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Quick Start - Your First Data Flow

This guide will walk you through creating your first data flow in SaddleData in under 10 minutes. We'll go from signing up to replicating a table from a source PostgreSQL database to a destination PostgreSQL database.

1. Sign Up and Create an Organization​

First, head to the SaddleData sign-up page and create your account. Once you've verified your email, you're ready to start building!

2. Connect to a Source (PostgreSQL)​

A Connection is a specific instance of an Integration, which securely stores the credentials for a third-party service. For some database types like PostgreSQL, you can create both at the same time.

  1. From the action button on the bottom right, click "New Connection".
  2. Give this connection a descriptive name, like `sample-pg-source.
  3. Select PostgreSQL from the list.
  4. The form will prompt you for both the Integration and Connection details in one place.
  5. Fill in the required credentials for your source database.
  6. Click "Add Connection".

3. Connect to a Destination (PostgreSQL)​

Follow the same process as in Step 2 for your destination database.

  1. From the action button on the bottom right, click "New Connection".
  2. Give your connection a name, like my-pg-destination.
  3. Select PostgreSQL from the list.
  4. Fill in the credentials for your destination database.
  5. Click "Add Connection".

4. Create Your First Flow​

A Flow is the pipeline that moves data from a source to a destination.

  1. From the action button on the bottom right, click "New Flow".
  2. Give your flow a name, for example, replicate-users-table.
  3. In the "Design" tab (default), select your sample-pg-source connection as the Source and my-pg-destination as the Destination.
  4. Navigate to the "Schema" tab.
  5. On the left, you'll see the Source Schema. Click the refresh icon to discover available tables. Select the tables and columns you want to sync.
  6. On the right, in the Field Mapping & Types section, you can:
    • Rename the destination table or specific columns.
    • Override Types: Change the destination data type (e.g., sync a source string to a destination JSON). Saddle Data will perform "Smart Casting" automatically.
    • Set Sync Mode: Choose between Full Refresh, Incremental Append, or Incremental Deduped for each table.
    • Schema Policy: Choose how to handle future schema changes (Automatic or Pause).
  7. Return to the "Schedule" tab and click "Manual Trigger".
  8. Click "Save Flow" at the top.

5. Run the Flow and Verify​

  1. From the left navigation, click Flows.
  2. From the Flows list, find your new flow and click the "Run Now" button.
  3. The flow status will change to "Running" and then to "Succeeded".
  4. Connect to your destination PostgreSQL database. You should now see the replicated tables with the same data as in your source database.

Congratulations! You've just built your first data flow with SaddleData.