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Captain Data Data Source

The Captain Data connector enables you to ingest B2B data extracted by Captain Data workflows—including professional profiles, company records, job results, and enriched prospect data—directly into Nexla data flows. Follow the instructions below to create a new data flow that ingests data from a Captain Data source in Nexla.
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Captain Data

Create a New Data Flow​

  1. To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Then, select the desired flow type from the list, and click the Create button.

  2. Select the Captain Data connector tile from the list of available connectors. Then, select the credential that will be used to connect to the Captain Data instance, and click Next; or, create a new Captain Data credential for use in this flow.

  3. In Nexla, Captain Data data sources can be created using pre-built endpoint templates, which expedite source setup for common Captain Data endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Captain Data endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.
    • To configure this source using a template, follow the instructions in Configure Using a Template.

    Captain Data sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to ingest data from Captain Data endpoints not included in the pre-built templates or apply further customizations to exactly suit your needs.
    • To configure this source manually, follow the instructions in Configure Manually.

Configure Using a Template​

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Captain Data endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Captain Data endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.

Endpoint Settings​

  • Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below. Click on an endpoint to see more information about it and how to configure your data source for this endpoint.

    Get Workspace

    Retrieves the current workspace information and details. Use this endpoint to fetch metadata about your Captain Data workspace, including configuration and usage details.

    This endpoint returns workspace-level metadata and is useful for validating credential configuration before setting up other Captain Data endpoints.

    List Workflows

    Returns a list of all workflows in the workspace. Use this endpoint to retrieve available Captain Data workflow definitions, including their configuration and status.

    Workflow records include workflow name, UID, and configuration. Workflow UIDs returned here can be used to scope job queries to specific workflows.

    List Jobs

    Returns a list of all jobs across workflows. Use this endpoint to retrieve the full job history for your Captain Data workspace, including both completed and failed runs.

    Job records include status, start time, end time, and result counts. Use this endpoint to monitor execution history across all workflows in your workspace.

    List Successful Jobs

    Returns a list of successfully completed jobs across workflows. Use this endpoint when you only need to process results from jobs that completed without errors.

    Job UIDs from this endpoint can be used with the Get Job Results endpoint to retrieve the actual data extracted by each successful job run.

    Get Job Results

    Retrieves the results data for a specific job. Use this endpoint to extract the B2B data (profiles, companies, or other records) produced by a completed Captain Data workflow job.

    • Issues a GET request to https://api.captaindata.co/v3/jobs/{job_uid}/results.
    • Response data is located at $.results[*]; use this path in the Path to Data field to extract individual result records.
    • Configure the following parameter: Job ID — the unique identifier (UID) of the job whose results you want to retrieve.

    Job UIDs can be found in the Captain Data UI under workflow run history, or retrieved programmatically using the List Jobs or List Successful Jobs endpoints. Use lookup-based macros to dynamically pass job UIDs from another Nexla source.

Endpoint Testing​

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current settings. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Configure Manually​

Captain Data sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to ingest data from any valid Captain Data API endpoint. Configuration options available for Captain Data sources allow them to be fully customized to suit any use case—including using chained API calls to fetch job results across multiple workflows or sources that require custom request parameters.

First, select the method that will be used for calls to the Captain Data API from the Method pulldown menu. The most common methods are:

  • GET: For retrieving data from the API, such as fetching workflow details, job results, or workspace information
  • POST: For triggering actions such as launching a workflow run

API Endpoint URL​

  1. Enter the URL of the Captain Data API endpoint from which this source will fetch data in the Set API URL field. The Captain Data API base URL is https://api.captaindata.co/v3. Common endpoint URLs include:

    • https://api.captaindata.co/v3/jobs/{'{job_uid}'}/results — Retrieve the results of a specific workflow job
    • https://api.captaindata.co/v3/workflows — List all workflows in your project
    • https://api.captaindata.co/v3/workspace — Retrieve workspace information

    Replace {'{job_uid}'} with the unique identifier of the job whose results you want to retrieve. Job UIDs are returned when a workflow is launched via the API or are visible in the Captain Data UI under your workflow run history. For complete endpoint reference, see the Captain Data API documentation.

Date/Time Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Optionally, the API URL can be customized using macros—all macros added to the API URL will be converted into values when Nexla executes the API call. Macros are dynamic placeholders that allow you to create flexible API endpoints that can adapt to different time periods or data requirements.

Macros are particularly useful for Captain Data endpoints that accept date range parameters, enabling you to automatically fetch job results or workflow runs within a specific time window on each ingestion cycle.

