Use Superset to query and visualize data

Use Apache Superset to query and visualize data stored in an InfluxDB database.

Apache Superset is a modern, enterprise-ready business intelligence web application. It is fast, lightweight, intuitive, and loaded with options that make it easy for users of all skill sets to explore and visualize their data, from simple pie charts to highly detailed deck.gl geospatial charts.

– Apache Superset documentation

• Set up Docker for Superset and Flight SQL
  • Install prerequisites for Superset and Flight SQL
  • Set up Docker for Superset
• Start the Superset Docker containers
• Log in to Superset
• Create a database connection for InfluxDB
• Query InfluxDB with Superset
• Build visualizations with Superset

Set up Docker for Superset and Flight SQL

Install prerequisites for Superset and Flight SQL

We recommend using Docker and docker-compose to run Superset. To set up Superset to run in Docker containers with Flight SQL, follow these steps:

1. Follow the instructions to download and install Docker and docker-compose for your system:

   • macOS: Install Docker for macOS
   • Linux: Install Docker for Linux

2. Follow the Python.org Downloading Python instructions for your system.

3. Once you’ve installed Python, check that you can run Python and Pip. Depending on your system, you may need to use the Python version 3 (python3 and pip3) commands. Enter the following commands into your terminal:

   python python3

   python --version
   

   pip --version
   

   python3 --version
   

   pip3 --version
   

   If neither pip nor pip3 works, follow one of the Pypa.io Pip Installation methods for your system.

4. Use Pip to install the flightsql-dbapi library.

   pip pip3

   pip install flightsql-dbapi
   

   pip3 install flightsql-dbapi
   

   The flightsql-dbapi library for Python provides a DB API 2 interface and SQLAlchemy dialect for Flight SQL. Later, you’ll add flightsql-dbapi to Superset’s Docker configuration.

   The flightsql-dbapi library is experimental and under active development. The APIs it provides could change at any time.

5. Use Git to clone the Apache Superset repository:

   git clone https://github.com/apache/superset.git
   

   The repository contains Superset code and configuration files for running Superset in Docker containers.

Set up Docker for Superset

1. Change to your superset repository directory:

   cd ./superset
   

2. In your text editor or terminal, create the file ./docker/requirements-local.txt and append the line flightsql-dbapi–for example:

   cat <<EOF >./docker/requirements-local.txt
   flightsql-dbapi
   EOF
   

   The ./docker/requirements-local.txt file is used to specify additional Python packages that Docker should include for Superset. For more information about Superset’s Docker configuration, see Getting Started with Superset using Docker.

3. Use the docker-compose pull command to fetch dependencies for the Docker containers.

   docker-compose -f docker-compose-non-dev.yml pull
   

   The process might take several seconds to complete. After it completes, you’re ready to Start the Superset Docker containers.

Start the Superset Docker containers

To start the containers and run Superset, enter the docker-compose up command and pass the -f flag with the setup file name:

docker-compose -f docker-compose-non-dev.yml up

This might take several seconds to complete.

If successful, the terminal contains output similar to the following:

superset_init         | Init Step 4/4 [Complete] -- Loading examples
superset_init         | 
superset_init         | 
superset_init         | ######################################################################
superset_init         | 
superset_init exited with code 0
superset_app          | 127.0.0.1 - - [24/Mar/2023:15:14:11 +0000] "GET /health HTTP/1.1" 200 2 "-" "curl/7.74.0"

With Superset running, you’re ready to log in and set up a database connection.

Log in to Superset

1. In a browser, visit localhost:8088 to log in to the Superset user interface (UI). If you configured Superset to use a custom domain, navigate to your custom domain.

2. If this is your first time logging into Superset, use the following username and password:

   • Username: admin
   • Password: admin

3. Optional: Create an admin user with a unique password.

   1. In the Superset UI, click Settings in the top right and select List Users.
   2. Click in the top right.
   3. Select the Admin role and provide the remaining credentials for the new user.
   4. Click Save.
   5. Delete the default admin users.

Create a database connection for InfluxDB

1. In the Superset UI, click Settings in the top right and select Database Connections.

2. Click + Database in the top right.

3. In the Connect a Database window, click on the Supported Databases drop-down menu and select Other.

   

4. Enter a Display Name (for example, InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated) for the database connection.

5. Enter your SQL Alchemy URI comprised of the following:

   • Protocol: datafusion+flightsql
   • Domain: InfluxDB Cloud dedicated cluster URL
   • Port: 443

   Query parameters

   • ?database: URL-encoded InfluxDB database name
   • ?token: InfluxDB API token with READ access to the specified database

   # Syntax
   datafusion+flightsql://<domain>:<port>?database=<database-name>&token=<token>
   
   # Example
   datafusion+flightsql://cluster-id.a.influxdb.io:443?database=example-database&token=example-token
   

6. Click Test Connection to ensure the connection works.

7. Click Connect to save the database connection.

Query InfluxDB with Superset

With a connection to InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated established, you can begin to query and visualize data from InfluxDB.

1. In the Superset UI, click SQL ▾ in the top navigation bar and select SQL Lab.

2. In the left pane:

   1. Under Database, select your InfluxDB connection.
   2. Under Schema, select iox.
   3. Under See table schema, select the InfluxDB measurement to query.

   The measurement schema appears in the left pane:

   

3. Use the query editor to write an SQL query that queries data in your InfluxDB database.

4. Click Run to execute the query.

Query results appear below the query editor.

Build visualizations with Superset

Use Superset to create visualizations and dashboards for InfluxDB queries. For a comprehensive walk-through of creating visualizations with Superset, see the Creating Charts and Dashboards in Superset documentation.