Getting started with BigQuery

Run Hasura GraphQL engine

Using Hasura Cloud

Navigate to cloud.hasura.io, and create a new Hasura Cloud account.

Once you create a project on Hasura Cloud, hit the “Launch Console” button to open the Hasura Console for your project.

Connect new or existing database

Using docker

Get the Hasura docker-compose file:

# in a new directory run
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hasura/graphql-engine/stable/install-manifests/docker-compose/docker-compose.yaml
# or run
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hasura/graphql-engine/stable/install-manifests/docker-compose/docker-compose.yaml -o docker-compose.yaml

The following command will run Hasura along with a Postgres database required for its functioning.

$ docker-compose up -d

Check if the containers are running:

$ docker ps

CONTAINER ID IMAGE                 ... CREATED STATUS PORTS          ...
097f58433a2b hasura/graphql-engine ... 1m ago  Up 1m  8080->8080/tcp ...
b0b1aac0508d postgres              ... 1m ago  Up 1m  5432/tcp       ...

Please do note that you will see a Postgres database running, which is used by Hasura to store its configuration (Hasura metadata).

Head to http://localhost:8080/console to open the Hasura console.

Connecting to a BigQuery project

Pre-requisites

Hasura GraphQL engine requires the following to connect to a BigQuery project:

Creating a Service Account

  • In Google Cloud’s console, head to your BigQuery project.

  • Go to IAM & Admin > Service Accounts > Create Service Account

    Add source
  • Give it a name, and under roles, and grant these 3 roles: BigQuery Metadata Viewer, BigQuery Data Viewer and BigQuery Job User.

    Add source
  • Click on the created service account, Keys > ADD KEY > Create New Key > JSON > Create. This will download a service account file on your computer.

Connect BigQuery to Hasura

  • Update Graphql engine with an environment variable set to the contents of the service account.

For example, this maybe done as follows if you are using docker:

docker run -e BIGQUERY_SA_ACCOUNT=$(cat /path/to/the/service-account.json) <rest-of-the-flags>
  • Head to the console, in the Connect Existing Database page, choose Environment Variable under Connect Via, and fill in the necessary details:
Add source

You should now be able to track the tables that are part of the specified tables and configure relationships between them. As BigQuery lacks foreign key constraints, the console cannot suggest relationships, so all relationships between BigQuery tables have to be manually configured.

Try out a GraphQL query

Head to the GraphiQL tab in the console and try running a GraphQL query! Use the explorer sidebar on GraphQL to get help in creating a GraphQL query.

Make GraphQL query

Keep up to date

Hasura currently supports queries on BigQuery.

Please watch this space to get the latest docs on how you can try these features out via the console or by manipulating metadata in JSON/YAML directly.

If you’d like to stay informed about the status of BigQuery support, subscribe to our newsletter and join our discord!