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NexusOne replaced Metabase with Apache Superset
Metabase is a business intelligence and analytics app built to make data exploration accessible to everyone in an organization. It provides an intuitive interface that enables you to investigate data, build visual dashboards, and ask analytical questions without needing deep technical knowledge. While the platform supports writing SQL for more advanced use cases, its primary strength lies in allowing non-technical users to generate insights through a graphical query builder.

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Uses cases

Metabase is an effective solution for a wide range of analytical needs in both technical and non-technical teams. It excels in scenarios such as:
  • Empowering business users who need to ask questions and explore data without writing SQL
  • Providing quick, ad-hoc insights, such as checking recent signups, sales trends, or operational metrics
  • Creating lightweight dashboards that support interactive filtering, drill-downs, and simple visual exploration
  • Operating within secure enterprise environments, where features like Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), Single Sign-On (SSO), JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication, HTTPS ingress, and embedded analytics are crucial
Because this deployment integrates directly with Keycloak, embedding apps, and an enterprise Trino engine, it’s particularly suitable for analytics platforms that need strong identity, governance, and performance characteristics.

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Metabase and Trino

Trino is a distributed SQL query engine that lets Metabase query multiple data sources such as databases or Iceberg tables, through a single connection.

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Automatic configuration

Within NexusOne, the Trino connection is already preconfigured in Metabase. That means the host, port, catalog, or credentials are available before the app starts. With all these already configured, you can start exploring data immediately.

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How Metabase periodically updates its content from Trino

Some queries might be expensive, so Metabase takes extra measures to sync with Trino-connected catalogs. This reduces load on Trino and improves Metabase’s responsiveness. These measures include:
  • Metadata refresh: Metabase updates its internal metadata cache so it knows about the latest table and column definitions of the Trino-connected data sources.
  • Field value cache: Metabase stores the distinct values of a field that appear in dropdown filters to speed up the UI.
On NexusOne, Metabase sets the following:
  • Hourly metadata sync
  • Daily field value cache refresh

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Exploring the Metabase UI

The Metabase homepage is your starting point for navigating data, creating content, and reopening recent work. This section explores the Metabase UI and how to navigate it. Before exploring these, you can launch Metabase using the following designated URL: 
https://metabase.<client>.nx1cloud.com/
When you purchase NexusOne, you receive a client name. Replace client with your assigned client name.
After visiting the URL, enter your NexusOne credentials to log in. You should see a Metabase homepage similar to the following image.
01-metabase-homepage

Metabase homepage
As seen in the previous image, the left sidebar provides quick access to core areas of Metabase. It organizes your workflow so you can move between dashboards, databases, and other resources efficiently. It comprises the following:
  • Home: Returns to the main screen
  • Collections: Folders containing dashboards, questions, and models
  • Browse:
    • Models: Contains reusable virtual tables
    • Databases: Browse connected databases and tables
    • Metrics: Centrally defined business metrics
  • Trash: Recover deleted items

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Center panel

As seen in the previous image, the center panel displays the following:
  • A greeting message
  • The Pick up where you left off section lists your most recent questions, tables, or dashboards so you can quickly continue working.

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Top-right panel

As seen in the previous image, the top-right panel displays the following:
  • Search: Find questions, dashboards, tables, or collections.
  • New: When you click New, it displays the following options in the dropdown:
    • Question: Create a new query using the visual builder or custom expressions.
    • SQL Query: Write a custom SQL statement to build a question or model.
    • Dashboard: Combine multiple questions into one interactive view.
    • Collection: Create a folder to organize dashboards, questions, and models.
    • Model: Build a reusable, cleaned-up virtual table for analysis.
    • Metric: Define a standardized business metric for consistent reporting.

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Metabase query methods

In Metabase, you can use either the query builder or SQL editor to query data through Trino. This depends on your user role and expertise.

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GUI query builder

The query builder is a visual interface that allows non-technical users to create questions and dashboards without writing SQL. It supports the following features:
  • Click-based filters: Refine data directly in your questions or dashboard widgets.
  • Aggregations and summaries: Summarize and aggregate your data, such as sums, averages, or counts.
  • Grouping and breakdowns: Group data by categories to better understand trends.
  • Easy visualization selection: Choose the best way to visualize your data using graphs or bar charts.
  • Data exploration without writing SQL: Create both questions and widgets, then add them to dashboards for easy exploration.

