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Run MySQL in Docker and query with DataStation

This tutorial walks through running MySQL in Docker, creating a table and loading it with data from a CSV, and finally querying the database in DataStation.

Database initialization [Optional]

If you want to follow along with this tutorial verbatim, in your terminal start MySQL in Docker:

$ cid=$(docker run -d -p 3306:3306 -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=root mysql)

Now create a table for some address data (it may take a few retries to run this command while MySQL is initializing).

$ docker exec $cid mysql -uroot -proot mysql --execute 'CREATE TABLE addresses (id BIGINT, location_id BIGINT, address_1 TEXT, address_2 TEXT, city TEXT, state_province TEXT, postal_code TEXT, country TEXT);'
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.

Then download a CSV of sample addresses from Github, copy it into the Docker container, and load the addresses into this new table.

$ curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/codeforamerica/ohana-api/master/data/sample-csv/addresses.csv
$ docker cp ./addresses.csv $cid:/tmp/addresses.csv
$ docker exec $cid mysql --local-infile=1 -uroot -proot mysql --execute "SET GLOBAL local_infile=1; LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE '/tmp/addresses.csv' INTO TABLE addresses FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '""' IGNORE 1 ROWS;"
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.

And we're done!

Data source setup

Now inside DataStation create a new data source in the left sidebar.

Creating a new data source

Give it a nice name so you can easily find it later. And select MySQL in the Vendor dropdown.

Creating a MySQL data source

Host field

If you are connecting to localhost:3306 (the default), you can leave the host field blank. If your port is 3306 then you can always omit the colon and port and just specify the address.

Other fields

Next we set the database to mysql, the username to root, and the password to root (we specified this when we started the Docker container).

Filled out MySQL data source

SSH Proxy [Optional]

If you want connect to a MySQL database on a remote server through an SSH proxy, you will need to set up the SSH connection to that server first. Once you do, you can select that connection in the "Via Server" dropdown within the data source editor.

Panel setup

Now create a new panel and select the Database type.

Create database panel

Run a query

Enter your query and hit play!

Run MySQL query

You can always download the results of a panel by hitting the download button. Or you can reference the results in other panels.

Download panel results

Display results

After running the query, a table button will appear below the panel next to the New Panel button. Click it to generate a table based on this panel.

Render results

About this page

See an error or want to add a clarification? This page is generated from this file on Github.

Last edited Apr 06, 2022.