  1. To add a macro, type { at the appropriate position in the API URL (within the Set API URL field), and select the desired macro from the dropdown list.

    • {now} – The current datetime
    • {now-1} – The datetime one time unit before the current datetime
    • {now+1} – The datetime one time unit after the current datetime
    • custom – Datetime macros can reference any number of time units before or after the current datetime—for example, enter (now-4) to indicate the datetime four time units before the current datetime

  2. Select the format that will be applied to datetime macros from the Date Format for Date/Time Macro pulldown menu. This format will be applied to the base datetime value of the macro—i.e., the value of {now} in {now-1}.

  3. Select the datetime unit that will be used to perform mathematical operations in the included macro(s) from the Time Unit for Operations pulldown menu—for example, for the macro {now-1}, when Day is selected, {now-1} will be converted to the datetime one day before the current datetime.

Lookup-Based Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Column values from existing lookups can also be included as macros in the API URL. Lookup-based macros allow you to reference data from previously configured data sources or lookups, enabling dynamic API endpoints that can adapt based on existing data.

Lookup-based macros are useful when ingesting results from multiple Captain Data jobs. For example, you can build a source that automatically fetches job results for each job UID stored in a separate Nexla lookup, enabling batch retrieval of results across many workflow runs.

  1. To include a lookup column value macro, select the relevant lookup from the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

  2. Type { at the appropriate position in the API URL, and select the lookup column-based macro from the dropdown list. Lookup-based macros are automatically populated into the macro list when a lookup is selected in the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

Path to Data​

Optional

If only a subset of the data returned by the API endpoint is needed, you can designate the part(s) of the response that should be included in the Nexset(s) produced from this source by specifying the path to the relevant data within the response. Captain Data API responses typically wrap the actual data records in a nested structure alongside metadata like pagination information.

For example, when fetching job results from the Captain Data API, the response contains an array of result records nested under a data key. By specifying the path to this array, you configure Nexla to treat each element as an individual record.

Path to Data is essential for Captain Data responses, which return records nested inside a data array. Without specifying the correct path, Nexla will treat the entire response object (including pagination metadata) as a single record rather than parsing the individual data records.

  • To specify which data should be treated as relevant in responses from this source, enter the path to the relevant data in the Set Path to Data in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format enter the JSON path that points to the object or array that should be treated as relevant data. JSON paths use dot notation (e.g., $.data.items[*] to access an array of items within a data object).

    • For responses in XML format, enter the XPath that points to the object/array containing relevant data. XPath uses slash notation (e.g., /response/data/item to access item elements within a data element).

    Path to Data Example:

    The Captain Data jobs results endpoint (/v3/jobs/{'{job_uid}'}/results) returns a JSON response with a top-level array named data containing the individual result records. Enter the path as $.data[*] to extract each result record as a separate Nexla record.

Autogenerate Path Suggestions​

Nexla can also autogenerate data path suggestions based on the response from the API endpoint. These suggested paths can be used as-is or modified to exactly suit your needs.

  • To use this feature, click the Test button next to the Set API URL field to fetch a sample response from the API endpoint. Suggested data paths generated based on the content & format of the response will be displayed in the Suggestions box below the Set Path to Data in Response field.

  • Click on a suggestion to automatically populate the Set Path to Data in Response field with the corresponding path. The populated path can be modified directly within the field if further customization is needed.

    PathSuggestions.png

Metadata​

If metadata is included in the response but is located outside of the defined path to relevant data, you can configure Nexla to include this data as common metadata in each record. Captain Data API responses often include pagination metadata such as total result counts and page offsets alongside the main data array.

For example, the Captain Data jobs results response includes a pagination object with total, page, and per_page values alongside the data array. You can capture this pagination context as metadata attached to each result record.

Metadata paths are particularly useful for preserving API response context like total result counts, pagination details, or request timestamps that apply to all records in a Captain Data job results response.

  • To specify the location of metadata that should be included with each record, enter the path to the relevant metadata in the Path to Metadata in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format, enter the JSON path to the object or array that contains the metadata, and for responses in XML format, enter the XPath.

Request Headers​

Optional

  • If Nexla should include any additional request headers in API calls to this source, enter the headers & corresponding values as comma-separated pairs in the Request Headers field (e.g., header1:value1,header2:value2). Additional headers may be required for API versioning or content type specifications.

    You do not need to include the Authorization or x-project-id authentication headers here — these are handled automatically by Nexla using the values configured in your Captain Data credential.

Save & Activate the Source​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Captain Data data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.