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SQL editor

For data analysts, engineers, and power users working with complex datasets or performing advanced analytics, the SQL editor exposes the full capabilities of Trino. Through this interface, you can do the following:
  • Write raw SQL queries
  • Use parameters inside SQL statements
  • Save reusable queries or native questions
  • Join across datasets and catalogs

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Metabase hands-on examples

This section describes several hands-on examples of using Metabase.

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Select a schema and table

Metabase displays the schemas and tables exposed by Trino. A typical tree structure of Metabase and its connected catalog, schemas, and tables looks like the following: 
my-db (iceberg-specific Hive catalog)
├── demo (schema)
├── default (schema)
└── system (schema)
Use the following steps to select a schema and table on Metabase:
  1. From the Metabase homepage, click Databases in the Browse section on the left panel.
  2. Select a desired database.
  3. Select a desired schema.
  4. Select a desired table to inspect its content.
02-tables-inside-a-schema

Tables inside a schema

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Create a question

A question in Metabase is a saved query or visualization that extracts and displays data from your databases. You can create a question from a model, table, or previous questions. Follow these steps to create a question from a table:
  1. From the Metabase homepage, click New > Question.
  2. Click Tables to choose the data you want to work with.
  3. Select a schema and table.
  4. Optional: Add filters to refine your data.
  5. Optional: Summarize the data by applying aggregations or groupings,
  6. Click Save at the top right corner of the page.
  7. In the Name field, enter a name for the question.
  8. Click Save.

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Build a dashboard

Dashboards in Metabase let you combine multiple visualizations into a single view, track key metrics, and explore data interactively. Follow these steps to create a dashboard:
  1. From the Metabase homepage, click New > Dashboard.
  2. In the Name field, enter a name for the dashboard.
  3. Click Create.
You can also create a dashboard from a question using the following steps:
  1. Create a question.
  2. In the saved question page, click the three dots ... menu at the top right corner of the page.
  3. Click Add to dashboard > New dashboard.
  4. In the Name field, enter a name for the dashboard.
  5. Click Create.
Other interesting things you can do when creating a dashboard include:
  • Organize the layout: Drag and resize cards in a grid-style interface.
  • Add dashboard filters: Enable cross-card filtering for cohesive exploration.
  • Set a refresh schedule: Control when data updates, such as hourly or daily.

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Best practices for optimizing performance

Metabase queries can become expensive, especially on large datasets or distributed engines like Trino. The following best practices help reduce execution time, lower load on the engine, and improve dashboard responsiveness.

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Avoid full table scans

Large unfiltered queries are costly. Always filter or limit data early when possible. Filtering drastically reduces the data scanned and speeds up execution.
  • Bad example: Full table scan 
    SELECT *
FROM events;
  • Good example: Filter early 
    SELECT user_id, event_type
FROM events
WHERE event_type = 'purchase';

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Use date filters

Filtering by a recent time window reduces the amount of data scanned. For example 
WHERE event_date >= current_date - interval '30' day

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Prefer aggregated queries

Aggregations reduce the amount of data processed and returned.
  • Bad example: Returning raw rows 
    SELECT user_id, amount
FROM transactions
WHERE transaction_date >= current_date - interval '7' day;
  • Good example: Summary metric 
    SELECT
    date(transaction_date) AS day,
    sum(amount) AS total_revenue
FROM transactions
WHERE transaction_date >= current_date - interval '7' day
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;

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Use partitions

If you partition Iceberg tables, filtering on partitions, such as date or region, significantly improves performance.
  • Bad example: Filtering on a non-partition column. 
    SELECT *
FROM events
WHERE user_id = 123;
  • Good example: Filter using the partition column. 
    SELECT * FROM events
WHERE event_date = current_date
AND user_id = 123;

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Limit returned data

Visualization queries should return summaries or KPIs, not raw tables with large row counts.
  • Bad example: Returning millions of rows. 
    SELECT *
FROM page_views
WHERE view_date >= current_date - interval '90' day;
  • Good example: Return only needed fields, or aggregated data. 
    SELECT user_id, page_url, view_time
FROM page_views
WHERE view_time >= current_date - interval '7' day
LIMIT 5000;

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Additional resources

  • For more details about Metabase, refer to the Metabase official documentation.
  • If you are using the NexusOne portal to visualize your dataset, refer to the Discover page.