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 township_property_tax_rates_revenues table in this repository, by referencing it like:
"mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid:latest"."township_property_tax_rates_revenues"or in a full query, like:
SELECT
":id", -- Socrata column ID
":@computed_region_k5un_inmm", -- This column was automatically created in order to record in what polygon from the dataset 'Iowa House Districts' (k5un-inmm) the point in column 'location' is located. This enables the creation of region maps (choropleths) in the visualization canvas and data lens.
":@computed_region_6vzg_kjqr", -- This column was automatically created in order to record in what polygon from the dataset 'Iowa Senate Districts' (6vzg-kjqr) the point in column 'location' is located. This enables the creation of region maps (choropleths) in the visualization canvas and data lens.
":@computed_region_g8ff_h7ce", -- This column was automatically created in order to record in what polygon from the dataset 'Iowa Regional Zip Codes' (g8ff-h7ce) the point in column 'location' is located. This enables the creation of region maps (choropleths) in the visualization canvas and data lens.
":@computed_region_y683_txed", -- This column was automatically created in order to record in what polygon from the dataset 'County Boundaries of Iowa' (y683-txed) the point in column 'location' is located. This enables the creation of region maps (choropleths) in the visualization canvas and data lens.
"location", -- Geographic location of the township for mapping.
"total_rev_total", -- Budgeted revenue from all property tax levy rates
"ptax_rate_total", -- Property tax rate levied for the all allowable purposes
"total_rev_amb_3", -- Budgeted revenue from Ambulance 3 tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_amb_3", -- Property tax rate levied for the support of emergency medical service
"total_rev_amb_2", -- Budgeted revenue from Ambulance 2 tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_amb_2", -- Property tax rate levied for the support of emergency medical service
"total_rev_amb_1", -- Budgeted revenue from Ambulance 1 tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_amb_1", -- Property tax rate levied for the support of emergency medical service
"total_rev_fire_ems_3", -- Budgeted revenue from fire/EMS tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_fire_ems_3", -- Property tax rate levied for the support of fire and/or emergency medical service
"total_rev_fire_ems_2", -- Budgeted revenue from fire/EMS tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_fire_ems_2", -- Property tax rate levied for the support of fire and/or emergency medical service
"total_rev_fire_ems_1", -- Budgeted revenue from fire/EMS tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_fire_ems_1", -- Property tax rate levied for the support of fire and/or emergency medical service
"total_rev_tort", -- Budgeted revenue from tort liability tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_tort", -- Property tax rate levied for purchase and payment of tort liability insurance or payment of claims
"total_rev_litigation", -- Budgeted revenue from litigation tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_litigation", -- Property tax rate levied for funding of litigation not provided for by the County Attorney
"total_rev_library", -- Budgeted revenue from library tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_library", -- Property tax rate levied for the support of a public library
"total_rev_twp_hall_repairs", -- Budgeted revenue from township hall repairs tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_twp_hall_repairs", -- Property tax rate levied for the repair and maintenance of an existing township hall
"total_rev_twp_hall", -- Budgeted revenue from township hall construction/acquisition tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_twp_hall", -- Property tax rate levied for the construction or acquisition of a township hall
"total_rev_non_owned_cem", -- Budgeted revenue from support of non-owned cemetery tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_non_owned_cem", -- Property tax rate levied for the supprot of a non-township owned cemetery
"total_rev_owned_cem", -- Budgeted revenue from owned cemetery tax levy rate
"ptax_rate_owned_cem", -- Property tax rate levied for the owned cemetery maintenance purpose
"township_tax_district_name", -- Name of the section of the township being taxed
"twp_split_code", -- Levy authority code for taxing split within the township.
"twp_code", -- Code used for tracking data by township
"county_name", -- County in which the township resides
"fiscal_year", -- Fiscal year of data beginning July 1st
"line_id" -- Unique line identifier used for managing data.
FROM
"mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid:latest"."township_property_tax_rates_revenues"
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 mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid 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 mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid: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 mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwidCheckout 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 mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid:latestThis will download all the objects for the latest tag of mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid 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 mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid: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 mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid: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, mydata-iowa-gov/township-property-tax-rates-revenues-3fmf-xwid is just another Postgres schema.