Using Workbooks in Workbench

Data Explorer

When a data object is created using the UI-based wizard, it will appear in the Data Explorer automatically. When creating an object using a SQL Block, the Data Explorer will refresh automatically after the statement has been executed. Any queries executed in a worksheet that do not return rows will trigger a refresh of the Data Explorer to ensure you have the latest information about the system. The Data Explorer will show newly created objects, but if you do not see one listed, use the Refresh button at the top right of the Data Explorer to retrieve the latest information manually.

Data Explorer Tab

Creating and Modifying Data Objects

Create new data objects, like tables, data sources, or graphs, by clicking the plus + button at the top of the Data Explorer, or next to any of the data object type headings. You will be walked through options in a wizard. To modify an existing object, click the object and select Configure.

Data Explorer Table Actions

Create Table Wizard

Previewing Objects

You can preview an object’s data by clicking and selecting Data Preview. For tabular data, you will be shown a table view of the data.

Data Grid Preview

You can also preview geospatial tabular data on a map by selecting WMS Preview. Abstract graphs, like social graphs cannot be previewed in the Workbench. Previewing a geospatial graph will display a map of the graph.

WMS Data Preview

Workbook Explorer

The Workbook Explorer contains two lists of workbooks:

• My Workbooks - a list of workbooks you've created, and the Quick Start Guide, which comes with each Kinetica deployment
• Examples - workbooks that are provided with Workbench for exploring the various features of Kinetica
• Shared With Me - a list of workbooks others have created and made available to you

Workbook Explorer Tab

Creating a New Workbook

To create a new workbook, select the Workbook tab in the Explorer, then click the plus + button. Alternatively, you can create a new workbook using the large button on the Explore landing page.

After giving it a name, the new workbook will be displayed in the right-hand pane with a single empty SQL Block to start.

New Workbook

Exporting/Importing Workbooks

You can export and import workbooks to share your SQL. Right-click on a workbook in the Workbook Explorer and select the Export menu option. Choose Workbook JSON to initiate the download in JSON format.

Export Workbook

To import a workbook, select the plus + button at the top right of the Workbook Explorer. This will open a dialog window that allows you to drag and drop a previously exported workbook.

Import Workbook Menu

File Explorer

The File Explorer can be used to manage directories & files that reside in Kinetica File System (KiFS). This feature facilitates uploading local data files to import their data into Kinetica.

File Explorer Tab

Uploading a File

To upload a data file, select the Files tab in the Explorer to reach the File Explorer. Then, proceed either one of two ways:

• Click the plus + button at the top of the File Explorer panel and then click Upload New File
• Right-click the directory to upload the file into, and then click Upload New File

At this point a modal will open up, prompting the selection of a data file to upload from the local file system. Choose a file and then click Open. Then enter (or confirm) the name of the directory to upload the file to and, optionally, choose a different name for the uploaded file in KiFS. Click Upload to complete the file upload, and Close to close the modal.

Upload File Dialog

Importing a File

To import a file from KiFS, select the Files tab in the Explorer to reach the File Explorer. Then, right-click the name of the file to upload and click Import.

The Kinetica Filesystem Import wizard will be displayed with the name of the file to import already populated in the File field.

Import File

Click Import at any step of the wizard to import the file with the default options, along with any that have been configured in previous steps. See Import Data Wizard for the step-by-step walkthrough of the wizard.

Workbooks

A workbook is a container for worksheets.

Each worksheet begins with the SQL-GPT interface, followed by one or more data blocks and presentation blocks:

• Data blocks - blocks that interact with the database and display the results of queries and/or operations; these include:
  • SQL Blocks
  • Map Blocks
  • Graph Blocks
• Presentation blocks - blocks that display static content, usually used when converting a workbook to a presentation medium, where these block types can help explain a workflow and provide insight into the results of surrounding data blocks that do query the database; these include:
  • Text Blocks
  • Image Blocks
  • HTML Blocks

Any type of block can be moved up or down in the block ordering or removed using the buttons in the upper right corner of the block. You can also add another block directly below an existing one by using the plus + button in the upper right menu.

SQL Workbook

SQL-GPT

A SQL-GPT interface is present at the top of each worksheet within a workbook to facilitate natural language queries of data.

To use SQL-GPT to answer a question about your data:

1. Enter a natural-language question into the SQL-GPT textbox.
2. Click Generate SQL. A new SQL Block will be created at the bottom of the worksheet, pre-populated with the query SQL-GPT generated to answer the question posed.
3. Click in that new SQL Block to run the generated query.

SQL-GPT will generate more accurate queries when it is given more context for the data it is querying. To provide SQL-GPT insight into the data and relationships between the data, see SQL-GPT Concepts for a SQL-GPT overview and SQL-GPT Syntax for the complete SQL syntax supporting SQL-GPT.

Once a custom SQL-GPT context has been created, click Configure to assign the context to the current worksheet, and ask the natural-language question again.

SQL Blocks

A SQL Block should contain a single SQL statement, which can be independently evaluated.

Each SQL Block has a play button on the left side that allows you to run the SQL contained in the block. Alternatively, you can run all the SQL Blocks in a worksheet in sequence by clicking the Run All button at the top of the screen.

If you want to create a visualization for a SQL Block, you will first need to create and run a SELECT statement. See Visualizations for directions on how to create visualizations in your workbook.

