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Load Data from GitLab to DuckDB using dlt in Python

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Loading data from GitLab to DuckDB can simplify your data management tasks. GitLab is a web-based DevOps lifecycle tool that offers a Git repository manager with wiki, issue-tracking, and CI/CD pipeline features, all under an open-source license. DuckDB is a fast, in-process analytical database that supports a feature-rich SQL dialect and integrates deeply with client APIs. Using the open-source Python library dlt, you can efficiently transfer data from GitLab to DuckDB. This documentation will guide you through the steps to set up and execute this data pipeline. For more information about GitLab, visit here.

dlt Key Features

  • Automated maintenance: With schema inference and evolution and alerts, and with short declarative code, maintenance becomes simple. Learn more at Automated Maintenance.
  • Run it anywhere Python runs: On Airflow, serverless functions, notebooks. No external APIs, backends or containers, scales on micro and large infra alike. Explore more at Run it anywhere Python runs.
  • User-friendly interface: A declarative interface that removes knowledge obstacles for beginners while empowering senior professionals. Check it out at User-friendly interface.
  • Google Colab demo: Play with the simplest way to see dlt in action. Try it at Google Colab demo.
  • Community support: Join the dlt community on Slack, GitHub, and report problems or make feature requests. Get involved at Community support.

Getting started with your pipeline locally

OpenAPI Source Generator dlt-init-openapi

This walkthrough makes use of the dlt-init-openapi generator cli tool. You can read more about it here. The code generated by this tool uses the dlt rest_api verified source, docs for this are here.

0. Prerequisites

dlt and dlt-init-openapi requires Python 3.9 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 and dlt-init-openapi

First you need to install the dlt-init-openapi cli tool.

pip install dlt-init-openapi

The dlt-init-openapi cli is a powerful generator which you can use to turn any OpenAPI spec into a dlt source to ingest data from that api. The quality of the generator source is dependent on how well the API is designed and how accurate the OpenAPI spec you are using is. You may need to make tweaks to the generated code, you can learn more about this here.

# generate pipeline
# NOTE: add_limit adds a global limit, you can remove this later
# NOTE: you will need to select which endpoints to render, you
# can just hit Enter and all will be rendered.
dlt-init-openapi gitlab --url https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dlt-hub/openapi-specs/main/open_api_specs/Public/gitlab.yaml --global-limit 2
cd gitlab_pipeline
# install generated requirements
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>=0.4.12

You now have the following folder structure in your project:

gitlab_pipeline/
├── .dlt/
│ ├── config.toml # configs for your pipeline
│ └── secrets.toml # secrets for your pipeline
├── rest_api/ # The rest api verified source
│ └── ...
├── gitlab/
│ └── __init__.py # TODO: possibly tweak this file
├── gitlab_pipeline.py # your main pipeline script
├── requirements.txt # dependencies for your pipeline
└── .gitignore # ignore files for git (not required)

1.1. Tweak gitlab/__init__.py

This file contains the generated configuration of your rest_api. You can continue with the next steps and leave it as is, but you might want to come back here and make adjustments if you need your rest_api source set up in a different way. The generated file for the gitlab source will look like this:

Click to view full file (579 lines)

from typing import List

import dlt
from dlt.extract.source import DltResource
from rest_api import rest_api_source
from rest_api.typing import RESTAPIConfig


@dlt.source(name="gitlab_source", max_table_nesting=2)
def gitlab_source(
api_key: str = dlt.secrets.value,
base_url: str = dlt.config.value,
) -> List[DltResource]:

# source configuration
source_config: RESTAPIConfig = {
"client": {
"base_url": base_url,
"auth": {

"type": "api_key",
"api_key": api_key,
"name": "Private-Token",
"location": "header"

},
"paginator": {
"type":
"page_number",
"page_param":
"page",
"total_path":
"",
"maximum_page":
20,
},
},
"resources":
[
# Get the current appearance
{
"name": "get_api_v4_application_appearance",
"table_name": "api_entities_appearance",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/application/appearance",
}
},
# List all registered applications
{
"name": "get_api_v4_applications",
"table_name": "api_entities_application",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/applications",
}
},
# Return avatar url for a user
{
"name": "get_api_v4_avatar",
"table_name": "api_entities_avatar",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/avatar",
"params": {
"email": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "size": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 10.6.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_groups_id_badges_badge_id",
"table_name": "api_entities_badge",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/groups/{id}/badges/{badge_id}",
"params": {
"badge_id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_groups_id_badges",
"field": "id",
},
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 10.6.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_groups_id_badges",
"table_name": "api_entities_badge",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/groups/{id}/badges",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",
# "name": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 10.6.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_projects_id_badges_badge_id",
"table_name": "api_entities_badge",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/projects/{id}/badges/{badge_id}",
"params": {
"badge_id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_projects_id_badges",
"field": "id",
},
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 10.6.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_projects_id_badges",
"table_name": "api_entities_badge",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/projects/{id}/badges",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",
# "name": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 10.6.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_groups_id_badges_render",
"table_name": "api_entities_basic_badge_details",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/groups/{id}/badges/render",
"params": {
"id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_groups_id_badges",
"field": "id",
},
"link_url": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
"image_url": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 10.6.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_projects_id_badges_render",
"table_name": "api_entities_basic_badge_details",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/projects/{id}/badges/render",
"params": {
"id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_projects_id_badges",
"field": "id",
},
"link_url": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter
"image_url": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required query parameter

