Note

This documentation is for a prior release of Kinetica. For the latest documentation, click here.

Explore

The Explore interface is situated in the right-hand pane of Kinetica's Workbench administration application. It can be used to import data into the database from a variety of sources.

Explore Landing Page

To access the Explore page, in Workbench, click the Explore menu item. This will open the list of your workbooks in the right-hand pane, as well as a button for creating a new workbook. Additionally, at the top, are several action buttons:

Action	Description
Refresh Examples	Update the sample workbooks to their latest versions
Import	Import a workbook from a JSON file
Export All	Export all workbooks listed under My Workbooks to a single JSON file
	Update the list of displayed workbook panels
+ Create	Create a new workbook

Clicking on any workbook panel will open that workbook in the right-hand pane.

Workbooks

When a workbook is selected, its first worksheet is displayed, along with a corresponding tab for each of its other worksheets. Click the tabs to switch between worksheets, and click the + to create a new worksheet.

Quick Start Workbook

There is also a set of workbook-level actions at the top:

Action	Description
Share	Toggle sharing of this workbook with all other users in the cluster
	Make a duplicate of this workbook, appending Copy to the end of the workbook's name
	Display two means of referencing this workbook: URL - a URL that can be used to link directly to this workbook, opening it in Workbench HTML - an HTML snippet that can be used to embed this workbook as an iFrame within another web page; note that this will require logging into Workbench in that frame to access the embedded workbook
	Export this workbook in either JSON format or as a series of SQL statements in a text file
	Refresh the displayed blocks of this workbook
	Modify the name or description of this workbook
	Delete this workbook
	Close this workbook and return to the Explore landing page

Worksheets

The active worksheet displays the SQL-GPT interface at the top, followed by its contained blocks in the order they are defined within the worksheet. Block types include:

SQL Blocks
Text Blocks
Image Blocks
HTML Blocks
Map Blocks
Graph Blocks

Quick Start Worksheet #1

At the top of the worksheet are a set of applicable action buttons:

Action	Description
	Move this worksheet closer to the front of the workbook
	Move this worksheet closer to the back of the workbook
	Modify the name or description of this worksheet
	Make a duplicate of this worksheet in either the current workbook or another workbook, appending Copy to the end of the workbook's name
	Add a new block of the selected type to the end of this worksheet
	Download a performance report of all queries run within the worksheet
	Display a printable version of the worksheet
	Clear all query results in SQL Blocks on this worksheet
	Run all SQL Blocks on this worksheet in the sequence in which they appear on the worksheet

To the right of the blocks is a column of numbers corresponding to each of the numbered blocks. Click any one of the numbers to jump to that block.

SQL-GPT

Each worksheet within Workbench has an interface for interacting with SQL-GPT at the top.

SQL-GPT Interface

A natural-language question can be entered into the SQL-GPT text box in order to generate an equivalent SQL query that can be run to get an answer. The result will be added as a new SQL Block at the bottom of the worksheet.

Available SQL-GPT actions include:

Action	Description
	Generate a corresponding SQL query for the natural language question entered into the SQL-GPT text box, and add it to a SQL Block as the last block on the worksheet
	Open the SQL-GPT configuration page
	Learn more about how to configure & use SQL-GPT

SQL-GPT Configuration

The SQL-GPT Configuration page allows one or more SQL-GPT contexts to be assigned to this worksheet.

../../images/wb.explore_ws_sqlgpt_config.png

SQL-GPT Configuration

Click on a SQL-GPT context on the left and then click the right arrow to assign the context to the current worksheet. Click a context on the right and click the left arrow to unassign the context from the current worksheet.

Available SQL-GPT configuration actions include:

Action	Description
Clear History	Delete the question history, which is shown when the SQL-GPT text box is clicked
Update	Save the configuration
Cancel	Don't update the configuration

SQL Blocks

Each SQL Block allows one or more SQL statements to be added or modified within it.

SQL Block

The block-specific actions are as follows:

Action	Description
	Run the SQL statement(s) in this SQL Block, and output the result set of the final query (if one exists) at the bottom of this block, in either data grid or chart form
	View the job status for the query executing in this SQL Block; the status will be displayed at the bottom of the block
	Expand or collapse this block when the enclosing workbook is embedded in another web page
	Hide or show this block when the enclosing workbook is embedded in another web page
	Insert a SQL-GPT text box for generating SQL into this SQL Block
	Display the explain plan of the final query in this SQL Block, if one exists: Explain Plan - display the basic execution plan Run and Analyze - run the final query and display the execution plan with a statistical analysis
	Run all SQL Blocks from this one onwards, until the end of the worksheet
	Add a new block of the selected type below this one
	Collapse this block, showing only one line of it configuration; click again to expand the block
	Move this block one block above its current position on this worksheet
	Move this block one block below its current position on this worksheet
	Remove this block from this worksheet

If the SQL Block contains any queries, the result set of the final one can be displayed at the bottom of the SQL Block in either a grid view (on the Data tab) or as a chart (on the Visualization tab).

