluated. For more information on Go templates please refer to the Go docs.

Some built-in helper functions are provided to work with the input state inside value templates:

  • parseDuration: parses duration strings and returns time.Duration. Example: [[parseDuration "1h"]].
  • now: returns the current time.Time object in UTC. Optionally, it can receive a time.Duration as a parameter. Example: [[now (parseDuration "-1h")]] returns the time at 1 hour before now.
  • parseTimestamp: parses a timestamp in seconds and returns a time.Time in UTC. Example: [[parseTimestamp 1604582732]] returns 2020-11-05 13:25:32 +0000 UTC.
  • parseTimestampMilli: parses a timestamp in milliseconds and returns a time.Time in UTC. Example: [[parseTimestamp 1604582732000]] returns 2020-11-05 13:25:32 +0000 UTC.
  • parseTimestampNano: parses a timestamp in nanoseconds and returns a time.Time in UTC. Example: [[parseTimestamp 1604582732000000000]] returns 2020-11-05 13:25:32 +0000 UTC.
  • parseDate: parses a date string and returns a time.Time in UTC. By default the expected layout is RFC3339 but optionally can accept any of the Golang predefined layouts or a custom one. Example: [[ parseDate "2020-11-05T12:25:32Z" ]], [[ parseDate "2020-11-05T12:25:32.1234567Z" "RFC3339Nano" ]], [[ (parseDate "Thu Nov 5 12:25:32 +0000 2020" "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 -0700 2006").UTC ]].
  • formatDate: formats a time.Time. By default the format layout is RFC3339 but optionally can accept any of the Golang predefined layouts or a custom one. It will default to UTC timezone when formatting, but you can specify a different timezone. If the timezone is incorrect, it will default to UTC. Example: [[ formatDate (now) "UnixDate" ]], [[ formatDate (now) "UnixDate" "America/New_York" ]].
  • getRFC5988Link: extracts a specific relation from a list of RFC5988 links. It is useful when parsing header values for pagination. Example: [[ getRFC5988Link "next" .last_response.header.Link ]].
  • toInt: converts a string to an integer. Returns 0 if the conversion fails.
  • add: adds a list of integers and returns their sum.

In addition to the provided functions, any of the native functions for time.Time and http.Header types can be used on the corresponding objects. Examples: [[(now).Day]], [[.last_response.header.Get "key"]]

Configuration options

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The httpjson input supports the following configuration options plus the Common options described later.

config_version

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Defines the configuration version. Current supported versions are: 1 and 2. Default: 1.

This setting defaults to 1 to avoid breaking current configurations. V1 configuration is deprecated and will be unsupported in future releases. Any new configuration should use config_version: 2.

interval

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Duration between repeated requests. It may make additional pagination requests in response to the initial request if pagination is enabled. Default: 60s.

auth.basic.enabled

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When set to false, disables the basic auth configuration. Default: true.

Basic auth settings are disabled if either enabled is set to false or the auth.basic section is missing.

auth.basic.user

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The user to authenticate with.

auth.basic.password

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The password to use.

auth.oauth2.enabled

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When set to false, disables the oauth2 configuration. Default: true.

OAuth2 settings are disabled if either enabled is set to false or the auth.oauth2 section is missing.

auth.oauth2.provider

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Used to configure supported oauth2 providers. Each supported provider will require specific settings. It is not set by default. Supported providers are: azure, google.

auth.oauth2.client.id

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The client ID used as part of the authentication flow. It is always required except if using google as provider. Required for providers: default, azure.

auth.oauth2.client.secret

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The client secret used as part of the authentication flow. It is always required except if using google as provider. Required for providers: default, azure.

auth.oauth2.scopes

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A list of scopes that will be requested during the oauth2 flow. It is optional for all providers.

auth.oauth2.token_url

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The endpoint that will be used to generate the tokens during the oauth2 flow. It is required if no provider is specified.

For azure provider either token_url or azure.tenant_id is required.

auth.oauth2.endpoint_params

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Set of values that will be sent on each request to the token_url. Each param key can have multiple values. Can be set for all providers except google.

- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  auth.oauth2:
    endpoint_params:
      Param1:
        - ValueA
        - ValueB
      Param2:
        - Value

auth.oauth2.azure.tenant_id

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Used for authentication when using azure provider. Since it is used in the process to generate the token_url, it can’t be used in combination with it. It is not required.

For information about where to find it, you can refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/howto-create-service-principal-portal.

auth.oauth2.azure.resource

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The accessed WebAPI resource when using azure provider. It is not required.

auth.oauth2.google.credentials_file

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The credentials file for Google.

