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Python Guide: Load HubSpot CRM Data to DuckDB with dlt Library

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Welcome to our technical documentation on data loading from hubspot to duckdb using the open-source Python library dlt. hubspot is a CRM software and inbound marketing platform that assists businesses in attracting visitors, engaging customers, and closing leads. On the other hand, duckdb is a quick in-process analytical database, supporting a feature-rich SQL dialect with deep integrations into client APIs. This guide will provide you with detailed instructions on how to utilize dlt to efficiently transfer data from hubspot to duckdb. For more information on hubspot, please visit HubSpot.

dlt Key Features​

  • Easy to get started: dlt is a Python library that is easy to use and understand. It is designed to be simple to use and easy to understand. Type pip install dlt and you are ready to go. Get started here
  • Tutorial: Learn how to efficiently use dlt to build a data pipeline with a step-by-step guide. This tutorial covers topics like fetching data from the GitHub API, understanding and managing data loading behaviors, incrementally loading new data and deduplicating existing data, and more. Follow the tutorial
  • DuckDB Destination: dlt supports DuckDB as a destination. Learn how to install dlt with DuckDB dependencies, initialize a project with a pipeline that loads to DuckDB, and understand the supported file formats and column hints. Learn more about DuckDB
  • Add a Verified Source: dlt provides a command dlt init that helps you to deploy a verified source. You can deploy from a branch of the verified-sources repo or from another repo. Learn more about adding a verified source
  • Community Support: If you need help deploying these sources, or figuring out how to run them in your data stack, you can join the Slack community or book a call with the support engineer Adrian. Join the community or Book a call

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 DuckDB:

pip install "dlt[duckdb]"

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 HubSpot to DuckDB. You can run the following commands to create a starting point for loading data from HubSpot to DuckDB:

# create a new directory
mkdir hubspot_pipeline
cd hubspot_pipeline
# initialize a new pipeline with your source and destination
dlt init hubspot duckdb
# 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[duckdb]>=0.3.25

You now have the following folder structure in your project:

hubspot_pipeline/
├── .dlt/
│   ├── config.toml          # configs for your pipeline
│   └── secrets.toml         # secrets for your pipeline
├── hubspot/                   # folder with source specific files
│   └── ...
├── hubspot_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.hubspot]
api_key = "api_key" # please set me up!

2.1. Adjust the generated code to your usecase​

Further help setting up your source and destinations
  • Read more about setting up the HubSpot 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 hubspot_pipeline.py, as well as a folder hubspot 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:


from typing import List
import dlt

from hubspot import hubspot, hubspot_events_for_objects, THubspotObjectType


def load_crm_data() -> None:
    """
    This function loads all resources from HubSpot CRM

    Returns:
        None
    """

    # Create a DLT pipeline object with the pipeline name, dataset name, and destination database type
    # Add full_refresh=(True or False) if you need your pipeline to create the dataset in your destination
    p = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="hubspot",
        dataset_name="hubspot_dataset",
        destination='duckdb',
    )

    # Run the pipeline with the HubSpot source connector
    info = p.run(hubspot())

    # Print information about the pipeline run
    print(info)


def load_crm_data_with_history() -> None:
    """
    Loads all HubSpot CRM resources and property change history for each entity.
    The history entries are loaded to a tables per resource `{resource_name}_property_history`, e.g. `contacts_property_history`

    Returns:
        None
    """

    # Create a DLT pipeline object with the pipeline name, dataset name, and destination database type
    # Add full_refresh=(True or False) if you need your pipeline to create the dataset in your destination
    p = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="hubspot",
        dataset_name="hubspot_dataset",
        destination='duckdb',
    )

    # Configure the source with `include_history` to enable property history load, history is disabled by default
    data = hubspot(include_history=True)

    # Run the pipeline with the HubSpot source connector
    info = p.run(data)

    # Print information about the pipeline run
    print(info)


def load_crm_objects_with_custom_properties() -> None:
    """
    Loads CRM objects, reading only properties defined by the user.
    """

    # Create a DLT pipeline object with the pipeline name,
    # dataset name, properties to read and destination database
    # type Add full_refresh=(True or False) if you need your
    # pipeline to create the dataset in your destination
    p = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="hubspot",
        dataset_name="hubspot_dataset",
        destination='duckdb',
    )

    source = hubspot()

    # By default, all the custom properties of a CRM object are extracted,
    # ignoring those driven by Hubspot (prefixed with `hs_`).

    # To read fields in addition to the custom ones:
    # source.contacts.bind(props=["date_of_birth", "degree"])

    # To read only two particular fields:
    source.contacts.bind(props=["date_of_birth", "degree"], include_custom_props=False)

    # Run the pipeline with the HubSpot source connector
    info = p.run(source)

    # Print information about the pipeline run
    print(info)


def load_web_analytics_events(
    object_type: THubspotObjectType, object_ids: List[str]
) -> None:
    """
    This function loads web analytics events for a list objects in `object_ids` of type `object_type`

    Returns:
        None
    """

    # Create a DLT pipeline object with the pipeline name, dataset name, and destination database type
    p = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="hubspot",
        dataset_name="hubspot_dataset",
        destination='duckdb',
        full_refresh=False,
    )

    # you can get many resources by calling this function for various object types
    resource = hubspot_events_for_objects(object_type, object_ids)
    # and load them together passing resources in the list
    info = p.run([resource])

    # Print information about the pipeline run
    print(info)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Call the functions to load HubSpot data into the database with and without company events enabled
    load_crm_data()
    load_crm_data_with_history()
    load_web_analytics_events("company", ["7086461639", "7086464459"])
    load_crm_objects_with_custom_properties()

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

python hubspot_pipeline.py

4. Inspecting your load result​

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

dlt pipeline hubspot 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 hubspot 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: dlt allows you to deploy your pipelines using Github Actions. This is a CI/CD runner that you can use for free.
  • Deploy with Airflow: You can also deploy your dlt pipelines with Airflow, a platform designed to programmatically author, schedule and monitor workflows.
  • Deploy with Google Cloud Functions: dlt provides a way to deploy your pipelines using Google Cloud Functions, a serverless execution environment for building and connecting cloud services.
  • More Deployment Options: There are many other ways to deploy your dlt pipelines. Check out the deployment guide to explore more options.

The running in production section will teach you about:​

  • Monitor Your Pipeline: dlt allows you to inspect and save load info and trace, as well as inspect, save, and alert on schema changes. For more details, check out the guide on How to Monitor your pipeline.
  • Set Up Alerts: With dlt, you can easily set up alerts to keep track of your pipeline's performance and status. Learn more about it in the guide on Setting up alerts.
  • Set Up Tracing: dlt also provides the capability to set up tracing, which can be extremely useful for debugging and performance optimization. Find more information in the guide on Setting up tracing.

Available Sources and Resources​

For this verified source the following sources and resources are available

Source hubspot​

Hubspot source provides data on companies, contacts, deals, and customer service tickets.

Resource NameWrite DispositionDescription
companiesreplaceInformation about organizations
contactsreplaceVisitors, potential customers, leads
dealsreplaceDeal records, deal tracking
productsreplacePricing information of a product
quotesreplacePrice proposals that salespeople can create and send to their contacts
ticketsreplaceRequest for help from customers or users

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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