HubDB

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APPLICABLE PRODUCTS
  • CMS Hub
    • Professional or Enterprise

HubDB is a relational data store represented as rows, columns, and cells in a table, much like a spreadsheet.  The HubDB UI is accessible from Marketing > Files and Templates > HubDB in the main navigation.  The data within a table can be retrieved in several ways depending on your needs. You can query the data externally via the HubDB API or you can use HubSpot’s HubL markup tags to pull data into the CMS. Using the HubDB API with serverless functions can enable you to provide an interactive web app experience.

Please note: HubDB is available to all HubSpot customers with CMS Hub. Currently, using HubDB  to render content in marketing emails is in a limited beta and requires Marketing Hub Enterprise, but cannot be used to personalize. Using contact properties to filter the HubDB table is not possible.

Getting access to HubDB

There are two types of access you can assign to a user in order for them to be able to make use of HubDB. Both of these settings are located inside of a user's permissions area. To assign access, go to Settings > Users & Teams and hover over a user. Then, choose "Edit" from the Actions Menu.

The UI to edit permissions for HubDB.

Once in the edit permissions pane, the settings are in:

  • Marketing Tab > HubDB [Publish, Read, Write]:
    • Publish: Allows user to publish/update an existing HubDB tables
    • Read: Allows the user to view the contents of HubDB tables
    • Write: Allows the user to make edits to the HubDB tables

  • Account Tab > Edit HubDB Tables [Toggle]:
    • When toggled on, this will allow users to also create, clone, unpublish, and delete tables.

HubDB Technical Limits

  • 10,000 rows per HubDB table.
  • 1000 HubDB tables per account.
  • 10 table scans per CMS page. Defined as a single call to hubdb_table_rows()
  • HubSpot’s general API limits

Creating your first table

Open up the HubDB editor app and click the "Create Table" button (or use the APIs create table endpoint).
Note: All new tables created are set with a status of draft. They cannot be used to output data via HubL or API until you publish the table.

Create a new HubDB table by clicking the Create Table button.

 

Set your table permission settings

You can manage your HubDB tables settings by clicking "Actions", then "Manage Settings". The following settings are available:

  • Allow public API access: [On by default] When this option is toggled off, your table contents can only be viewed in the app or with authenticated APIs. When toggled on, your table can be queried by unauthenticated APIs.
  • Enable creation of dynamic pages using row data: With dynamic pages, HubDB allows you to create a page for every row in your table. Upon toggling this option on, you will then be able to select columns of you HubDB table that will serve as the source for your Meta Description, Featured Image, and Canonical URL.

How to access the settings area for your table.

 

HubDB Architecture

Tables

A table is a 2-dimensional arrangement of rows and columns. When a table is created, it is given a globally unique ID which can be used to identify it. 

Rows

Rows are horizontal slices of a table. All the values in a row are related, usually to a single primary identifier. In a spreadsheet application, rows are represented by numbers, starting with 1. Each table row is given a globally unique ID on creation. 

Columns

Columns are vertical slices of a table. Each column has a type. In a spreadsheet application, they're represented by alphabetic columns like A, B, C, etc. There are two types of table columns:

Built-in Columns

Each row in a table has a couple of built-in columns:

Use this table to describe parameters / fields
Column Description
hs_id

An automatically assigned, globally unique, numeric ID for this row.

hs_created_at

A timestamp of when this row was created.

hs_path

When used with dynamic pages, this string is the last segment of the URL's path for the page.

hs_name

When used with dynamic pages, this is the title of the page.
Custom Columns

Note: As of October 1st, 2020, Rich Text Area columns in HubDB are limited to 65,000 characters. For more information, please view our changelog regarding this change.

Tables can have as many custom columns as you'd like. They can be text, rich text, numbers, currency, dates, times, images, videos, selects or locations (latitude and longitude). 

When a column is created, it is given a numeric id unique to the table, starting at value 1. Column IDs are increasing, but not necessarily sequential. Column IDs cannot be reused, so if a table has 2 columns, 1 and 2, and the 2nd column is deleted, the next column created will have ID 3.

Cells

Cells store the values where a row and column intersect. Cells can be read or updated individually or as part of a row. Setting the value of a cell to null is equivalent to deleting the cell's value.