Data Tab

The Data tab displays a grid view of the result set of the final query in a SQL Block, when run.

../../images/wb.explore_wsb_sql_data.png

SQL Block Query Results Grid

Data tab actions include:

Export CSV - export the result set to a comma-separated values (CSV) file and download the file
Clear - remove the result set portion of the SQL Block

Visualization Tab

The Visualization tab allows the result set of the final query in a SQL Block to be displayed as a visualization, when run.

SQL Block Query Results Visualization

Several visualization types are available:

Bar Chart
Line Chart
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Big Number
Graph
Map

After selecting a visualization type, two actions are available:

Action	Description
Save PNG	For most visualizations, save the visualization to a PNG file
Config	Configure the selected visualization with options that are specific to the type selected; click Update to display the visualization
X	Delete the current visualization and select from the available types again

Text Blocks

A Text Block can be used to document the surrounding blocks.

Text Block

Some formatting and other actions are available:

Action	Description
	Apply bold styling to the highlighted text
	Apply italics styling to the highlighted text
	Underline the highlighted text
	Hide or show this block when the enclosing workbook is embedded in another web page
	Add a new block of the selected type below this one
	Collapse this block, showing only one line of it configuration; click again to expand the block
	Move this block one block above its current position on this worksheet
	Move this block one block below its current position on this worksheet
	Remove this block from this worksheet

Image Blocks

An Image Block can be used to display a static or animated URL-accessible image.

Image Block

Available actions include:

Action	Description
	Open the image configuration page
	Hide or show this block when the enclosing workbook is embedded in another web page
	Add a new block of the selected type below this one
	Collapse this block, showing only one line of it configuration; click again to expand the block
	Move this block one block above its current position on this worksheet
	Move this block one block below its current position on this worksheet
	Remove this block from this worksheet

Image Configuration

The Image Configuration page allows the associated image to be configured.

The image needs to be specified with an accessible URL and alignment within the block. It can optionally be given a title and a scaling height & width.

HTML Blocks

An HTML Block can be used to display user-entered HTML.

HTML Block

Available actions include:

Action	Description
	Open the HTML configuration page
	Hide or show this block when the enclosing workbook is embedded in another web page
	Add a new block of the selected type below this one
	Collapse this block, showing only one line of it configuration; click again to expand the block
	Move this block one block above its current position on this worksheet
	Move this block one block below its current position on this worksheet
	Remove this block from this worksheet

HTML Configuration

The HTML Configuration page allows the HTML source and title to be modified.

HTML tags that may pose security risks will remain in the user-entered source, but not be displayed in the HTML Block.

HTML tags are not supported for the title.

Map Blocks

A Map Block is an empty zoomable & pannable world map, upon creation, that can be configured to display geospatial data from any table or view.

Map Block

Available actions include:

Action	Description
	Refresh the map, reloading any data from the source, if configured
	Download a copy of this map at its current zoom level and pan position
	Configure a source table to plot on this map, as well as other map-related settings
	Hide or show this block when the enclosing workbook is embedded in another web page
	Pop up a near full-screen configurable view of this map
	Add a new block of the selected type below this one
	Collapse this block, showing only one line of it configuration; click again to expand the block
	Move this block one block above its current position on this worksheet
	Move this block one block below its current position on this worksheet
	Remove this block from this worksheet

Rendering Modes

Kinetica supports two different geospatial rendering modes:

Heatmap: A gradient of color that represents the density of features/shapes
Raster: Discrete colorization of each feature/shape
Class Break: A class (range) based colorization of each feature/shape
Track: A rasterization of features/shapes containing track information
Contour: A 3-dimensional planar graph, where each plane is bounded by isolines and contains data with the same z value

There are several categories of options to configure for each map:

Table Options - Source table & columns, along with the rendering mode
Map-Specific Options - Options that are specific to each map type
Viewport Options - Latitude, longitude, & altitude upon which the map is centered
Advanced Options - WMS key/value pairs that can be set to override or extend the map configuration. See Web Map Service for details.

Here is an example of some of the map configuration options that you have to style the output of geospatial data on a map, followed by a sample map.

../../images/wb.workbook_vis_map_config.png

Map Visualization Configuration

Map Visualization

Graph Blocks

A Graph Block is a visual network graph of a given graph-oriented data set.

Graph Block

Available actions include:

Action	Description
	Refresh the graph, reloading any data from the source
	Open the graph configuration page
	Hide or show this block when the enclosing workbook is embedded in another web page
	Add a new block of the selected type below this one
	Collapse this block, showing only one line of it configuration; click again to expand the block
	Move this block one block above its current position on this worksheet
	Move this block one block below its current position on this worksheet
	Remove this block from this worksheet

Graph Configuration

The Graph Configuration page allows the graph source data set to be specified and modified.

../../images/wb.explore_wsb_graph_config.png

Graph Configuration

The most straightforward way to configure a graph is to create a graph via SQL, and then configure the graph to use the output table of the graph creation.

For an example of configuring a Graph Block, see Graph Blocks.