SQL Block with Output

Canceling Jobs

If you want to stop a long-running query or a long sequence of SQL Blocks, you can easily cancel the running jobs associated with each query. Use the Queries button at the top of the screen. This will open a modal with a list of all the running jobs in the system, any of which can be stopped by checking the box next to the job and pressing the Cancel Selected button.

Running Jobs Listing

Visual Explain Plan

The explain plan visualizer is a graphical complement to using the EXPLAIN keyword in a given query, providing visual detail to the SQL query's execution plan, execution time, and native API translation(s).

In a given SQL Block, use the hierarchy icon to select Explain Plan. This will not execute the query but allow the database to walk through the native actions necessary to execute the query and show the plan.

Use the hierarchy icon to select Run and Analyze to execute the query and display the execution time for each step in the plan.

Visual Explain Plan

Map Blocks

A Map Block starts out as an empty map but can be configured to display geospatial data from a table.

Click on Configure to pick a source table and longitude & latitude columns. Then click Update to display the data on the map.

Map Block

Graph Blocks

A Graph Block starts out as a blank page but can be configured to display network graph data from a graph output table.

Click on Configure to pick a source graph table and specify the relevant node & edge columns. Then, click Update to display the graph within the block.

Graph Block

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14

CREATE or REPLACE directed GRAPH kgraph
(
    NODES => INPUT_TABLE
    (
        SELECT name AS NAME, CONCAT(CONCAT(role,':'),locale) AS LABEL
        FROM person
    ),
    EDGES => INPUT_TABLE
    (
        SELECT person_a AS NODE1_NAME, person_b AS NODE2_NAME
        FROM connection
    ),
    OPTIONS => KV_PAIRS(graph_table = 'kgraph_table')
)

Presentation Blocks

Presentation blocks help you annotate, elaborate on, and provide insight into the data blocks on your worksheet. These blocks can be moved up and down, independently of other blocks and provide rich flexibility in presenting your results. For more information on interacting with these blocks, see:

• Text Blocks
• Image Blocks
• HTML Blocks

Bar Chart

The Bar Chart Visualization allows you to view volumes of data by group.

Bar Chart Visualization

Line Chart

The Line Chart Visualization shows you trends across a dimension.

Line Chart Visualization

Pie Chart

The Pie Chart Visualization shows you the numeric proportion of values across several groups.

Pie Chart Visualization

Scatter Plot

The Scatter Plot Visualization shows you two dimensions compared against each other or two values compared to (or categorized by) a third value, plotted on a coordinate system.

Scatter Plot Visualization

Big Number

The Big Number Visualization simply shows the result of a query in a large font. Multiple records are shown as a comma-delimited list of values.

Big Number Visualization

Graph

The Graph Visualization is equivalent in interface to the graph block.

Map

The Map Visualization is equivalent in interface to the map block.

Import Data Wizard

Importing data via the wizard can be done in several easy steps.

1. Click Import on the top menu to reach the Importing Your Data page.
2. Choose the import mechanism to use:
   • File Upload - Import data from a file on your local file system
   • Kinetica Filesystem - Import data from a file that has already been uploaded to KiFS
   • Azure Blob Storage, Amazon S3, Kafka Stream, HDFS - Import data from one of these external providers.
   • Generic JDBC - Import data from a remote database using a generic JDBC driver
   • Kinetica - Import data from another Kinetica cluster using the Kinetica JDBC driver
   • JDBC Data Sources - Import data from a remote system using any of the available data source drivers
3. If ingesting from a external provider like S3, you can either select an existing data source corresponding to that provider or create a new one.
4. Enter the path to the file, and choose the file format.
5. Next, select the schema in which your new table should be created. Then give your new table a name. By default, records that fail to be parsed or loaded correctly will be skipped and the import process will proceed to the subsequent records. To stop the import if an error occurs on a record, check the appropriate box. Optionally, define the structure of the target table if that table does not yet exist. If the table doesn't exist and the structure is not defined here, it will be intuited by analyzing the source file headers & data.
6. Once the ingest has been configured, the corresponding SQL statement for loading the data will be displayed, which you can copy into a worksheet for use later. Click Import to begin the import immediately, and wait for the job to complete. You can see the status of jobs in the History tab, and you can see error messages to help you troubleshoot the import there as well.

For a more detailed look at the configuration options available through the Import Wizard, see Import.

Import Landing Page

Import Data Summary, with Corresponding SQL Import Statement

Import via SQL

You can use the SQL generated by the Import Data Wizard in your SQL Worksheets, or you can write your own ingest statements. When importing from a remote location, like S3, you will need to create a data source first. See CREATE DATA SOURCE for the syntax used to create one.

For example, to load taxi data from S3:

1
2
3
4
5
6

CREATE OR REPLACE DATA SOURCE quickstart
LOCATION = 'S3'
WITH OPTIONS (
    BUCKET NAME = 'quickstartpublic',
    REGION = 'us-west-1'
)

Once you’ve created a data source, you can load data using the LOAD INTO statement.

1
2
3
4
5
6

LOAD DATA INTO taxi_data_historical
FROM FILE PATHS 'taxi_data.parquet'
FORMAT PARQUET
WITH OPTIONS (
    DATA SOURCE = 'quickstart'
)