Lightdash connects to Honeydew via JDBC connection, using the Trino protocol.

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Metadata Sync

With Metadata Sync, Honeydew can synchronize metadata such as field definitions and descriptions to Lightdash. This allows users to see in Lightdash all attributes and metrics that are available in Honeydew.

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Setting up a new dbt project for Lightdash

  1. Create a new repository in your git provider, or use an existing repository

  2. Create a new dbt project in the repository, or use an existing dbt project Here’s a sample empty dbt_project.yml file, if starting a new dbt project:

    name: 'tpch_demo'

config-version: 2
version: '0.1'

model-paths: ["models"]
seed-paths: ["seeds"]
test-paths: ["tests"]
analysis-paths: ["analysis"]
macro-paths: ["macros"]

target-path: "target"
clean-targets:
    - "target"
    - "dbt_modules"
    - "logs"

require-dbt-version: [">=1.0.0", "<2.0.0"]

  3. Create a folder named models in the repository, in same folder as dbt_project.yml

  4. Create a new empty model sql file in the models folder, matching the domain you’re exporting from Honeydew (for example mydomain.sql)

  5. Create a new empty model yaml file in the models folder, matching the domain you’re exporting from Honeydew (for example mydomain.yml)

  6. In Honeydew, go to Branch integrations -> Lightdash -> Export to Lightdash and copy the displayed content

  7. Paste the content into the model yaml file (e.g. mydomain.yml)

  8. Commit and push the changes to the git repository

If no domain is selected, the default domain is called world.

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Setting up a Warehouse connection in a Lightdash project

Each Lightdash project is mapped to a Honeydew workspace and branch.

If you would like to use multiple Honeydew domains, you can create them as multiple models in the dbt project.

It is recommended to use an API Key for setting up the connection.

1

Create project

Create a new project and give it a name

2

Warehouse connection

  1. Set Trino as Type
  2. Set Host to jdbc.honeydew.cloud
  3. Set Username to the API key (or a Honeydew username), and Password to the API secret
  4. Set DB name to <workspace>__<branch> value, based on the Honeydew workspace and branch you would like to connect to. Omit the branch value if connecting to prod. For example, for workspace tpch, branch prod, the value would be: tpch. And for workspace tpch, branch dev, it would be tpch__dev. (or to the user’s password in Honeydew).
  5. In Advanced configuration options, set Port to 443 and SSL mode to https
  6. Click Save

If your organization uses a custom hostname for the JDBC connection, you can locate it in the Honeydew UI, under the JDBC section in Settings.

3

dbt connection

  1. Choose your git provider
  2. Choose the preferred dbt version
  3. Provide the additional details required for the git provider
  4. Provide the repository name - the name of the repository where the dbt project is located
  5. Provide the branch name which contains the version of the dbt project you would like to use
  6. Provide the project directory path of your dbt project in the repository
  7. Target name - can be left empty
  8. Provide the name for the schema - similar to the name of the dbt model generated by Honeydew
4

Test and deploy

Click Test and deploy project

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Models selection

If you have multiple models in the dbt project, you will be asked to select the models to use in Lightdash. Select the model(s) you have imported from Honeydew for this project.

If you would like to use multiple Honeydew domains, you can create them as multiple models in the dbt project.

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Metadata Sync

Honeydew automatically converts Honeydew metadata properties to Lightdash metadata properties.

Honeydew synchronizes the following metadata to Lightdash:

  • Fields - every attribute is defined as a Lightdash dimension, and every metric as a Lightdash measure.
  • Field data types.
  • Field display names (to label Lightdash field property). When no display name is set, Honeydew creates an automatic user friendly name.
  • Field folders (to groups and group_details Lightdash properties). When no folder is set, Honeydew uses the entity name as folder names.
  • Measure types (to type Lightdash measure property). Note that Honeydew can support any SQL aggregation function as a measure, hence the measure type is not always a direct mapping to Lightdash measure types.
  • Field hidden property (to hidden Lightdash field property).
  • Field descriptions (to description Lightdash field property).

In addition, the following metadata properties are also synchronized:

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Lightdash-specific Metadata

Attributes and Metrics: You can add Lightdash-specific metadata, that specifies formatting and a url, to an attribute or a metric in the schema:

...
metadata:
  - name: lightdash
    metadata:
      - name: format
        value: '0.00%'
      - name: url-label
        value: 'Open in CRM'
      - name: url
        value: 'https://example.com/myurl?value=${ value }'

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Using Honeydew semantic model in Lightdash

You can now run queries or create dashboards on top of the Honeydew connection, using the Lightdash user interface.