Only one of the credentials settings can be set at once. If none is provided, loading default credentials from the environment will be attempted via ADC. For more information about how to provide Google credentials, please refer to https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication.

auth.oauth2.google.credentials_json

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Your credentials information as raw JSON.

Only one of the credentials settings can be set at once. If none is provided, loading default credentials from the environment will be attempted via ADC. For more information about how to provide Google credentials, please refer to https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication.

auth.oauth2.google.jwt_file

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The JWT Account Key file for Google.

Only one of the credentials settings can be set at once. If none is provided, loading default credentials from the environment will be attempted via ADC. For more information about how to provide Google credentials, please refer to https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication.

request.url

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The URL of the HTTP API. Required.

request.method

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HTTP method to use when making requests. GET or POST are the options. Default: GET.

request.encode_as

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ContentType used for encoding the request body. If set it will force the encoding in the specified format regardless of the Content-Type header value, otherwise it will honor it if possible or fallback to application/json. By default the requests are sent with Content-Type: application/json. Supported values: application/json and application/x-www-form-urlencoded. application/x-www-form-urlencoded will url encode the url.params and set them as the body. It is not set by default.

request.body

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An optional HTTP POST body. The configuration value must be an object, and it will be encoded to JSON. This is only valid when request.method is POST. Defaults to null (no HTTP body).

- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  request.method: POST
  request.body:
    query:
      bool:
        filter:
          term:
            type: authentication

request.timeout

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Duration before declaring that the HTTP client connection has timed out. Valid time units are ns, us, ms, s, m, h. Default: 30s.

request.ssl

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This specifies SSL/TLS configuration. If the ssl section is missing, the host’s CAs are used for HTTPS connections. See SSL for more information.

request.proxy_url

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This specifies proxy configuration in the form of http[s]://<user>:<password>@<server name/ip>:<port>

filebeat.inputs:
# Fetch your public IP every minute.
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  interval: 1m
  request.url: https://api.ipify.org/?format=json
  request.proxy_url: http://proxy.example:8080

request.retry.max_attempts

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The maximum number of retries for the HTTP client. Default: 5.

request.retry.wait_min

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The minimum time to wait before a retry is attempted. Default: 1s.

request.retry.wait_max

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The maximum time to wait before a retry is attempted. Default: 60s.

request.redirect.forward_headers

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When set to true request headers are forwarded in case of a redirect. Default: false.

request.redirect.headers_ban_list

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When redirect.forward_headers is set to true, all headers except the ones defined in this list will be forwarded. Default: [].

request.redirect.max_redirects

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The maximum number of redirects to follow for a request. Default: 10.

request.rate_limit.limit

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The value of the response that specifies the total limit. It is defined with a Go template value. Can read state from: [.last_response.header]

request.rate_limit.remaining

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The value of the response that specifies the remaining quota of the rate limit. It is defined with a Go template value. Can read state from: [.last_response.header]

request.rate_limit.reset

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The value of the response that specifies the epoch time when the rate limit will reset. It is defined with a Go template value. Can read state from: [.last_response.header]

request.transforms

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List of transforms to apply to the request before each execution.

Available transforms for request: [append, delete, set].

Can read state from: [.last_response.*, .last_event.*, .cursor.*].

Can write state to: [header.*, url.params.*, body.*].

filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  request.url: http://localhost:9200/_search?scroll=5m
  request.method: POST
  request.transforms:
    - set:
        target: body.from
        value: '[[now (parseDuration "-1h")]]'

response.decode_as

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ContentType used for decoding the response body. If set it will force the decoding in the specified format regardless of the Content-Type header value, otherwise it will honor it if possible or fallback to application/json. Supported values: application/json, application/x-ndjson. It is not set by default.

response.transforms

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List of transforms to apply to the response once it is received.

Available transforms for response: [append, delete, set].

Can read state from: [.last_response.*, .last_event.*, .cursor.*, .header.*, .url.*].

Can write state to: [body.*].

filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  request.url: http://localhost:9200/_search?scroll=5m
  request.method: POST
  response.transforms:
    - delete:
        target: body.very_confidential
  response.split:
    target: body.hits.hits
  response.pagination:
    - set:
        target: url.value
        value: http://localhost:9200/_search/scroll
    - set:
        target: url.params.scroll_id
        value: '[[.last_response.body._scroll_id]]'
    - set:
        target: body.scroll
        value: 5m

response.split

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Split operation to apply to the response once it is received. A split can convert a map, array, or string into multiple events.

response.split[].target

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Defines the target field upon the split operation will be performed.

response.split[].type

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Defines the field type of the target. Allowed values: array, map, string. string requires the use of the delimiter options to specify what characters to split the string on. delimiter always behaves as if keep_parent is set to true. Default: array.

response.split[].transforms

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A set of transforms can be defined. This list will be applied after response.transforms and after the object has been modified based on response.split[].keep_parent and response.split[].key_field.

