WJb Docs - Intermediate

📥 Data Enrichment

Data enrichment is the pattern where an action loads or calculates additional information and passes the richer data to the next step.

Raw Input
   ↓
Enrichment Action
   ↓
Enriched Data
   ↓
Next Action

Basic Example

[ActionName("load-customer")]
public sealed class LoadCustomerAction : JobAction<OrderInput>
{
    public override async Task<IActionResult> ExecuteAsync(
        OrderInput input, CancellationToken ct)
    {
        var customer = await _customers.GetByIdAsync(input.CustomerId, ct);
return await NextAsync<ProcessOrderAction>(
            new ProcessOrderInput
            {
                OrderId = input.OrderId,
                Customer = customer,          // enriched data
                Items = input.Items
            });
    }
}

The next action receives both the original information and the newly loaded customer data.

Multi-step Enrichment

You can enrich data gradually:

Import raw records
      ↓
Enrich with customer info
      ↓
Enrich with pricing
      ↓
Process

Each action adds only what is needed for the following steps.

Example with External Service

public override async Task<IActionResult> ExecuteAsync(
    UserInput input, CancellationToken ct)
{
    var profile = await _externalApi.GetProfileAsync(input.UserId, ct);
    var preferences = await _preferences.GetAsync(input.UserId, ct);
return await NextAsync<SendPersonalizedEmailAction>(
        new EmailContext
        {
            UserId = input.UserId,
            Email = profile.Email,
            Name = profile.FullName,
            Preferences = preferences
        });
}

Best Practices

• Enrich only the data that the next actions actually need
• Keep payloads focused — do not pass the entire database entity if only a few fields are required
• Prefer small, purpose-built models for each step
• Handle missing data explicitly (throw or take a different path)
• Consider caching when enrichment calls are expensive

When to Use Data Enrichment

Use this pattern when:

• The initial payload contains only identifiers
• Later steps need additional details from a database or external service
• You want to keep early actions lightweight
• You need to transform or normalize data before processing

Key Point

Enrichment is just an action that loads extra information and passes a richer payload to the next action.

It keeps data flow explicit and makes each step self-contained.