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Datasette is my data hammer

jeremiak.com

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Re: Datasette is my data hammer

#3

Post by frogulis »

Only tangentially related: what is the best general-use single hand tool? My feeling is that it would be some kind of small sturdy knife.

"When all you have is a knife, a lot of stuff looks passably doable"

Re: Datasette is my data hammer

#4

Post by steve_adams_86 »

darkteflon wrote: post #2

Interesting project. I would've liked to have heard a brief comparison with Excel - what makes Datasette something that one should reach for over that? Is it just the ability to use SQL in-place?

Some things which stand out to me at a glance:

  - it’s open source
  - it allows publishing to the web
  - it provides handy web-based tooling, like turning your data into a JSON api
  - it provides a user-friendly UI but also lets you dig deeper with plain old SQL (pro to some, con to others)
  - apparently has an extensible core with a rich plugin ecosystem which allows it to meet a wide range of needs
I’m sure there’s more, but these are all really interesting to me.

Re: Datasette is my data hammer

#5

Post by brunooliv »

Can Datasette be used with a Postgres RDS database with hundred GBs? Feels like it's mostly designed for smaller things? Also if it can, how would I go about it and if it can't, any similar tools I can use? This looks really cool!!

Re: Datasette is my data hammer

#6

Post by jeffreygoesto »

frogulis wrote: post #3

Only tangentially related: what is the best general-use single hand tool? My feeling is that it would be some kind of small sturdy knife. "When all you have is a knife, a lot of stuff looks passably doable"

I knew an outdoor person that did almost everything with an Opinel knife when being on tour.

Re: Datasette is my data hammer

#7

Post by MonkeyClub »

jeffreygoesto wrote: post #6
frogulis wrote: post #3

Only tangentially related: what is the best general-use single hand tool? My feeling is that it would be some kind of small sturdy knife. "When all you have is a knife, a lot of stuff looks passably doable"

I knew an outdoor person that did almost everything with an Opinel knife when being on tour.

Indeed a blade is one of the most useful things that you can’t replicate with naturally occurring items (a log or a rock can be used to hammer things, for example, or vines can be twisted into rope).

Opinel knives in particular are quite handy, thanks to the good quality of the blade. They can take a beating and keep their edge, plus they fold and fit in the pocket (up to No. 9 with ease), so they can fulfill the functions of fancier “survival knives”.

Add a ferrocerium rod for easy fire starting, and a good book for downtime by the fire, and you’re golden.

Re: Datasette is my data hammer

#8

Post by sally_glance »

I tried datasette for the first time not long ago. To me it wasn't obvious what it gave me compared to my local Postgres setup.

I have a single docker-compose file with Postgres + pgAdmin and a host mount which I use for data exploration and ad-hoc analysis. I get a nice Web UI and can ingest quickly using the awesome Postgres FDWs.

Compared to datasette, it allows me to also transform the data by creating derived views and tables. The UI of pgAdmin also is much more fully-featured, but depending on the user that could well be a disadvantage. I guess the other thing datasette might be better at is the sharing use case by somehow exposing your instance and sharing links, I can do that with pgAdmin as well though.

Overall I'd probably need to try it out some more but currently lack the motivation because I can't think of any big advantage over my old setup.

Re: Datasette is my data hammer

#10

Post by ocdtrekkie »

sally_glance wrote: post #8

I tried datasette for the first time not long ago. To me it wasn't obvious what it gave me compared to my local Postgres setup. I have a single docker-compose file with Postgres + pgAdmin and a host mount which I use for data exploration and ad-hoc analysis. I get a nice Web UI and can ingest quickly using the awesome Postgres FDWs. Compared to datasette, it allows me to also transform the data by creating derived vi…

Question: Did you add plugins?

Datasette is basically entirely plugins, such that you can create radically different "sites" and tools out of different combinations of plugins. Datasette without any plugins is useful, but where it's functionality shines is entirely in plugins.

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