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Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

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Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#11

Post by totalhack »

rendall wrote: post #3

It looks very important, popular and well established, but what is it? I looked at the README hoping to understand what a semantic layer for building data applications means but no love. It helps data engineers and application developers access data from modern data stores, organize it into consistent definitions, and deliver it to every application. Like an ORM? Or a middleware? > Cube was designed to work with all…

I can't vouch for cube itself as I haven't used it but can confidently say such tools are highly valuable. I built one for use in my own business and have operated other businesses on similar tools.

It brings all data together, provides a consistent interface, and is way faster than writing SQL (though there will still be use cases for that). There is some up front cost to getting configured but it pays off in my case at least.

https://github.com/totalhack/zillion

Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#12

Post by pavel_tiunov »

revskill wrote: post #7

Is this tool kind of useless ? I tried to find all documentation on the website but find no way to embed the dashboard inside my Nextjs application. Or atleast, exposing a metrics as API to be consumed directly from frontend.

https://cube.dev/docs/config/downstream might be a great starting point for that. Here you can get a grasp of how dashboard apps can be built: https://cube.dev/docs/examples#tutorials-front-end-integrati.... Here's the post about embedding into Next.js app in particular: https://cube.dev/blog/building-nextjs-dashboard-with-dynamic....

Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#13

Post by fisf »

revskill wrote: post #7

Is this tool kind of useless ? I tried to find all documentation on the website but find no way to embed the dashboard inside my Nextjs application. Or atleast, exposing a metrics as API to be consumed directly from frontend.

Come on. The three relevant ways to access the system via API (Rest, graphql, SQL) + available frontend integrations are top level entries in the documentation (https://cube.dev/docs).

Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#14

Post by jspash »

There used to be a product called Statsbot which was a friendly UI built on top of Cube.js. They shuttered the service a few years back and we're still struggling to find an alternative that is as simple to use by anyone in the company and easy to set up. We've gone through all the usual BI suspects and nothing comes close. I'd love to find the time to rebuild this.

Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#16

Post by revskill »

fisf wrote: post #13
revskill wrote: post #7

Is this tool kind of useless ? I tried to find all documentation on the website but find no way to embed the dashboard inside my Nextjs application. Or atleast, exposing a metrics as API to be consumed directly from frontend.

Come on. The three relevant ways to access the system via API (Rest, graphql, SQL) + available frontend integrations are top level entries in the documentation ( https://cube.dev/docs ).

Look like the documentation is updated.

Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#17

Post by pavel_tiunov »

totalhack wrote: post #4

Does cube support dynamically figuring out joins or is each cube a hard coded set of joins? My similar, much less polished project doesn't require you to specify joins ahead of time outside of optionally defining a tree-like table lineage: https://github.com/totalhack/zillion

Yep. Cube would automatically figure out the join path for you on top of the defined join graph in the data model using the Dijkstra algorithm. The best practice however is to use views: https://cube.dev/docs/schema/reference/view/#views. Those can be used to explicitly control join paths and get an effect similar to what Looker Explore can provide.

Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#18

Post by charcircuit »

krono wrote: post #15

Beware of their quite well hidden opt-out telemetry collection: https://cube.dev/docs/config#options-reference-telemetry It's really quite improper to not have this clearly mentioned anywhere obvious.

Both the configuration option and environment variable for its anonymous telemetry are documented. It's not hidden.

Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#19

Post by metadat »

krono wrote: post #15

Beware of their quite well hidden opt-out telemetry collection: https://cube.dev/docs/config#options-reference-telemetry It's really quite improper to not have this clearly mentioned anywhere obvious.

A hot topic. Related recent discussions on active-by-default telemetry:

Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled (4 days ago, 241 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35724939

1Password to Add Telemetry (7 days ago, 342 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35691383

Telemetry in Front-End Tools (26 days ago, 141 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35458974

Go claims telemetry objectors arguing in bad faith and violating Code of Conduct (77 days ago, 337 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34771472

Transparent telemetry for open-source projects (82 days ago, 305 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34707583

p.s. The story I first thought of when I saw your reply was the Golang discussion, aka "Transparent telemetry" above.

Re: Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer

#20

Post by krono »

charcircuit wrote: post #18
krono wrote: post #15

Beware of their quite well hidden opt-out telemetry collection: https://cube.dev/docs/config#options-reference-telemetry It's really quite improper to not have this clearly mentioned anywhere obvious.

Both the configuration option and environment variable for its anonymous telemetry are documented. It's not hidden.

Fair enough, although it's not as clearly advertised as I'm of the opinion that it should be, either.
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