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Load GitHub Data to YugabyteDB with dlt in Python

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We will be using the dlt PostgreSQL destination to connect to YugabyteDB. You can get the connection string for your YugabyteDB database as described in the YugabyteDB Docs.

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This page provides technical documentation for loading data from GitHub to YugabyteDB using the open-source Python library dlt. This verified source allows you to import data on issues, pull requests, or events from any GitHub repository into a YugabyteDB destination. YugabyteDB is a distributed PostgreSQL database designed for modern applications, offering resilience, scalability, and flexible geo-distribution. By leveraging dlt, you can seamlessly integrate GitHub data into your YugabyteDB setup. For more details on the GitHub API, visit GitHub Documentation.

dlt Key Features​

  • Pipeline Metadata: dlt pipelines leverage metadata to provide governance capabilities. This metadata includes load IDs, which consist of a timestamp and pipeline name. Load IDs enable incremental transformations and data vaulting by tracking data loads and facilitating data lineage and traceability. Read more about lineage.
  • Schema Enforcement and Curation: dlt empowers users to enforce and curate schemas, ensuring data consistency and quality. Schemas define the structure of normalized data and guide the processing and loading of data. By adhering to predefined schemas, pipelines maintain data integrity and facilitate standardized data handling practices. Read more.
  • Scalability via Iterators, Chunking, and Parallelization: dlt offers scalable data extraction by leveraging iterators, chunking, and parallelization techniques. This approach allows for efficient processing of large datasets by breaking them down into manageable chunks. Learn more.
  • Implicit Extraction DAGs: dlt incorporates the concept of implicit extraction DAGs to handle the dependencies between data sources and their transformations automatically. This extraction DAG determines the optimal order for extracting the resources to ensure data consistency and integrity. Learn more.
  • Automated Maintenance: With schema inference and evolution and alerts, and with short declarative code, maintenance becomes simple. dlt provides a user-friendly, declarative interface that removes knowledge obstacles for beginners while empowering senior professionals. Getting started with dlt.

Getting started with your pipeline locally​

0. Prerequisites​

dlt requires Python 3.8 or higher. Additionally, you need to have the pip package manager installed, and we recommend using a virtual environment to manage your dependencies. You can learn more about preparing your computer for dlt in our installation reference.

1. Install dlt​

First you need to install the dlt library with the correct extras for YugabyteDB:

pip install "dlt[postgres]"

The dlt cli has a useful command to get you started with any combination of source and destination. For this example, we want to load data from GitHub to YugabyteDB. You can run the following commands to create a starting point for loading data from GitHub to YugabyteDB:

# create a new directory
mkdir github_pipeline
cd github_pipeline
# initialize a new pipeline with your source and destination
dlt init github postgres
# install the required dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

The last command will install the required dependencies for your pipeline. The dependencies are listed in the requirements.txt:

dlt[postgres]>=0.3.25

You now have the following folder structure in your project:

github_pipeline/
├── .dlt/
│   ├── config.toml          # configs for your pipeline
│   └── secrets.toml         # secrets for your pipeline
├── github/                   # folder with source specific files
│   └── ...
├── github_pipeline.py        # your main pipeline script
├── requirements.txt         # dependencies for your pipeline
└── .gitignore               # ignore files for git (not required)

2. Configuring your source and destination credentials​

The dlt cli will have created a .dlt directory in your project folder. This directory contains a config.toml file and a secrets.toml file that you can use to configure your pipeline. The automatically created version of these files look like this:

generated config.toml​

# put your configuration values here

[runtime]
log_level="WARNING"  # the system log level of dlt
# use the dlthub_telemetry setting to enable/disable anonymous usage data reporting, see https://dlthub.com/docs/telemetry
dlthub_telemetry = true

generated secrets.toml​

# put your secret values and credentials here. do not share this file and do not push it to github

[sources.github]
access_token = "access_token" # please set me up!

[destination.postgres]
dataset_name = "dataset_name" # please set me up!

[destination.postgres.credentials]
database = "database" # please set me up!
password = "password" # please set me up!
username = "username" # please set me up!
host = "host" # please set me up!
port = 5432
connect_timeout = 15

2.1. Adjust the generated code to your usecase​

Further help setting up your source and destinations
  • Read more about setting up the GitHub source in our docs.
  • Read more about setting up the YugabyteDB destination in our docs.

