Configuration

Cubes workspace configuration is stored in a .ini file with sections:

  • [server] - server related configuration, such as host, port
  • [workspace] – Cubes workspace configuration
  • [model] - model and cube configuration
  • [models] - list of models to be loaded (deprecated)
  • [store] – default datastore configuration
  • [store NAME] – configuration for store with name NAME
  • [locale NAME] - model translations. See Localization for more information.
  • [info] - optional section for user presentable info about your project

Note

The configuration has changed with version 1.0. Since Cubes supports multiple data stores, their type (backend) is specified in the store configuration as type property, for example type=sql.

Quick Start

Simple configuration might look like this:

[workspace]
model = model.json

[store]
type = sql
url = postgresql://localhost/database

Server

json_record_limit

Number of rows to limit when generating JSON output with iterable objects, such as facts. Default is 1000. It is recommended to use alternate response format, such as CSV, to get more records.

modules

Space separated list of modules to be loaded. This is only used if run by the slicer command.

prettyprint

If set to true, JSON is serialized with indentation of 4 spaces. Set to true for demonstration purposes, omit or comment out option for production use.

host

Host or IP address where the server binds, defaults to localhost.

port

Port on which the server listens, defaults to 5000.

reload

Suitable for development only. Set to yes to enable Werkzeug reloader.

allow_cors_origin

Cross-origin resource sharing header. Other related headers are added as well, if this option is present.

authentication

Authentication method, see Authentication and Authorization below for more information.

pid_file

Path to a file where PID of the running server will be written. If not provided, no PID file is created.

Workspace

This section covers the Workspace configuration, such as file locations, logging, namespaces and localization.

Authorization

authorization

Authorization method to be used on the workspace side. If omitted, no authorization is required. For details see Authentication and Authorization below.

Localization configuration

timezone

Name of the default time zone, for example Europe/Berlin. Used in date and time operations, such as named relative time.

first_weekday

First day of the week in english weekday name. Can also be specified as number, where 0 is Monday and 6 is Sunday.

File Locations

root_directory

Workspace root path: all paths, such as models_directory or info_file are considered relative to the root_directory it they are not specified as absolute.

models_directory

Path to a directory containing models. If this is set to non-empty value, then all model paths specified in [models] are prefixed with this path.

stores_file

Path to a file (with .ini config syntax) containing store descriptions – every section is a store with same name as the section.

info_file

Path to a file containing user info metadata. See more in Info.

Logging configuration

log

Path to log file.

log_level

Level of log details, from least to most: error, warn, info, debug.

Namespaces

If not specified otherwise, all cubes share the same default namespace. Their names within namespace should be unique.

Model

path

Path to model .json file. See Logical Model and Metadata for more on model definition.

Models

Warning

This section is deprecated in favor of section [model].

Section [models] contains list of models. The property names are model identifiers within the configuration (see [translations] for example) and the values are paths to model files.

Example:

[models]
main = model.json
mixpanel = mixpanel.json

If models_directory is specified in Workspace then the relative model paths are combined with the models_directory. Example:

[workspace]
models_directory = /dwh/cubes/models

[models]
main = model.json
events = events.json

The models are loaded from /dwh/cubes/models/model.json and /dwh/cubes/models/events.json.

Note

If the root_directory is set, then the models_directory is relative to the root_directory. For example if the workspace root is /var/lib/cubes and models_directory is models then the search path for models will be /var/lib/cubes/models. If the models_directory is absolute, for example /cubes/models then the absolute path will be used regardless of the workspace root directory settings.

Data stores

There might be one or more store configured. The section [store] of the cubes.ini file describes the default store. Multiple stores are configured in a separate stores.ini file referenced by the stores_file configuration option in [workspace] section.

Data store properties

type

Defines the data store backend module used, eg. sql. Required.

For list of available types see Backends.

model

Model related to the datastore.

namespace

Namespace where the store’s cubes will be registered.

model_provider

Model provider type for the datastore. For more on model providers, see chapter Model Provider and External Models.

Example data store configurations

Example SQL store:

[store]
type = sql
url = postgresql://localhost/data
schema = cubes

For more information and configuration on SQL store options see SQL Backend.

Example mixpanel store:

[store]
type = mixpanel
model = mixpanel.json
api_key = 123456abcd
api_secret = 12345abcd

Multiple Slicer stores:

[store slicer1]
type = slicer
url = http://some.host:5000

[store slicer2]
type = slicer
url = http://other.host:5000

The cubes will be named slicer1.* and slicer2.*. To use specific namespace, different from the store name:

[store slicer3]
type = slicer
namespace = external
url = http://some.host:5000

Cubes will be named external.*

To specify default namespace:

[store slicer4]
type = slicer
namespace = default.
url = http://some.host:5000

Cubes will be named without namespace prefix.

