Preface
Metabase is a piece of analytics software that enables your entire organization to derive insights from your data. While analytics software has been around for some time, the offerings have tended to be quite expensive. Metabase, on the other hand, is open source and free. Because the free offering comes with no dedicated engineering support, non-technical users might struggle with getting everything up and running. That's why this book was written. No matter your technical background, this book will gently guide you through the process of hosting, running, setting up, and building out a robust analytics platform using Metabase.
You'll learn how to configure an environment on Amazon Web Services (AWS) that you can use to host a scalable and customizable instance of Metabase. Once it's deployed, you'll learn how to use your own subdomain for Metabase and set up an email server or use Google Sign-in to invite other users. You'll learn the best practices for connecting to databases, and even build your own database using some sample data specific to this book. You'll get to know Metabase through and through, learning how to curate your data model, create powerful charts, build beautiful dashboards, leverage your SQL skills, and schedule reports to go out via email or Slack.
Who this book is for
This book is for anyone interested in analytics and analytics software. Although it touches upon a wide range of technical subjects, from AWS and software deployment to database technologies and SQL, it is written for a beginner audience. People in analytics come from all backgrounds, and this book embraces that.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Overview of Metabase, provides an introduction to Metabase, its origin story, and how to install it locally or via Heroku.
Chapter 2, Hosting Metabase on AWS, takes a deep dive into AWS and teaches you the best practices on how to host Metabase on AWS using their Elastic Beanstalk service.
Chapter 3, Setting Up Metabase, shows the reader how to set up a subdomain, host Metabase over HTTPS, allow Metabase to send emails over an SMTP server, set up Google Sign-in, and connect Metabase to Slack.
Chapter 4, Connecting to Databases, explains all the major databases that Metabase works with, and shows the reader how to set up a PostgreSQL database on AWS with sample data.
Chapter 5, Building Your Data Model, showcases Metabase's powerful admin tools that allow you to curate layers of useful metadata on top of the data in your database.
Chapter 6, Creating Questions, shows the reader how to explore data in Metabase and answer questions with or without SQL.
Chapter 7, Creating Visualizations, teaches the reader about every kind of data visualization that can be made in Metabase.
Chapter 8, Building Dashboards, Pulses, and Collections, shows the reader how to create attractive dashboards and reports, while also learning how to keep everything in Metabase well organized.
Chapter 9, Using the SQL Console, gives opinionated advice on when and how to use SQL in Metabase such that it will benefit other non-technical users.
Chapter 10, Advanced Features, Getting Help, and Contributing, showcases some of Metabase's special features and introduces the reader to the Metabase community.
To get the most out of this book
You will need to sign up for a free AWS account to run Metabase. Many of the examples in this book also assume you own a web domain and can manage its DNS service.
If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code via the GitHub repository (link available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.
Also, Metabase is a constantly evolving project, while this book is not. You may see features and designs in the most recent version of Metabase that don't match what you see in this book, which was finished in September 2020.
Download the example code files
You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.
You can download the code files by following these steps:
- Log in or register at www.packt.com.
- Select the Support tab.
- Click on Code Downloads.
- Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.
Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:
- WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
- Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
- 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux
The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Metabase-Up-and-Running. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.
We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!
Download the color images
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://static.packt-cdn.com/downloads/9781800202313_ColorImages.pdf
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "The database username will be postgres."
A block of code is set as follows:
SELECT
id_order
, single_item_orders->>'id_menu' as id_menu
, single_item_orders->>'count' as item_count
FROM
(
SELECT
id_order
, json_array_elements(order_description) as
single_item_orders
FROM
orders
) each_order
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "The dataset is based on a fictional e-commerce business called Pickles and Pies."
Tips or important notes
Appear like this.
Get in touch
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