Metabase Workflows¶

Dashboard management, exports, and advanced Metabase usage.

Overview¶

Dango includes Metabase for visualization. This guide covers advanced workflows beyond basic dashboard creation:

• Exporting and importing dashboards
• Organizing collections
• Using the Metabase API
• Backup strategies

Accessing Metabase¶

Via Dango¶

# Open Metabase in browser
dango web
# Then click "Metabase" in the navigation

# Or directly
open http://localhost:3000

Default Credentials¶

After dango start, Metabase is provisioned with:

• Email: admin@dango.local
• Password: dango123!

Dashboard Export & Import¶

Using Dango CLI¶

# Save all dashboards to JSON
dango metabase save

# Output: metabase_export.json

# Load dashboards from JSON
dango metabase load --file metabase_export.json

Export Location¶

Exports are saved to:

my-project/
└── metabase_export.json

What's Exported¶

The export includes: - Dashboard definitions - Questions (saved queries) - Collections structure - Visualization settings

Organizing Collections¶

Collection Structure¶

Organize dashboards into collections for clarity:

📁 Our Analytics
├── 📁 Revenue
│   ├── 📊 Daily Revenue Dashboard
│   └── 📊 Monthly Trends
├── 📁 Customers
│   ├── 📊 Customer Overview
│   └── 📊 Cohort Analysis
└── 📁 Operations
    └── 📊 Sync Status

Creating Collections¶

1. Click + New in Metabase
2. Select Collection
3. Name it and choose parent location
4. Move dashboards by editing them and changing collection

Using the Metabase API¶

API Basics¶

Metabase has a REST API for automation:

# Base URL
http://localhost:3000/api/

# Authentication
# First, get a session token
curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/session \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username": "admin@dango.local", "password": "dango123!"}'

Common API Operations¶

List Dashboards:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/dashboard \
  -H "X-Metabase-Session: YOUR_SESSION_TOKEN"

Get Dashboard Details:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/dashboard/1 \
  -H "X-Metabase-Session: YOUR_SESSION_TOKEN"

Export Dashboard:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/dashboard/1 \
  -H "X-Metabase-Session: YOUR_SESSION_TOKEN" \
  -o dashboard_1.json

Python Example¶

import requests

# Login
session = requests.Session()
response = session.post(
    "http://localhost:3000/api/session",
    json={
        "username": "admin@dango.local",
        "password": "dango123!"
    }
)
token = response.json()["id"]

# List dashboards
headers = {"X-Metabase-Session": token}
dashboards = session.get(
    "http://localhost:3000/api/dashboard",
    headers=headers
).json()

for d in dashboards:
    print(f"{d['id']}: {d['name']}")

Dashboard Versioning¶

Git Workflow for Dashboards¶

# 1. Export dashboards
dango metabase save

# 2. Commit to version control
git add metabase_export.json
git commit -m "Update dashboard: added revenue chart"

# 3. On another machine, restore
dango metabase load --file metabase_export.json

Tracking Changes¶

The JSON export is diff-friendly:

# See what changed
git diff metabase_export.json

Refreshing Data Connections¶

When to Refresh¶

Refresh the database connection after: - DuckDB schema changes - Adding new dbt models - Syncing new data sources

Refresh Methods¶

Via CLI:

dango metabase refresh

Via UI: 1. Go to Admin → Databases 2. Select the DuckDB database 3. Click Sync database schema now

Creating Effective Dashboards¶

Best Practices¶

1. One dashboard per topic - Don't overcrowd
2. Put key metrics at top - Most important KPIs first
3. Use consistent colors - Establish a color scheme
4. Add text cards - Explain context and definitions
5. Filter at dashboard level - Add date/category filters

Dashboard Layout¶

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  📊 Revenue Dashboard                    │
├──────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┤
│  Total Rev   │  Orders      │  Avg Order │
│  $125,000    │  1,234       │  $101      │
├──────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┤
│                                         │
│  📈 Revenue Over Time (Line Chart)      │
│                                         │
├───────────────────┬─────────────────────┤
│  Revenue by       │  Top Products       │
│  Category (Pie)   │  (Table)            │
└───────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

Scheduling & Alerts¶

Dashboard Subscriptions¶

Set up email notifications:

1. Open a dashboard
2. Click Subscriptions (bell icon)
3. Configure:
4. Recipients
5. Frequency (daily, weekly)
6. Time of day

Alerts¶

Set alerts on questions:

1. Open a saved question
2. Click Alert (bell icon)
3. Configure trigger:
4. When results exist
5. When value is above/below threshold

Embedding Dashboards¶

Public Links¶

For sharing without login:

1. Go to Admin → Settings → Public Sharing
2. Enable public sharing
3. On a dashboard, click Sharing → Public link

Iframe Embedding¶

<iframe
    src="http://localhost:3000/public/dashboard/abc123"
    frameborder="0"
    width="100%"
    height="600"
    allowtransparency
></iframe>

Troubleshooting¶

Common Issues¶

Reset Metabase¶

If Metabase gets into a bad state:

# Stop services
dango stop

# Remove Metabase data (WARNING: loses all dashboards!)
rm -rf metabase-data/

# Restart and re-provision
dango start
dango dashboard provision

Next Steps¶

• Creating Dashboards - Dashboard basics
• SQL Queries - Custom SQL in Metabase
• Backup & Restore - Complete backup strategy