Authentication and Authorization

Cubes provides mechanisms for authentication at the server side and authorization at the workspace side.

Authorization

To configure authorization, you need to enable authorization in workspace section.

[workspace]
authorization = simple

[authorization]
rights_file = /path/to/access_rights.json

authorization

This option goes in the [workspace] section.

Valid options are

  • none – no authorization
  • simple – uses a JSON file with per-user access rights

Simple authorization

The simple authorization has following configuration options:

rights_file

Path to the JSON configuration file with access rights.

roles_file

Path to the JSON configuration file with roles.

identity_dimension

Name of a flat dimension that will be used for cell restriction. Key of that dimension should match the identity.

order

Access control. Valid is allow_deny or deny_allow (default).

guest

Name of a guest role. If specified, then this role will be used for all unknown (not specified in the file) roles.

Authentication

Example authentication via parameter passing:

[server]
authentication = pass_parameter

[authentication]
# additional authentication parameters
parameter = token

This configures server to expect a GET parameter token which will be passed on to authorization.

authentication

Built-in server authentication methods:

none

No authentication.

http_basic_proxy

HTTP basic authentication will pass the username to the authorizer. This assumes the server is behind a proxy and that the proxy authenticated the user.

pass_parameter

Authentication without verification, just a way of passing an URL parameter to the authorizer. Parameter name can be specified via parameter option, default api_key.

For more on how this works, see Authorization and Authentication.

Note

When you have authorization method specified and is based on an users’s indentity, then you have to specify the authentication method in the server. Otherwise the authorizer will not receive any identity and might refuse any access.

Localization sections

Model localizations are specified in the configuration with [locale XX] where XX is the two letter ISO 639-1 locale code. Option names are namespace names and option keys are paths to translation files. For example:

[locale sk]
default = translation_sk.json

[locale hu]
default = translation_hu.json

Info

This section contains user supplied and front-end presentable information such as description or license. This can be included in main .ini configuration or as a separate JSON file.

The info JSON file might contain:

  • label – server’s name or label
  • description – description of the served data
  • copyright – copyright of the data, if any
  • license – data license
  • maintainer – name of the data maintainer, might be in format Name Surname <namesurname@domain.org>
  • contributors - list of contributors
  • keywords – list of keywords that describe the data
  • related – list of related or “friendly” Slicer servers with other open data – a dictionary with keys label and url.
  • visualizers – list of links to prepared visualisations of the server’s data – a dictionary with keys label and url.

Server Query Logging

Sections, prefixed with query_log configure query logging. All sections with this prefix (including section named as the prefix) are collected and chained into a list of logging handlers. Required option is type. You might have multiple handlers at the same time.

Configuration options are:

type

Type of query log. Required.

Valid options are:

default

Log using Cubes logger via Python logging module.

csv_file

Log into a CSV file. Specify the file name via path option.

json

Log into file as quasi-JSON file - each log record is valid JSON and records are separated by newlines. Specify the file name via path option.

sql

Log into a SQL table. SQL request logger options are:

  • url – database URL
  • table – database table
  • dimensions_table – table with dimension use (optional)

If tables do not exist, they are created automatically.

Example query log configuration

This configuration will create three query loggers, all at once. query_log_one will emit to Python logging and will show in console if log_level is set to info or more verbose. query_log_two will log queries into CSV file /var/log/cubes/queries.csv. query_log_three will insert query log into table cubes_query_log in a PostgreSQL database named cubes_log located on a remote host named log_host.

[query_log_one]
type = default

[query_log_two]
type = csv
path = /var/log/cubes/queries.csv

[query_log_three]
type = sql
url = postgresql://log_host/cubes_log
table = cubes_query_log

Examples

Simple configuration:

[workspace]
model = model.json

[store]
type = sql
url = postgresql://localhost/cubes

Multiple models, one store:

[models]
finance = finance.cubesmodel
customer = customer.cubesmodel

[store]
type = sql
url = postgresql://localhost/cubes

Multiple stores:

[store finance]
type = sql
url = postgresql://localhost/finance
model = finance.cubesmodel

[store customer]
type = sql
url = postgresql://otherhost/customer
model = customer.cubesmodel

Example of a whole configuration file:

[workspace]
model = ~/models/contracts_model.json

[server]
log = /var/log/cubes.log
log_level = info

[store]
type = sql
url = postgresql://localhost/data
schema = cubes