paint-brush
Installing Locally Is Easy Using the Makefile: An Apache Superset Guideby@lyndsiwilliams
127 reads

Installing Locally Is Easy Using the Makefile: An Apache Superset Guide

by Lyndsi WilliamsAugust 21st, 2023
Read on Terminal Reader
Read this story w/o Javascript
tldt arrow

Too Long; Didn't Read

Install Apache Superset locally with ease using the makefile.
featured image - Installing Locally Is Easy Using the Makefile: An Apache Superset Guide
Lyndsi Williams HackerNoon profile picture

Are you interested in trying out Superset, but you're intimidated by the local setup process? Worry not! Superset needs some initial setup to install locally, but I've got a streamlined way to get started - using the makefile! This file contains a set of scripts to simplify the setup process.


This setup is for Mac OS X, for other OS setups see: https://superset.apache.org/docs/installation/installing-superset-from-scratch/


To start, fork and download Superset from Github: https://github.com/apache/superset


You can run Superset directly without forking it, but you won't be able to create pull requests unless you're using your own forked version.

Prerequisites

Superset has some prerequisites in order to run properly. Let's start with dependencies:


Make sure to update your machine to the latest version of Mac OS X. After updating, install the latest version of XCode command line tools:

xcode-select --install


Going forward, we'll be using Homebrew to install dependencies: https://brew.sh/


Node: Currently, Superset works best with Node.js version 16 and npm version 7. If you've got a preferred version of node, I suggest using Node Version Manager (NVM).


nvm install 16


Python: Currently, Superset works best with Python version 3.9. We'll be using a Python virtual environment, so for now, just install the Python version:

brew install [email protected]


Make sure to update pip and setuptools as well:

pip install --upgrade setuptools pip


Almost done; now, we need the rest of the dependencies:

brew install readline pkg-config libffi openssl mysql postgresql@14


Set LDFLAGS and CFLAGS to allow certain Python packages to build properly. You can export the variables with these commands:

export LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix openssl)/lib"
export CFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix openssl)/include"


You will need to set a secret key in your superset_config.py file for security reasons. Open superset in your favorite code editor and create a file called superset_config.py in the root folder. In this file, set your secret key like this:

SECRET_KEY='insertSecurePasswordHere'


Python Virtual Environment

Now, we can set up our Python virtual environment. Start by installing virtualenv:

pip install virtualenv


cd into wherever you've locally cloned your forked instance of Superset. Create a virtual environment with Python 3.9:

// Create a venv directory
python3.9 -m venv venv

// Open the virtual environment
. venv/bin/activate


You will need two terminal windows to run Superset. I like to use iTerm2's horizontal window stacking to keep my terminal windows together: https://iterm2.com/

Now It's Time for the Makefile Magic ✨

Make sure you're at the root file of Superset and in a virtual environment. Run this command to install Superset:

make install


That's it; you're installing Superset! This script will run for a bit. Bring a snack.


Once the installation is complete, it's time to get things running. Boot up the back end with:

make flask-app


In a separate terminal window, once again, make sure you're at the root file of Superset and in a virtual environment. Boot up the front end with:

make node-app


Once webpack finishes loading the app, go to localhost:9000 in your browser. You'll see a login screen; log in with these credentials:

Username: admin
Password: general


You're in! Welcome to Superset; enjoy your experience, and feel free to contribute. It's open source!


Also published here