jared-rimmer / dbt-metabase

Note: Currently only setup for use with Postgres

dbt-metabase is a dbt package that models the Metabase application database which contains detailed information about users, usage, questions and dashboards.

Inspired by this thread Metabase Metadata SQL

Development

Setup a virtual environment

We strongly recommend using virtual environments when developing code in dbt-metabase. We recommend creating this virtualenv in the root of the dbt-metabase repository.

To create a new virtualenv, run:

python3 -m venv env
source env/bin/activate

This will create and activate a new Python virtual environment.

Installing Dependencies

Using the terminal

After you have activated your virtual environment

pip install -r requirements.txt

Using the Makefile

make install-dependencies

Setup Environment

Using the Makefile (Recommended)

This option sets up Metabase, the Postgres DB and creates the schemas required using docker exec. You can do this yourself by looking at the code in the Makefile if you find it easier and/or don't have Make installed.

make setup-metabase

Using docker compose

docker-compose up -d database

docker ps -a --filter "name=database" --format "{{.ID}}"

# DATABASE_CONTAINER_ID is the output of the above docker ps command
docker exec -it <DATABASE_CONTAINER_ID> psql -U root dbt --command "CREATE DATABASE metabase";

docker-compose up -d metabase

Connecting to the docker-compose Postgres Database

make db-connect

Using docker compose

docker ps -a --filter "name=database"  --format "{{.ID}}"

# DATABASE_CONTAINER_ID is the output of the above docker ps command
docker exec -it <DATABASE_CONTAINER_ID> psql -U root dbt

Useful Postgres commands

\c metabase # connect to the metabase database
\x on # Turn expanded display on. Makes viewing easier when working in terminal
\dn # List schemas

Bringing down the Environment

Using the Makefile

make down

Using docker compose

docker-compose down

Running dbt locally

The Metabase Docker image will always build the Metabase internal database in the "public" schema of the "metabase" database in Postgres.

Therefore you will need to overide the metabase_schema var when running locally.

dbt run --select +metabase_download_activity --vars '{"metabase_schema": "public"}'