1. local setup

Install a few pieces of software to get started

We will lean on a few key technologies for this course

• GitHub: for version control, cloud computing and web hosting.
• Slack: for DMs with UHC + DBT groups
• ChatGPT: for AI assist, semantic to syntax translations
• VS-code: as our primary IDE (Interactive Developement Environment)
• DuckDB: a modern OLAP database (external materialization, multi-lingual, serverless)
• Apache Parquet: modern open source columnar stoware format designed for analytics.

1.1 Sign up for GitHub

Sign up for GitHub desktop here: https://github.com/join

1.2 Install GitHub desktop

(If you want to do Git in a GUI, we recomend this one; if you want to work command line go for it!)

Install GitHub Desktop here: https://desktop.github.com/

1.3 Install Python

Open the Microsoft store

Search for Python

Click Install

1.4 Install VS-code

Install VS-code: https://code.visualstudio.com/download

Open VS-code and navigate to extensions tab:

Install extension requirement 1: Python

Install extension requirement 2: DBT Power user

1.5 Configure script running previleges for VS-code

Open Windows Power Shell as administrator

type Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned then confirm Y

1.6 Clone template repository duckdb-dbt-template

• Open GitHub Desktop

• File > Clone Repository

• Choose URL and enter https://github.com/Drexel-UHC/duckdb-dbt-template

• Choose a local directory

• Click Clone

1.7 Setup Local Python Environment

Open Project in VS-code

Open VS-code Command Palette: Navbar > Help > Show All Commands

In Command Palette: search for the Python: Create Environment function and click it

Click Venv as the method of creating a python environment

Select which Python version you want to use: Python 3.10.11

Select which dependencies to install: select requirements.txt then click Okay

Activate Python Environment: type .\.venv\Scripts\activate in the terminal and hit enter

once you see the green (.venv) in your terminal, you know your local python environment has been activated

Double check Python version: python --version

Important

Make sure your Local Environment Python version is 3.10.11.

1.8 Setup DBT

Activate Python Environment: type .\.venv\Scripts\activate in the terminal and hit enter

Check dbt is installed and version by entering dbt --version in terminal

Check that DBT can compile models

If you see done (as shown above) you are ready to start data modeling!! 😄