Query the Data Delivery Network
Query the DDNThe easiest way to query any data on Splitgraph is via the "Data Delivery Network" (DDN). The DDN is a single endpoint that speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol. Any Splitgraph user can connect to it at data.splitgraph.com:5432 and query any version of over 40,000 datasets that are hosted or proxied by Splitgraph.
For example, you can query the development_permits table in this repository, by referencing it like:
"calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5:latest"."development_permits"or in a full query, like:
SELECT
":id", -- Socrata column ID
"locationaddresses", -- The addresses of the locations associated with the permit
"longitude", -- The longitude of the permit location
"communitycode", -- The Calgary community code where the permit is located
"sdabdecisiondate", -- Date of the formal decision by the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board
"sdabdecision", -- Decision of the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board
"canceledrefuseddate", -- Date the application was canceled or refused.
"releasedate", -- Date the application was released.
"statuscurrent", -- Current status of the application
"landusedistrictdescription", -- Description of land use district at time of application, semicolon-separated if there are multiple land uses.
"proposedusedescription", -- Description of the proposed use, semicolon-separated if there are multiple proposed uses.
"description", -- Description of development permit
"applicant", -- The applicant for the permit
"address", -- The property address associated with the application
"locationcount", -- The number of locations associated with the permit
"latitude", -- The latitude of the permit location
"communityname", -- The Calgary community name where the permit is located
"sdabnumber", -- File number of the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board
"mustcommencedate", -- For released applications, the date by which development must commence.
"decisiondate", -- Date the decision was made.
"applieddate", -- Date the application was made.
"concurrent_loc", -- A land use redesignation application has been submitted concurrently
"landusedistrict", -- Land use district at time of application, semicolon-separated if there are multiple land uses.
"proposedusecode", -- The code of the proposed use in the application, semicolon-separated if there are multiple proposed uses.
"category", -- Type of development permit
"sdabhearingdate", -- Date of the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board hearing
"permitnum", -- Unique permit identification number
"locationtypes", -- The types of locations associated with the permit
"ward", -- The Calgary electoral ward where the permit is located
"locationswkt", -- The latitudes and longitudes of the locations associated with the permit in Well-Known Text format
"locationsgeojson", -- The latitudes and longitudes of the locations associated with the permit in GeoJSON format
"quadrant", -- The Calgary quadrant where the permit is located
"point", -- The location of the permit
"permitteddiscretionary", -- Is the proposed use permitted or discretionary?
"decisionby", -- Development Authority or Calgary Planning Commission
"decision", -- Decision on this application
":@computed_region_xxr9_iwz2",
":@computed_region_kxmf_bzkv",
":@computed_region_4b54_tmc4",
":@computed_region_p8tp_5dkv",
":@computed_region_4a3i_ccfj"
FROM
"calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5:latest"."development_permits"
LIMIT 100;Connecting to the DDN is easy. All you need is an existing SQL client that can connect to Postgres. As long as you have a SQL client ready, you'll be able to query calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5 with SQL in under 60 seconds.
Query Your Local Engine
bash -c "$(curl -sL https://github.com/splitgraph/splitgraph/releases/latest/download/install.sh)"Read the installation docs.
Splitgraph Cloud is built around Splitgraph Core (GitHub), which includes a local Splitgraph Engine packaged as a Docker image. Splitgraph Cloud is basically a scaled-up version of that local Engine. When you query the Data Delivery Network or the REST API, we mount the relevant datasets in an Engine on our servers and execute your query on it.
It's possible to run this engine locally. You'll need a Mac, Windows or Linux system to install sgr, and a Docker installation to run the engine. You don't need to know how to actually use Docker; sgrcan manage the image, container and volume for you.
There are a few ways to ingest data into the local engine.
For external repositories, the Splitgraph Engine can "mount" upstream data sources by using sgr mount. This feature is built around Postgres Foreign Data Wrappers (FDW). You can write custom "mount handlers" for any upstream data source. For an example, we blogged about making a custom mount handler for HackerNews stories.
For hosted datasets (like this repository), where the author has pushed Splitgraph Images to the repository, you can "clone" and/or "checkout" the data using sgr cloneand sgr checkout.
Cloning Data
Because calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5:latest is a Splitgraph Image, you can clone the data from Spltgraph Cloud to your local engine, where you can query it like any other Postgres database, using any of your existing tools.
First, install Splitgraph if you haven't already.
Clone the metadata with sgr clone
This will be quick, and does not download the actual data.
sgr clone calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5Checkout the data
Once you've cloned the data, you need to "checkout" the tag that you want. For example, to checkout the latest tag:
sgr checkout calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5:latestThis will download all the objects for the latest tag of calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5 and load them into the Splitgraph Engine. Depending on your connection speed and the size of the data, you will need to wait for the checkout to complete. Once it's complete, you will be able to query the data like you would any other Postgres database.
Alternatively, use "layered checkout" to avoid downloading all the data
The data in calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5:latest is 0 bytes. If this is too big to download all at once, or perhaps you only need to query a subset of it, you can use a layered checkout.:
sgr checkout --layered calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5:latestThis will not download all the data, but it will create a schema comprised of foreign tables, that you can query as you would any other data. Splitgraph will lazily download the required objects as you query the data. In some cases, this might be faster or more efficient than a regular checkout.
Read the layered querying documentation to learn about when and why you might want to use layered queries.
Query the data with your existing tools
Once you've loaded the data into your local Splitgraph Engine, you can query it with any of your existing tools. As far as they're concerned, calgary-ca/development-permits-6933-unw5 is just another Postgres schema.