Backstage Plugin dbt

Backstage plugins to view dbt doc.

Table of contents

• Features
• Limitations
• Screenshots
• Setup
  • Legacy backend system
  • New backend system
• Usage
• Update from v1 to v2

Features

• List all dbt models and tests
• Get details on dbt models and tests like:
  • Documentations
  • Stats
  • Columns
  • Dependency graph
  • Code source (raw and compiled)

Limitations

As of now, the plugin only support the following backends:

• Google Cloud Storage
• AWS S3
• Azure Blob Storage

Screenshots

Landing page:

Model details:

Test details:

Note: catalog and manifest come from https://github.com/fivetran/dbt_shopify/tree/main

Setup

1. Install packages:

# From your Backstage root directory
yarn --cwd packages/app add @iiben_orgii/backstage-plugin-dbt
yarn --cwd packages/backend add @iiben_orgii/backstage-plugin-dbt-backend

2. Add a new dbt tab to the entity page.

packages/app/src/components/catalog/EntityPage.tsx

// packages/app/src/components/catalog/EntityPage.tsx

import { DbtPage, isDBTAvailable } from "@iiben_orgii/backstage-plugin-dbt";

// Farther down at the serviceEntityPage declaration
const serviceEntityPage = (
  <EntityLayout>
    {/* Place the following section where you want the tab to appear */}
    <EntityLayout.Route if={isDBTAvailable} path="/dbt" title="dbt">
      <DbtPage />
    </EntityLayout.Route>
  </EntityLayout>
);

Legacy backend system

1. Add the dbt route by creating the file packages/backend/src/plugins/dbt.ts:

packages/backend/src/plugins/dbt.ts

import {
  createRouter,
} from "@iiben_orgii/backstage-plugin-dbt-backend";

import { Router } from "express";
import { PluginEnvironment } from "../types";

export default async function createPlugin(
  env: PluginEnvironment,
): Promise<Router> {
  return await createRouter({
    logger: env.logger,
    config: env.config,
  });
}

then you have to add the route as follows:

packages/backend/src/index.ts

// packages/backend/src/index.ts
import dbt from "./plugins/dbt";

async function main() {
  //...
  const dbtEnv = useHotMemoize(module, () => createEnv("dbt"));
  //...
  apiRouter.use("/dbt", await dbt(dbtEnv));
  //...
}

New backend system

In the file: packages/backend/src/index.ts

import { dbtPlugin } from '@iiben_orgii/backstage-plugin-dbt-backend';

//[...]

const backend = createBackend();
//[...]

backend.add(dbtPlugin);

//[...]
backend.start();

Usage

Single bucket model

You can define one bucket with all your manifest and catalog files.

Add a file application/packages/app/config.d.ts:

export interface Config {
  dbtdoc: {
    /**
     * Frontend root URL
     * @visibility frontend
     */
    bucket: string;
  };
}

Update the file application/packages/app/package.json with

  "files": [
    "dist",
    "config.d.ts"
  ],
  "configSchema": "config.d.ts"

Then you can add to your app-config.yaml:

dbtdoc:
  bucket: your-bucket-123
  backend: GoogleStorage # or S3

One bucket for each application or overwrite the global config

Limitation: all dbt docs must be saved on same backend type (GoogleStorage or S3)

Add dbtdoc-bucket as annotation in catalog-info.yaml. Optionally, add the dbtdoc-path annotation if your GCS bucket structure does not conform to the expected structure.

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
spec:
  type: service
  owner: user:guest
  lifecycle: experimental
metadata:
  name: "test"
  annotations:
    dbtdoc-bucket: "my-bucket"
    dbtdoc-path: "optional/override/path" # Optional

Then you can add to your app-config.yaml:

dbtdoc:
  backend: GoogleStorage # or S3

Files path in the bucket

Following path must be respect regardless your bucket setup (single or multi).

If using the multi setup, you can override the {kind}/{name} portion of the path using the dbtdoc-path annotation.

You can upload your manifest.json and catalog.json to a GCS Bucket as follow:

• {dbtdoc-bucket}/{kind}/{name}/manifest.json
• {dbtdoc-bucket}/{kind}/{name}/catalog.json

Authentication

For authentification to GCS Bucket, the plugin use ADC credentials https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/provide-credentials-adc.

Update from v1 to v2

Update the app-config.yaml as follow:

dbtdoc:
  bucket: your-bucket-123
  backend: GoogleStorage

or

dbtdoc:
  bucket: your-bucket-123
  backend: S3

Apply the following changes only if you use the old backend system.

In v1: packages/backend/src/plugins/dbt.ts

// packages/backend/src/plugins/dbt.ts
import {
  createRouter,
  GoogleStorageProvider,
} from "@iiben_orgii/backstage-plugin-dbt-backend";
import { Router } from "express";
import { PluginEnvironment } from "../types";

const storageProvider = new GoogleStorageProvider();

export default async function createPlugin(
  env: PluginEnvironment,
): Promise<Router> {
  return await createRouter({
    logger: env.logger,
    storageProvider: storageProvider,
  });
}

In v2: packages/backend/src/plugins/dbt.ts

// packages/backend/src/plugins/dbt.ts
import {
  createRouter,
} from "@iiben_orgii/backstage-plugin-dbt-backend";

import { Router } from "express";
import { PluginEnvironment } from "../types";

export default async function createPlugin(
  env: PluginEnvironment,
): Promise<Router> {
  return await createRouter({
    logger: env.logger,
    config: env.config,
  });
}