Available transforms for response: [append, delete, set].

Can read state from: [.last_response.*, .first_event.*, .last_event.*, .cursor.*, .header.*, .url.*].

Can write state to: [body.*].

in this context, body.* will be the result of all the previous transformations.

response.split[].keep_parent

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If set to true, the fields from the parent document (at the same level as target) will be kept. Otherwise a new document will be created using target as the root. Default: false.

response.split[].delimiter

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Required if using split type of string. This is the sub string used to split the string. For example if delimiter was "\n" and the string was "line 1\nline 2", then the split would result in "line 1" and "line 2".

response.split[].key_field

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Valid when used with type: map. When not empty, defines a new field where the original key value will be stored.

response.split[].split

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Nested split operation. Split operations can be nested at will. An event won’t be created until the deepest split operation is applied.

response.request_body_on_pagination

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If set to true, the values in request.body are sent for pagination requests. Default: false.

response.pagination

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List of transforms that will be applied to the response to every new page request. All the transforms from request.transform will be executed and then response.pagination will be added to modify the next request as needed. For subsequent responses, the usual response.transforms and response.split will be executed normally.

Available transforms for pagination: [append, delete, set].

Can read state from: [.last_response.*, .first_event.*, .last_event.*, .cursor.*].

Can write state to: [body.*, header.*, url.*].

Examples using split:

  • We have a response with two nested arrays, and we want a document for each of the elements of the inner array:

    {
  "this": "is kept",
  "alerts": [
    {
      "this_is": "also kept",
      "entities": [
        {
          "something": "something"
        },
        {
          "else": "else"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "this_is": "also kept 2",
      "entities": [
        {
          "something": "something 2"
        },
        {
          "else": "else 2"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

    The config will look like:

    filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  interval: 1m
  request.url: https://example.com
  response.split:
    target: body.alerts
    type: array
    keep_parent: true
    split:
      # paths in nested splits need to represent the state of body, not only their current level of nesting
      target: body.alerts.entities
      type: array
      keep_parent: true

    This will output:

    [
  {
    "this": "is kept",
    "alerts": {
      "this_is": "also kept",
      "entities": {
        "something": "something"
      }
    }
  },
  {
    "this": "is kept",
    "alerts": {
      "this_is": "also kept",
      "entities": {
        "else": "else"
      }
    }
  },
  {
    "this": "is kept",
    "alerts": {
      "this_is": "also kept 2",
      "entities": {
        "something": "something 2"
      }
    }
  },
  {
    "this": "is kept",
    "alerts": {
      "this_is": "also kept 2",
      "entities": {
        "else": "else 2"
      }
    }
  }
]

  • We have a response with an array with two objects, and we want a document for each of the object keys while keeping the keys values:

    {
  "this": "is not kept",
  "alerts": [
    {
      "this_is": "kept",
      "entities": {
        "id1": {
          "something": "something"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "this_is": "kept 2",
      "entities": {
        "id2": {
          "something": "something 2"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

    The config will look like:

    filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  interval: 1m
  request.url: https://example.com
  response.split:
    target: body.alerts
    type: array
    keep_parent: false
    split:
      # this time alerts will not exist because previous keep_parent is false
      target: body.entities
      type: map
      keep_parent: true
      key_field: id

    This will output:

    [
  {
    "this_is": "kept",
    "entities": {
      "id": "id1",
      "something": "something"
    }
  },
  {
    "this_is": "kept 2",
    "entities": {
      "id": "id2",
      "something": "something 2"
    }
  }
]

  • We have a response with an array with two objects, and we want a document for each of the object keys while applying a transform to each:

    {
  "this": "is not kept",
  "alerts": [
    {
      "this_is": "also not kept",
      "entities": {
        "id1": {
          "something": "something"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "this_is": "also not kept",
      "entities": {
        "id2": {
          "something": "something 2"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

    The config will look like:

    filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  interval: 1m
  request.url: https://example.com
  response.split:
    target: body.alerts
    type: array
    split:
      transforms:
        - set:
            target: body.new
            value: will be added to each
      target: body.entities
      type: map

    This will output:

    [
  {
    "something": "something",
    "new": "will be added for each"
  },
  {
    "something": "something 2",
    "new": "will be added for each"
  }
]

  • We have a response with a keys whose value is a string. We want the string to be split on a delimiter and a document for each sub strings.

