Mixpanel Puller 📊

Python scripts that pull data from Mixpanel using the Mixpanel API 📡. It then extracts the relevant data and inserts it into various tables in PostgreSQL.

It consist of two main runnable scripts:

1. funnels_script.py - Pulls funnel data from Mixpanel for the previous 7 days (script to run once a week) and inserts it into the funnel transactions (funnel_trans) table.

2. raw_export_script.py - Pulls raw event data from Mixpanel for the previous day (script to run daily) and inserts it into 4 tables:

   • event_def: Event definitions table
   • event_trans: Event transactions table.
   • property_def: Property definitions table.
   • property_trans: Property transactions table.

Getting started

Files and libraries explained

Description of Python script files

The two main scripts run from the following Python files:

1. Raw export: raw_export_script.py
2. Funnels: funnels_script.py

These two scripts will call:

• mixpanel_puller.py - this is called by the scripts in order to pull the relevant data from Mixpanel.com. It contains three methods:

  • pull_raw_export - pulls raw event data from Mixpanel.
  • list_funnels - pulls a list of funnels with funnel_id and funnel_name from Mixpanel.
  • pull_funnels - pulls funnel data for a given funnel_id, one of the parameters it takes.

• to_postgres.py - this is called by the scripts to connect to the database and create tables. It contains 3 methods:

  • connect_db - accepts parameters hostname, db (database name), name (username) and pw (password) in order to connect to the Postgres database.
  • create_raw_export_table - creates tables that will be used to store raw event data exported from Mixpanel. These are the four tables event_def, property_def, property_trans and event_trans. Will only create the table if it doesn't already exist.
  • create_funnel_table - creates the funnel_trans table. Will only create the table if it doesn't already exist.

Description of libraries used

• mixpanel_api: contains Mixpanel API Python library. Inside the folder mixpanel_api are the Python library API files for Mipxanel, one used for raw data export (data_export.py) and the other (general.py) for requesting funnel data. The Mixpanel API uses a slightly different syntax for requesting raw data so therefore has it's own API script which slight differs from the general
• simplejson - json module for encoding and decoding.

Dependencies

psycopg2: These scripts use psycopg2 which is a Python-Postgres database adaptor which allows PostgreSQL syntax to be used in Python scripts.

How to install psycopg2

Visit this page for instructions on how to install on Linux, Windows or Mac OS X. On Linux servers or PC's running on Debian, Ubuntu and other deb-based distributions you should just need:

sudo apt-get install python-psycopg2

Alternatively, install as a Python package using:

pip install psycopg2

What do I need to change before running scripts?

You will need to make some changes to certain variables (specified below) to the actual .py script files (source code) before running any scripts.

Mixpanel API Key and Secret

In order to start pulling data from your Mixpanel account, you will need your API Key and Secret.

Enter these by simply changing the following variables:

• api_key - Line 11 in funnels_script.py, Line 9 in raw_export_script.py.
• api_secret - Line 12 in funnels_script.py, Line 10 in raw_export_script.py.

PostgreSQL database parameters

Note: THIS MUST BE CHANGED BEFORE RUNNING ANY SCRIPT

The following database parameter variables in each script will have to be changed in order to connect to the correct database:

• hostname: This is the hostname such as "localhost" or xxx.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com". Change this in Line 26 in funnels_script.py and Line 32 in raw_export_script.py.

• db: This is the database name. Change it in Line 27 in funnels_script.py and Line 33 in raw_export_script.py.

• name: This is the username to connect to the database, Line 28 in funnels_script.py and Line 34 in raw_export_script.py.

• pw: This is the password to connect to the database. Change it in Line 29 in funnels_script.py and Line 35 in raw_export_script.py.

Testing

Date ranges

By default funnels_script.py will pull funnel data for the previous seven days while the raw_export_script.py will pull event data for the previous day. These date ranges can also be changed by editing the appropriate variables, so that data for other date ranges can be pulled as required.

Lift off!

Once you have installed the dependencies and changed the relevant variables as described above, go ahead and run the scripts!

After running funnels_script.py and raw_export_script.py, you should see five tables in your Postgres database beautifully populated with the relevant columns and Mixpanel data.