},
}
},
# Retrieve a batched background migration
{
"name": "get_api_v4_admin_batched_background_migrations_id",
"table_name": "api_entities_batched_background_migration",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/admin/batched_background_migrations/{id}",
"params": {
"id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_admin_batched_background_migrations",
"field": "id",
},
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "database": "main",

},
}
},
# Get the list of batched background migrations
{
"name": "get_api_v4_admin_batched_background_migrations",
"table_name": "api_entities_batched_background_migration",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/admin/batched_background_migrations",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "database": "main",

},
}
},
# Get a single repository branch
{
"name": "get_api_v4_projects_id_repository_branches_branch",
"table_name": "api_entities_branch",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/projects/{id}/repository/branches/{branch}",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
"branch": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# Get a project repository branches
{
"name": "get_api_v4_projects_id_repository_branches",
"table_name": "api_entities_branch",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/projects/{id}/repository/branches",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",
# "search": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "regex": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "sort": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "page_token": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 8.12.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_broadcast_messages_id",
"table_name": "api_entities_broadcast_message",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/broadcast_messages/{id}",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 8.12.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_broadcast_messages",
"table_name": "api_entities_broadcast_message",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/broadcast_messages",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 14.1.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_bulk_imports_import_id",
"table_name": "api_entities_bulk_import",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/bulk_imports/{import_id}",
"params": {
"import_id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_bulk_imports",
"field": "id",
},

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 14.1.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_bulk_imports",
"table_name": "api_entities_bulk_import",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/bulk_imports",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",
# "sort": "desc",
# "status": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 14.1.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_bulk_imports_import_id_entities_entity_id",
"table_name": "api_entities_bulk_imports",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/bulk_imports/{import_id}/entities/{entity_id}",
"params": {
"entity_id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_bulk_imports_import_id_entities",
"field": "id",
},
"import_id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 14.1.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_bulk_imports_import_id_entities",
"table_name": "api_entities_bulk_imports",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/bulk_imports/{import_id}/entities",
"params": {
"import_id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_bulk_imports",
"field": "id",
},
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "status": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",
# "per_page": "20",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 14.1.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_bulk_imports_entities",
"table_name": "api_entities_bulk_imports",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/bulk_imports/entities",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",
# "sort": "desc",
# "status": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
# Get the details of a specific instance-level variable
{
"name": "get_api_v4_admin_ci_variables_key",
"table_name": "api_entities_ci_variable",
"primary_key": "key",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/admin/ci/variables/{key}",
"params": {
"key": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# List all instance-level variables
{
"name": "get_api_v4_admin_ci_variables",
"table_name": "api_entities_ci_variable",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/admin/ci/variables",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 13.2. Returns a single instance cluster.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_admin_clusters_cluster_id",
"table_name": "api_entities_cluster",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/admin/clusters/{cluster_id}",
"params": {
"cluster_id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "get_api_v4_admin_clusters",
"field": "id",
},

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 13.2. Returns a list of instance clusters.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_admin_clusters",
"table_name": "api_entities_cluster",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/admin/clusters",
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 8.11.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_groups_id_access_requests",
"table_name": "api_entities_custom_attribute",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "custom_attributes",
"path": "/groups/{id}/access_requests",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 8.11.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_projects_id_access_requests",
"table_name": "api_entities_custom_attribute",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "custom_attributes",
"path": "/projects/{id}/access_requests",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "per_page": "20",

},
}
},
# Retrieve dictionary details
{
"name": "get_api_v4_admin_databases_database_name_dictionary_tables_table_name",
"table_name": "api_entities_dictionary_table",
"primary_key": "table_name",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/admin/databases/{database_name}/dictionary/tables/{table_name}",
"params": {
"database_name": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
"table_name": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
{
"name": "list_project_jobs",
"table_name": "api_entities_job",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/projects/{id}/jobs",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "scope": "OPTIONAL_CONFIG",