3. Running your pipeline for the first time​

The dlt cli has also created a main pipeline script for you at github_pipeline.py, as well as a folder github that contains additional python files for your source. These files are your local copies which you can modify to fit your needs. In some cases you may find that you only need to do small changes to your pipelines or add some configurations, in other cases these files can serve as a working starting point for your code, but will need to be adjusted to do what you need them to do.

The main pipeline script will look something like this:


import dlt

from github import github_reactions, github_repo_events, github_stargazers


def load_duckdb_repo_reactions_issues_only() -> None:
    """Loads issues, their comments and reactions for duckdb"""
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        "github_reactions",
        destination='postgres',
        dataset_name="duckdb_issues",
        full_refresh=True,
    )
    # get only 100 items (for issues and pull request)
    data = github_reactions(
        "duckdb", "duckdb", items_per_page=100, max_items=100
    ).with_resources("issues")
    print(pipeline.run(data))


def load_airflow_events() -> None:
    """Loads airflow events. Shows incremental loading. Forces anonymous access token"""
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        "github_events", destination='postgres', dataset_name="airflow_events"
    )
    data = github_repo_events("apache", "airflow", access_token="")
    print(pipeline.run(data))
    # if you uncomment this, it does not load the same events again
    # data = github_repo_events("apache", "airflow", access_token="")
    # print(pipeline.run(data))


def load_dlthub_dlt_all_data() -> None:
    """Loads all issues, pull requests and comments for dlthub dlt repo"""
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        "github_reactions",
        destination='postgres',
        dataset_name="dlthub_reactions",
        full_refresh=True,
    )
    data = github_reactions("dlt-hub", "dlt")
    print(pipeline.run(data))


def load_dlthub_dlt_stargazers() -> None:
    """Loads all stargazers for dlthub dlt repo"""
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        "github_staragarzers",
        destination='postgres',
        dataset_name="dlthub_staragarzers",
        full_refresh=True,
    )
    data = github_stargazers("dlt-hub", "dlt")
    print(pipeline.run(data))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    load_duckdb_repo_reactions_issues_only()
    load_airflow_events()
    load_dlthub_dlt_all_data()
    load_dlthub_dlt_stargazers()

Provided you have set up your credentials, you can run your pipeline like a regular python script with the following command:

python github_pipeline.py

4. Inspecting your load result​

You can now inspect the state of your pipeline with the dlt cli:

dlt pipeline github_events info

You can also use streamlit to inspect the contents of your YugabyteDB destination for this:

# install streamlit
pip install streamlit
# run the streamlit app for your pipeline with the dlt cli:
dlt pipeline github_events show

5. Next steps to get your pipeline running in production​

One of the beauties of dlt is, that we are just a plain Python library, so you can run your pipeline in any environment that supports Python >= 3.8. We have a couple of helpers and guides in our docs to get you there:

The Deploy section will show you how to deploy your pipeline to​

  • Deploy with Github Actions: Use GitHub Actions to automate your pipeline deployment. Follow the guide here.
  • Deploy with Airflow: Integrate your pipeline with Airflow and Google Composer for a managed workflow. Learn more here.
  • Deploy with Google Cloud Functions: Utilize Google Cloud Functions for serverless pipeline deployment. Check out the instructions here.
  • Explore other deployment options: Discover various other methods to deploy your pipeline by visiting this page.

The running in production section will teach you about:​

  • How to Monitor your pipeline: Learn how to effectively monitor your dlt pipeline in production to ensure smooth operations. Check the guide here.
  • Set up alerts: Configure alerts to stay informed about the status and performance of your dlt pipeline. Detailed instructions can be found here.
  • Set up tracing: Implement tracing to gain insights into the execution of your dlt pipeline, including timing and configuration details. Follow the steps here.

Available Sources and Resources​

For this verified source the following sources and resources are available

Source github_repo_events​

"GitHub repo events source provides data about activities and interactions within a repository."

Resource NameWrite DispositionDescription
repo_eventsappendRetrieves all the repository events associated with the GitHub repository. This includes information about the actor (user who triggered the event), organization, payload (specific details about the event), and the repository itself.

Additional pipeline guides​

This demo works on codespaces. Codespaces is a development environment available for free to anyone with a Github account. You'll be asked to fork the demo repository and from there the README guides you with further steps.
The demo uses the Continue VSCode extension.

Off to codespaces!

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