How can I build a front end for querying a Redshift database (hopefully with Rails)

Question

So I have a Redshift database with enough tables that it feels worth my time to build a front end to make querying it a little bit easier than just typing in SQL commands.

Answer 1

This tutorial helps you setup a rails app with a redshift adapter:

https://www.credible.com/code/setting-up-a-data-warehouse-with-aws-redshift-and-ruby/

In a nutshell:

Clone the sample app:

git clone git@github.com:tuesy/redshift-ruby-tutorial.git
cd redshift-ruby-tutorial

Setup ENV Variables via ~/.bashrc (or dotenv):

export REDSHIFT_HOST=redshift-ruby-tutorial.ccmj2nxbsay7.us-east-1.redshift.amazonaws.com
export REDSHIFT_PORT=5439
export REDSHIFT_USER=deploy
export REDSHIFT_PASSWORD=
export REDSHIFT_DATABASE=analytics
export REDSHIFT_BUCKET=redshift-ruby-tutorial

Use the gem activerecord4-redshift-adapter, in Gemfile:

'activerecord4-redshift-adapter', '~> 0.2.0' # For Rails 4.2
'activerecord4-redshift-adapter', '~> 0.1.1' # For Rails 4.1

Then you can query into redshift like you would with a normal AR model:

bundle exec rails c
RedshiftUser.count

(Disclosure: I havn't yet given this method a try, but I may soon)