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Setup PostgreSql for pivot table reports

SeekTable is a business intelligence tool that can make PostgreSQL data available for all employees - both technical and non-technical - to query, explore, and report on. With SeekTable you can automate PostgreSql reports generation and deliver them on schedule.

Connections to PostgreSql (Redshift) are provided by SQL-compatible database connector.

There is no any limitations on the dataset size; however, your PostgreSql should be able to execute aggregate queries fast enough (in seconds; 2 mins max). In the case of large dataset you may pre-aggregate the data with materialized view, apply some filters on indexed columns, or use TimescaleDB extension for real-time aggregations.

PostgreSql connection setup

Connection String should be a valid connection string for NpgSql driver; for example:

Host=hostName;Port=5432;Database=db;User ID=user;Password=password;
Host Specifies the host name of the machine on which the PostgreSql is running.
Do not use "localhost" or LAN server name; use only public IP address or server's domain name.
Port The TCP port of the PostgreSQL server.
Database The PostgreSQL database to connect to.
User ID The username to connect with.
Password The password to connect with.
SSL Mode Specify SSL Mode=Require to force SSL or if your PostgreSql allows only SSL connections.
Trust Server Certificate Specify Trust Server Certificate=True to allow self-signed SSL server certificates.
Server Compatibility Mode Specify Redshift if your configure a connection to Amazon Redshift.
Specify NoTypeLoading if your configure a connection to QuestDB or cube.js.

Date-part dimensions calculated with SQL expressions

To define date-part dimensions (date's "year", "month", "day" etc) you may add dimensions defined with an appropriate SQL expression:

  1. add new dimension with Type=Field
  2. fill Name with some unique value: say, "date_column_year"
  3. add one Parameter which should be a date-part PostgreSql SQL expression:
    • For year: EXTRACT(YEAR FROM date_column)
    • For month: EXTRACT(MONTH FROM date_column) + Format={0:MMM} (Jan, Feb etc) or {0:MMMM} (January, February etc)
    • For day: EXTRACT(DAY FROM date_column)
    • For day-of-week: EXTRACT(DOW FROM date_column) + Format={0:ddd} (Mon, Tue etc) or {0:dddd} (Monday, Tuesday etc)
    • For quarter: EXTRACT(QUARTER FROM date_column)
    • For week-of-year: EXTRACT(WEEK FROM date_column)

QuestDB notes

SeekTable can access QuestDB with Postgres wire protocol that is by default accessible via 8812 port. To configure a QuestDB-based cube choose PostgreSql as a database connector and specify a connection string like this:

Host=QUEST_DB_IP;Port=8812;Database=qdb;User ID=admin;Password=quest;ServerCompatibilityMode=NoTypeLoading;

To access QuestDB on "localhost" you can easily deploy a self-hosted SeekTable version (docker).

Known limitations:

Cube.js notes

SeekTable can access Cube.js with Postgres-compatible protocol that is by default accessible via 5432 port. To configure a Cube.js-based cube choose PostgreSql as a database connector and specify a connection string like this:

Host=CUBE_JS_IP;Port=5432;Database=default;User ID=test;Password=test;Server Compatibility Mode=NoTypeLoading;

Known limitations:

Troubleshooting

Server certificate was not accepted or The remote certificate is invalid according to the validation procedure
Add Trust Server Certificate=True to the connection string to disable SSL certificate validation (needed if your server uses self-signed certificate).
ERROR: operator does not exist
This error usually occurs with flat-table reports that have a filter for some column and data type of this column is not comparable with the specified value (PostgreSql uses strict typing). To fix this you can cast the column to the datatype needed for the comparison. Typical cases:
  • if error message contains "operator does not exist: text > numeric" (comparison may be different) and your filter is something like some_column < 5 this means that some_column has TEXT datatype. To fix this go to the cube configuration form, find the dimension with Name "some_column" and add a Parameter to define SQL expression with a cast: some_column::NUMERIC.
  • if error message contains "operator does not exist: date = text" and your filter is something like some_column="2019-05-15" this means that column's data type is Date (or DateTime) and it cannot be compared with a TEXT value. To fix this go to the cube configuration form, find the dimension with Name=some_column and add a Parameter to define SQL expression with a cast; for example: some_column::date, some_column::timestamp.
Out of the range of DateTime (year must be between 1 and 9999)
This happens when "Select Query" returns a timestamp column with value(s) that cannot be represented by .NET DateTime object (usually because of year part). In some cases this may be fixed by adding ConvertInfinityDateTime=True to the connection string; if this doesn't help you need to exclude unpresentable timestamps from the query results (either by WHERE filtering or by timestamp normalization with an SQL expression).
ERROR: The field 'some_column' has a type currently unknown to Npgsql
This error occurs when "Select Query" returns a column that has a data type that is unknown to Npgsql driver. For example, this error may occur if you have a 'citext' column.
To fix this it is enough to cast this field to a known data type like ::TEXT (custom SQL expression for the dimension may be specified in "Parameters").