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Loading Data from mux to clickhouse using Python dlt Library

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This documentation provides a technical guide on how to load data from Mux to ClickHouse using the open-source Python library, dlt. Mux is a robust solution that simplifies the complex tasks faced by software teams when building video platforms, ranging from live-streaming to on-demand video catalogs. On the other hand, ClickHouse is a high-speed, open-source, column-oriented database management system that enables real-time generation of analytical data reports using SQL queries. Leveraging dlt, users can efficiently transfer data from Mux to ClickHouse. For more information about Mux, visit https://www.mux.com/.

dlt Key Features​

  • Pipeline Metadata: dlt pipelines leverage metadata to provide robust 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. Read more: Adjust a schema docs.

  • Schema evolution: dlt enables proactive governance by alerting users to schema changes. When modifications occur in the source data’s schema, such as table or column alterations, dlt notifies stakeholders, allowing them to take necessary actions. Read more about schema evolution.

  • 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. Read more about scalability.

  • 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. Read more about implicit extraction DAGs.

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 ClickHouse:

pip install "dlt[clickhouse]"

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

# create a new directory
mkdir mux_pipeline
cd mux_pipeline
# initialize a new pipeline with your source and destination
dlt init mux clickhouse
# 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[clickhouse]>=0.3.5

You now have the following folder structure in your project:

mux_pipeline/
├── .dlt/
│   ├── config.toml          # configs for your pipeline
│   └── secrets.toml         # secrets for your pipeline
├── mux/                   # folder with source specific files
│   └── ...
├── mux_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.mux]
mux_api_access_token = "mux_api_access_token" # please set me up!
mux_api_secret_key = "mux_api_secret_key" # please set me up!

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

[destination.clickhouse.credentials]
database = "default"
password = "password" # please set me up!
username = "default"
host = "host" # please set me up!
port = 9440
http_port = 8443

2.1. Adjust the generated code to your usecase​

Further help setting up your source and destinations
  • Read more about setting up the Mux source in our docs.
  • Read more about setting up the ClickHouse 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 mux_pipeline.py, as well as a folder mux 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 mux import mux_source


def load_yesterday_video_views() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="mux", destination='clickhouse', dataset_name="mux_data"
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(mux_source())
    print(load_info)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    load_yesterday_video_views()

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

python mux_pipeline.py

4. Inspecting your load result​

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

dlt pipeline mux info

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

# install streamlit
pip install streamlit
# run the streamlit app for your pipeline with the dlt cli:
dlt pipeline mux 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 provides a simple way to deploy your pipelines using Github Actions. You can specify the schedule for the Github Action to run using a cron schedule expression.
  • Deploy with Airflow: You can also deploy your dlt pipelines using Airflow. This guide provides step by step instructions on how to deploy a pipeline with Airflow and Google Composer.
  • Deploy with Google Cloud Functions: dlt also supports deployment with Google Cloud Functions. This guide will walk you through the steps needed to deploy your pipeline with Google Cloud Functions.
  • Other Deployment Options: For more ways to deploy your dlt pipelines, you can check out the other guides available here.

The running in production section will teach you about:​

  • Monitor your Pipeline: dlt provides a comprehensive way to monitor your data pipeline in production. It offers various tools and techniques to keep track of your pipeline's performance and status. Learn more about it here.
  • Set Up Alerts: With dlt, you can set up alerts to notify you of any significant events or issues that occur in your pipeline. This feature ensures that you are always aware of the state of your pipeline and can take immediate action if necessary. Check out the guide on setting up alerts here.
  • Set Up Tracing: dlt also offers a tracing feature that allows you to track the execution of your pipeline. This feature is particularly useful for debugging and optimizing your pipeline. Learn more about setting up tracing here.

Available Sources and Resources​

For this verified source the following sources and resources are available

Source mux_source​

"Mux_source" provides data on video content and viewing metrics from the Mux platform.

Resource NameWrite DispositionDescription
assets_resourcemergeFetches metadata about video assets from the Mux API's "assets" endpoint
views_resourceappendFetches data about every video view from yesterday from the Mux API

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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