Access HubDB data using HubL

Getting Rows

You can query tables from HubL and iterate over the results. To list rows of a table, use the hubdb_table_rows() HubL function. You can either access a table by its ID or name. It is recommended to reference a HubDB table by name, as this can help with code portability across HubSpot accounts. The immutable table name is set when creating a new table and can be found at any time by selecting Actions > Manage Settings within the table editor. A table's ID can be found in the address bar of the table editor or in the HubDB tables dashboard under the "ID" column. 

Table Create

Below is an example of using hubdb_table_rows() to fetch data.

HubL 
{% for row in hubdb_table_rows(<tableId or name>, <filterQuery>) %}
  the value for row {{ row.hs_id }} is {{ row.<column name> }}
{% endfor %}

<filterQuery> uses the same syntax as the HTTP API. For example,  hubdb_table_rows(123, "employees__gt=10&orderBy=count") would return a list of rows where the "employees" column is greater than 10, ordered by the "count" column. A complete list of optional <filterQuery> parameters can be found here.

NOTE: Instead of using multiple row queries with different <filterQuery>  parameters, you should make one query and use the selectattr()  or rejectattr()  filters to filter your rows:

HubL 
{% set all_cars = hubdb_table_rows(<tableId or name>) %}

{% set cars_with_windows = all_cars|selectattr('windows') %}

{% set teslas = all_cars|selectattr('make','equalto','tesla') %}

To get a single row, use the hubdb_table_row() HubL function.

HubL 
{% set row = hubdb_table_row(<tableId or name>, <rowId>) %}
the value for {{ row.hs_id }} is {{ row.<column name> }}

Built-in and custom column names are case insensitive. HS_ID will work the same as hs_id.

Row attributes
Use this table to describe parameters / fields
Attribute Description
row.hs_id

The globally unique id for this row.

row.hs_path

When using dynamic pages, this string is the Page Path column value and the last segment of the url's path.

row.hs_name

When using dynamic pages, this string is the Page Title column value for the row.

row.hs_created_at

Unix timestamp for when the row was created.

row.hs_child_table_id

When using dynamic pages, this is the ID of the other table that is populating data for the row.

row.column_name

Get the value if the custom column by the name of the column.

row.["column name"]

Get the value if the custom column by the name of the column.

Getting Table Info

To get information on a table including its name, columns, last updated, etc, use the hubdb_table() function.

HubL 
{% set table_info = hubdb_table(<tableId or name>) %}
Table Attributes

The attributes listed below are in reference to the variable that hubdb_table() was assigned to in the above code. Your variable may differ.
Note: It is recommended assigning this to a variable for easier use. If you don't want to do that, you can use
{{ hubdb_table(<tableId>).attribute }}

Use this table to describe parameters / fields
Attribute Description
table_info.id

The id of the table.

table_info.name

The name of the table.

table_info.columns

List of column information. You can use a for loop to iterate through the information available in this attribute.

table_info.created_at

Timestamp of when the table was first created.

table_info.published_at

Timestamp of when this table was published.

table_info.updated_at

Timestamp of when this table was last updated.

table_info.row_count

Number of rows in the table.

Getting Column Info

HubL 
{% set table_info = hubdb_table_column(<tableId or name>, <columnId or column name>) %}

To get information on a column in table such as its label, type and options, use the hubdb_table_column() function

Column attributes

The attributes listed below are in reference to the variable that hubdb_table_column() was assigned to in the above code. Your variable may differ.
Note: It is recommended assigning this to a variable for easier use. If you don't want to do that, you can use
{{ hubdb_table_column(<tableId>,<columnId or column name>).attribute }}

Use this table to describe parameters / fields
Attribute Description
table_info.id

The ID of the column.

table_info.name

The name of the column.

table_info.label

The label to be used for the column.

table_info.type

Type of this column.

table_info.options

For select column type, this is a map of optionId to option information.

table_info.foreignIds

For foreignId column types, a list of foreignIds (with id and name properties).
Column methods
Use this table to describe parameters / fields
Method Description
getOptionByName("<option name")

For select column types, get option information by the options name.

Using the HubDB REST APIs

If you would like to manage your HubDB data externally, or using serverless functions, you can use our REST APIs found here

HubDB tutorials and resources