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:
"edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu:latest"."development_permits"or in a full query, like:
SELECT
":id", -- Socrata column ID
"location", -- The combination of the latitude column and longitude column values, used for mapping purposes.
"longitude", -- Vertical spatial coordinate. Where Land Parcel Count is greater than 1, the Longitude is the averaging of each Parcel longitude value.
"legal_description", -- Legal description for address where Development Permit was issued for.
"city_file_number", -- Unique generated identifier for the specific row.
"ward", -- City Ward
"neighbourhood_id", -- Unique City assigned number for the Neighbourhood
"neighbourhood_classification", -- City neighbourhood classification based on The Way We Grow ( Edmonton's Municipal Development Plan) Options are: Central Core, Developing, Established, Industrial, Mature, Planned, River Valley, Transportation Utility Corridor (TUC) www.edmonton.ca/growthcoordinationstrategy/
"address", -- Address that the Development Permit was issued for
"latitude", -- Horizontal spatial coordinate. Where Land Parcel Count is greater than 1, the Latitude is the averaging of each Parcel latitude value.
"permit_class", -- The class of the permit according to Edmonton's Zoning Bylaw (Section 12.3 and 12.4). Class A development meet the bylaw regulations. Class B development include a variance to the bylaw regulations and/or discretionary use and/or is a Direct Control Zone
"permit_date", -- Date when Development Permit was approved (if applicable)
"location_state",
"zoning", -- The zoning of the property according to Edmonton's Zoning Bylaw, which is a set rules for where new buildings should go, what types of buildings they can be and what activities and businesses can happen there, along with other requirements (eg. parking, landscaping) www.edmonton.ca/zoningbylaw/ or https://www.edmonton.ca/documents/What_is_Zoning_Final.pdf
"neighbourhood", -- City Neighbourhood name
"location_zip",
"land_parcel_count", -- The number of land parcels covered by the development permit. The count could represent active parcel(s), disposed parcel(s) or a combination of both.
"location_city",
"location_address",
"geometry_point",
"description_of_development", -- Description of the development from the application/permit
"status", -- Basic step of the the Development Permit process that the application is currently in. Steps include: In Progress, Approved, Refused, Appealed and Other (IE. cancelled, expired)
"permit_type", -- General type of development (based on application types)
":@computed_region_7ccj_gre3",
":@computed_region_eq8d_jmrp",
":@computed_region_mnf4_kaez",
":@computed_region_5jki_au6x",
":@computed_region_izdr_ja4x",
":@computed_region_ecxu_fw7u"
FROM
"edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu: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 edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu 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 edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu: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 edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtuCheckout 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 edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu:latestThis will download all the objects for the latest tag of edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu 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 edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu: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 edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu: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, edmonton-ca/development-permits-2ccn-pwtu is just another Postgres schema.