    {
  "this": "is kept",
  "lines": "Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3"
}

    The config will look like:

    filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  interval: 1m
  request.url: https://example.com
  response.split:
    target: body.lines
    type: string
    delimiter: "\n"

    This will output:

    [
  {
    "this": "is kept",
    "lines": "Line 1"
  },
  {
    "this": "is kept",
    "lines": "Line 2"
  },
  {
    "this": "is kept",
    "lines": "Line 3"
  }
]

cursor

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Cursor is a list of key value objects where arbitrary values are defined. The values are interpreted as value templates and a default template can be set. Cursor state is kept between input restarts and updated once all the events for a request are published.

Each cursor entry is formed by:

  • A value template, which will define the value to store when evaluated.
  • A default template, which will define the value to store when the value template fails or is empty.
  • An ignore_empty_value flag. When set to true, will not store empty values, preserving the previous one, if any. Default: true.

Can read state from: [.last_response.*, .first_event.*, .last_event.*].

Default templates do not have access to any state, only to functions.

filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  config_version: 2
  interval: 1m
  request.url: https://api.ipify.org/?format=json
  response.transforms:
    - set:
        target: body.last_requested_at
        value: '[[.cursor.last_requested_at]]'
        default: "[[now]]"
  cursor:
    last_requested_at:
      value: '[[now]]'
  processors:
    - decode_json_fields:
        fields: ["message"]
        target: "json"

api_key

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Deprecated, use request.transforms.

http_client_timeout

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Deprecated, use request.timeout.

http_headers

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Deprecated, use request.transforms.

http_method

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Deprecated, use request.method.

http_request_body

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Deprecated, use request.body.

json_objects_array

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Deprecated, use request.split.

split_events_by

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Deprecated, use request.split.

no_http_body

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Deprecated.

pagination.*

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Deprecated, use response.pagination.

rate_limit.*

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Deprecated, use request.rate_limit.*.

retry.*

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Deprecated, use request.retry.*.

ssl

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Deprecated, use request.ssl.

url

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Deprecated, use request.url.

oauth2.*

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Deprecated, use auth.oauth2.*.

Request life cycle

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Request lifecycle

  1. At every defined interval a new request is created.
  2. The request is transformed using the configured request.transforms.
  3. The resulting transformed request is executed.
  4. The server responds (here is where any retry or rate limit policy takes place when configured).
  5. The response is transformed using the configured response.transforms and response.split.
  6. Each resulting event is published to the output.
  7. If a response.pagination is configured and there are more pages, a new request is created using it, otherwise the process ends until the next interval.

Common options

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The following configuration options are supported by all inputs.

enabled
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Use the enabled option to enable and disable inputs. By default, enabled is set to true.

tags
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A list of tags that Filebeat includes in the tags field of each published event. Tags make it easy to select specific events in Kibana or apply conditional filtering in Logstash. These tags will be appended to the list of tags specified in the general configuration.

Example:

filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  . . .
  tags: ["json"]
fields
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Optional fields that you can specify to add additional information to the output. For example, you might add fields that you can use for filtering log data. Fields can be scalar values, arrays, dictionaries, or any nested combination of these. By default, the fields that you specify here will be grouped under a fields sub-dictionary in the output document. To store the custom fields as top-level fields, set the fields_under_root option to true. If a duplicate field is declared in the general configuration, then its value will be overwritten by the value declared here.

filebeat.inputs:
- type: httpjson
  . . .
  fields:
    app_id: query_engine_12
fields_under_root
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If this option is set to true, the custom fields are stored as top-level fields in the output document instead of being grouped under a fields sub-dictionary. If the custom field names conflict with other field names added by Filebeat, then the custom fields overwrite the other fields.

processors
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A list of processors to apply to the input data.

See Processors for information about specifying processors in your config.

pipeline
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The Ingest Node pipeline ID to set for the events generated by this input.

The pipeline ID can also be configured in the Elasticsearch output, but this option usually results in simpler configuration files. If the pipeline is configured both in the input and output, the option from the input is used.

keep_null
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If this option is set to true, fields with null values will be published in the output document. By default, keep_null is set to false.

index
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If present, this formatted string overrides the index for events from this input (for elasticsearch outputs), or sets the raw_index field of the event’s metadata (for other outputs). This string can only refer to the agent name and version and the event timestamp; for access to dynamic fields, use output.elasticsearch.index or a processor.

Example value: "%{[agent.name]}-myindex-%{+yyyy.MM.dd}" might expand to "filebeat-myindex-2019.11.01".

publisher_pipeline.disable_host
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By default, all events contain host.name. This option can be set to true to disable the addition of this field to all events. The default value is false.

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