Introducing Apache Superset- An Open Source Data Visualizaton Tool
Introduction:
In the world of Business Intelligence (B.I) there a lot of data visualization tools that help Data Analysts to perform multiple operations on the behavior of data. The most integral part of data visualization is to present the data in such a way that it can be easily understandable and interactive to non-technical professionals. There are multiple tools and techniques that help users to process, design and present data in ways to help people, businesses, and organizations to make better decisions. Whenever we talk about B.I tools, Microsoft Power B.I and Qlickview are among the top of the list. These tools are very effective in terms of their features and various actions. However, there are some neglected B.I tools that I found much effective on multiple use cases and that’s where Apache Superset comes into light. Apache Superset is an excellent B.I tool that has multiple analytical features that makes it unique from other B.I tools. So in this blog, I will demonstrate different features of Apache Superset and how it is different from other B.I tools.
Apache Superset:
Introduction:
Apache Superset (incubating) is a modern, enterprise-ready business intelligence web application. Note that Superset is an effort undergoing incubation at The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), sponsored by the Apache Incubator. Superset is a modern BI app with a simple interface, feature-rich when it comes to views, that allows the user to create and share dashboards. This app is simple and doesn’t require programming, and allows the user to explore, filter and organise data. The best part is… it’s Open Source! which helps the user to modify the application accordingly with his/her needs.
Superset provides an amazing set of features that helps the user to process every aspect of data efficiently.
What does Apache Superset provide?
Superset provides:
- An intuitive interface to explore and visualize datasets, and create interactive dashboards.
- A wide array of beautiful visualizations to showcase your data.
- Easy, code-free, user flows to drill down and slice and dice the data underlying exposed dashboards. The dashboards and charts acts as a starting point for deeper analysis.
- A state of the art SQL editor/IDE exposing a rich metadata browser, and an easy workflow to create visualizations out of any result set.
- An extensible, high granularity security model allowing intricate rules on who can access which product features and datasets. Integration with major authentication backends (database, OpenID, LDAP, OAuth, REMOTE_USER, …)
- A lightweight semantic layer, allowing to control how data sources are exposed to the user by defining dimensions and metrics
- Out of the box support for most SQL-speaking databases
- Deep integration with Apache Druid allows for Superset to stay blazing fast while slicing and dicing large, realtime datasets
- Fast loading dashboards with configurable caching
Unique Features:
Organise every graph of your dashboard: What is truly appealing about Apache Superset is the fact that you can explore each dashboard in a complex way. Superset allows you to focus on each graph/metric and easily filter and organise.(as shown below)
SQL editor: Another attractive feature of Superset is the SQL/IDE editor with interactive querying. You can run queries on the data you’re working on or fetch the desired columns you want through SQL Queries.
Permissions and Control over dashboard:Concerning security, Superset allows you to define a list of users and a list of default functionalities (associated with the groups of users) and allows you to view user statistics, providing you total control. You can establish baseline permissions, as well as granting access to certain views or menus. Superset also provides an action log so that you can keep track of the actions in the app.
More interactive for someone who knows SQL:Visually, Superset has a minimalist and well-organised interface. Even though it is not as easy to use as Tableau, Superset can be an alternative to creating dashboards or people with some knowledge of SQL.
Database Suppport:
Superset supports most SQL databases by using Python ORM (SQL Alchemy), which allows you to access MySQL, Postgres, Oracle, MS SQL Server, MariaDB, Sybase, Redshift and others.
A list of currently supported SQL databases can be found here.
Either you can import your data into superset or you can connect your desired database to Superset so that you can import tables directly from your db.
SQL-LAB:
This feature is definitely a plus. SQL-Lab allows you to select a database, schema and table (previously uploaded) and do an interactive query, preview the data and also save the query history (as shown below).
A semantic layer allows you to define fields and metrics (for example, ratios or anything expressed by SQL):
Security :
Superset integrates with the main authentication backends (database, OpenID, LDAP, OAuth, REMOTE_USE, …).
Concerning privileges, as stated above, this app provides default roles such as Admin (full access), Alpha Gamma, Sql_lab and Public.
It is possible to establish permissions for each user, restricting access to a subset of data sources, menus, views, specific metrics and other criteria. Hence, it is relatively easy to define which type of permission and/or access to data is granted to each person.
People Using Superset:
According to GitHub, Superset is currently being used by Airbnb, Twitter, GfK Data Lab, Yahoo!, Udemy and others.
It is important to note that “Superset was tested in large environments with hundreds of users. The production environment of Airbnb runs with Kubernetes and more than 600 active users who see more than 100 thousand graphs per day”.
Dashboard:
Visual representation of a Superset Dashboard.
I hope you understood the key features and advantages of Superset although I have discussed a few of them. There is alot more to explore in Superset, it is best to do it by configuiring it on your machine.
To configure Superset, you can check the procedure on my other blog that I have written.
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