Dependency graph between datasources <> questions/dashboards

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1

Hello,

I use a self hosted-version of Metabase v0.33.6 with its H2 DB at my company. I was wondering if Metabase provides a way to list all the tables and data sources used by a particular question or dashboard?

The use case is: identify the impact on a data source we need to change and/or migrate. Propagate the changes to questions/dashboards.

Thanks!

2

Hi @miyeung
You would have to look in the metadata. It can get quite complicated to find all tables used.
Metabase Metadata SQL

I would highly recommend that you migrate away from H2 if you're using Metabase in production:
https://www.metabase.com/docs/latest/operations-guide/migrating-from-h2.html
And latest release is 0.39.3: https://github.com/metabase/metabase/releases/latest

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3

Thanks, @flamber!

4

I see this has been answered, but I'd like to second this request.

Each question or dashboard should have an available dependency graph, visible in the Metabase GUI. This should include both upstream and downstream dependencies. Ideally, if there are any dependencies, the UI could warn me before I save any changes. E.g., "Are you sure you want to save changes? Updating this question will impact the X dashboard."

Currently I mitigate this by grouping related questions and dashboards in the same collection, then pinning the dashboard to the top of that collection. So, informally, I know that if I update something in a collection, it could impact the others (so I better manually double check them!).

I really want my team and org. to adopt more a self-service data culture, but this is a sticking point. For example, I may write an initial query that's adopted as the gold standard — e.g. this produces the initial set, that is then a "saved question" and starting point for other questions/queries. Sometimes something changes on the backend that requires me to revise this initial query, but there's no automatic way to tell what could be impacted by that change. (I have to keep it all in my head!)

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5

@smurray This forum is just for questions and troubleshooting. All bugs and features are tracked on https://github.com/metabase/metabase/issues

Upvote by clicking :+1: on the first post of the issues you're interested in:
https://github.com/metabase/metabase/issues/13139
https://github.com/metabase/metabase/issues/13975
https://github.com/metabase/metabase/issues/5222