},
}
},
{
"name": "get_single_job",
"table_name": "api_entities_job",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/projects/{id}/jobs/{job_id}",
"params": {
"job_id": {
"type": "resolve",
"resource": "list_project_jobs",
"field": "id",
},
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 15.2.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_metadata",
"table_name": "api_entities_metadata",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/metadata",
}
},
# This feature was introduced in GitLab 8.13 and deprecated in 15.5. We recommend you instead use the Metadata API.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_version",
"table_name": "api_entities_metadata",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/version",
}
},
# Metric Images for alert
{
"name": "get_api_v4_projects_id_alert_management_alerts_alert_iid_metric_images",
"table_name": "api_entities_metric_image",
"primary_key": "id",
"write_disposition": "merge",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/projects/{id}/alert_management_alerts/{alert_iid}/metric_images",
"params": {
"id": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter
"alert_iid": "FILL_ME_IN", # TODO: fill in required path parameter

},
}
},
# List the current limits of a plan on the GitLab instance.
{
"name": "get_api_v4_application_plan_limits",
"table_name": "api_entities_plan_limit",
"endpoint": {
"data_selector": "$",
"path": "/application/plan_limits",
"params": {
# the parameters below can optionally be configured
# "plan_name": "default",

},
}
},
]
}

return rest_api_source(source_config)

2. Configuring your source and destination credentials

info

dlt-init-openapi will try to detect which authentication mechanism (if any) is used by the API in question and add a placeholder in your secrets.toml.

  • If you know your API needs authentication, but none was detected, you can learn more about adding authentication to the rest_api here.
  • OAuth detection currently is not supported, but you can supply your own authentication mechanism as outlined here.

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


[runtime]
log_level="INFO"

[sources.gitlab]
# Base URL for the API
base_url = "https://www.gitlab.com/api/v4"

generated secrets.toml


[sources.gitlab]
# secrets for your gitlab source
api_key = "FILL ME OUT" # TODO: fill in your credentials

2.1. Adjust the generated code to your usecase

Further help setting up your source and destinations

At this time, the dlt-init-openapi cli tool will always create pipelines that load to a local duckdb instance. Switching to a different destination is trivial, all you need to do is change the destination parameter in gitlab_pipeline.py to duckdb and supply the credentials as outlined in the destination doc linked below.

  • Read more about setting up the rest_api source in our docs.
  • Read more about setting up the DuckDB 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 gitlab_pipeline.py, as well as a folder gitlab 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 gitlab import gitlab_source


if __name__ == "__main__":
pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
pipeline_name="gitlab_pipeline",
destination='duckdb',
dataset_name="gitlab_data",
progress="log",
export_schema_path="schemas/export"
)
source = gitlab_source()
info = pipeline.run(source)
print(info)

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

python gitlab_pipeline.py

4. Inspecting your load result

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

dlt pipeline gitlab_pipeline info

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

# install streamlit
pip install streamlit
# run the streamlit app for your pipeline with the dlt cli:
dlt pipeline gitlab_pipeline 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: Automate your pipeline deployment using GitHub Actions.
  • Deploy with Airflow and Google Composer: Use Airflow for a managed deployment environment.
  • Deploy with Google Cloud Functions: Learn how to deploy using Google Cloud Functions.
  • Explore other deployment options: Check out other deployment methods available for dlt.

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 and efficient operation. Read more
  • Set up alerts: Implement alerts to get notified about critical events and issues in your dlt pipeline, ensuring timely intervention and resolution. Read more
  • Set up tracing: Enable tracing to get detailed insights into the execution of your dlt pipeline, helping you diagnose and resolve issues quickly. Read more

Available Sources and Resources

For this verified source the following sources and resources are available

Source GitLab

Loads various GitLab API data including badges, clusters, jobs, and metadata.

Resource NameWrite DispositionDescription
api_entities_badgeappendRepresents badges associated with GitLab entities.
api_entities_basic_badge_detailsappendContains basic details about badges in GitLab.
api_entities_batched_background_migrationappendInformation about batched background migrations.
api_entities_clusterappendDetails about clusters in GitLab.
api_entities_dictionary_tableappendRepresents dictionary tables used in GitLab.
api_entities_metric_imageappendStores metric images used in GitLab.
api_entities_broadcast_messageappendBroadcast messages sent within GitLab.
api_entities_avatarappendInformation about avatars in GitLab.
api_entities_plan_limitappendLimits associated with different plans in GitLab.
api_entities_custom_attributeappendCustom attributes assigned to GitLab entities.
api_entities_jobappendDetails about jobs executed in GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
api_entities_metadataappendMetadata related to various GitLab entities.
api_entities_applicationappendInformation about applications integrated with GitLab.
api_entities_branchappendDetails about branches in Git repositories managed by GitLab.
api_entities_appearanceappendAppearance settings and customizations in GitLab.
api_entities_bulk_importsappendInformation about bulk imports executed in GitLab.
api_entities_ci_variableappendCI/CD variables used in GitLab pipelines.
api_entities_bulk_importappendDetails about individual bulk import operations in GitLab.

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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