Orcabase-hosted databases

No database of your own, or want a home for synced spreadsheets and uploaded files? Orcabase can host one for you. There are two kinds, and you can have both.

Postgres servers and DuckDB warehouses

Hosted databases are set up for your organization by the Orcabase team, as part of the data hosting add-on (see Pricing). To add one, message us.

Connect a hosted Postgres server

1. Start a new data source

   Go to Data Sources→ then New data source and pick PostgreSQL. A hosted server is connected like any other Postgres database.

2. Fill in the server

   Admins can pick one of your organization’s servers under Fill from a platform server, which fills in its host and port. Otherwise copy them from the server’s connection string. Database is usually postgres, the one every server comes with.

3. Add a user and create it

   Enter a Postgres user and its password, then click Create data source. A user that can only read is the safest choice: create one on the server’s Users tab (see below) and give it access to the database.

Postgres management in admincp Platform admins

Platform admins manage hosted Postgres in admincp → Projects. Open a project to view its resources, live usage, password and connection strings, manage backups, start or stop it, and assign it to an organization. In dash, use Data Sources to connect and Explore to work with your data.

Use the connection strings to point your own app or tools at the server. There are two: Gateway — pooled shares connections, which suits web apps that open many short ones. Gateway — direct is a plain connection, for long sessions, migrations and bulk loads.

Your hosted DuckDB warehouse

When the Orcabase team sets up a DuckDB warehouse for you, we add it to your Data Sources too, as a DuckDB source, ready to use. To add it again yourself, pick DuckDB and enter the warehouse’s query URL and token.

A DuckDB warehouse is where built-in syncs land, and the best place for uploaded files. In Explore you can:

• New schema: make a schema, a folder for tables, before loading data into it.
• Load data: turn a file into a table. See Upload files.
• Profile: on any table, see each column’s type, minimum, maximum, approximate number of unique values, average, spread and share of empty values.

Attach a Postgres database to a DuckDB warehouse

A DuckDB warehouse can reach into any Postgres data source in your organization and query it in place. Nothing is copied: the connection is made fresh for each query, and it’s read-only. That lets one query join synced data with your app’s live data.

1. Open the warehouse in Explore

   Go to Explore, select the DuckDB data source, and open its Attachments tab.

2. Attach

   Enter an Alias (a short name like app), pick the Postgres data source, and click Attach.

3. Query across both

   Refer to the Postgres tables as alias.schema.table:

   SQL · DuckDBCopy

   SELECT s.plan, COUNT(*) AS customers
   FROM app.public.customers AS c
   JOIN sheets.subscriptions AS s ON s.email = c.email
   GROUP BY s.plan