Twilio Transformation dbt Package (Docs)

What does this dbt package do?

Produces modeled tables that leverage Twilio data from Fivetran's connector in the format described by this ERD and builds off the output of our Twilio source package.

The following table provides a detailed list of all tables materialized within this package by default.

TIP: See more details about these tables in the package's dbt docs site.

Table	Description
twilio__message_enhanced	This table provides additional information of every message sent or received.
twilio__number_overview	This table has aggregate messaging information for each phone number level, such as total messages, total inbound messages, total messages by status, and total spend.
twilio__account_overview	This table provides aggregate information per each account regarding the Twilio Messages resource.

How do I use the dbt package?

Step 1: Prerequisites

To use this dbt package, you must have the following:

At least one Fivetran Twilio connector syncing data into your destination.
A BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, PostgreSQL, or Databricks destination.

Databricks Dispatch Configuration

If you are using a Databricks destination with this package you will need to add the below (or a variation of the below) dispatch configuration within your dbt_project.yml. This is required in order for the package to accurately search for macros within the dbt-labs/spark_utils then the dbt-labs/dbt_utils packages respectively.

dispatch:
  - macro_namespace: dbt_utils
    search_order: ['spark_utils', 'dbt_utils']

Step 2: Install the package

Include the following Twilio package version in your packages.yml file:

TIP: Check dbt Hub for the latest installation instructions or read the dbt docs for more information on installing packages.

packages:
  - package: fivetran/twilio
    version: [">=0.4.0", "<0.5.0"]

Step 3: Define database and schema variables

By default, this package runs using your destination and the Twilio schema. If this is not where your Twilio data is (for example, if your Twilio schema is named twilio_fivetran), add the following configuration to your root dbt_project.yml file:

vars:
  twilio_database: your_database_name
  twilio_schema: your_schema_name

Step 4: Enabling/Disabling Models

Your Twilio connector might not sync every table that this package expects, for example if you are not using the Twilio messaging service feature. If your syncs exclude certain tables, it is either because you do not use that functionality in Twilio or have actively excluded some tables from your syncs. In order to enable or disable the relevant tables in the package, you will need to add the following variable(s) to your dbt_project.yml file.

By default, all variables are assumed to be true.

vars:
  using_twilio_call: False # Disable this if not using call
  using_twilio_messaging_service: False # Disable this if not using messaging_service
  using_twilio_usage_record: False # Disable this if not using usage_record

(Optional) Step 5: Additional configurations

Expand/Collapse configurations

Changing the Build Schema

By default, this package will build the Twilio final models within a schema titled (<target_schema> + _twilio), intermediate models in (<target_schema> + _int_twilio), and staging models within a schema titled (<target_schema> + _stg_twilio) in your target database. If this is not where you would like your modeled Twilio data to be written to, add the following configuration to your dbt_project.yml file:

# dbt_project.yml

...
models:
  twilio:
    +schema: my_new_schema_name # leave blank for just the target_schema
    intermediate:
      +schema: my_new_schema_name # leave blank for just the target_schema
  twilio_source:
    +schema: my_new_schema_name # leave blank for just the target_schema

Note that if your profile does not have permissions to create schemas in your warehouse, you can set each +schema to blank. The package will then write all tables to your pre-existing target schema.

Change the source table references

If an individual source table has a different name than the package expects (but is in the same schema and database as the other tables), add the table name as it appears in your destination to the respective variable:

IMPORTANT: See this project's dbt_project.yml variable declarations to see the expected names.

vars:
    twilio_<default_source_table_name>_identifier: your_table_name

(Optional) Step 6: Orchestrate your models with Fivetran Transformations for dbt Core™

Expand for more details

Fivetran offers the ability for you to orchestrate your dbt project through Fivetran Transformations for dbt Core™. Learn how to set up your project for orchestration through Fivetran in our Transformations for dbt Core setup guides.

Does this package have dependencies?

This dbt package is dependent on the following dbt packages. These dependencies are installed by default within this package. For more information on the following packages, refer to the dbt hub site.

IMPORTANT: If you have any of these dependent packages in your own packages.yml file, we highly recommend that you remove them from your root packages.yml to avoid package version conflicts.

packages:
    - package: fivetran/twilio_source
      version: [">=0.4.0", "<0.5.0"]

    - package: fivetran/fivetran_utils
      version: [">=0.4.0", "<0.5.0"]

    - package: dbt-labs/dbt_utils
      version: [">=1.0.0", "<2.0.0"]

    - package: dbt-labs/spark_utils
      version: [">=0.3.0", "<0.4.0"]

How is this package maintained and can I contribute?

Package Maintenance

The Fivetran team maintaining this package only maintains the latest version of the package. We highly recommend you stay consistent with the latest version of the package and refer to the CHANGELOG and release notes for more information on changes across versions.

Contributions

A small team of analytics engineers at Fivetran develops these dbt packages. However, the packages are made better by community contributions.

We highly encourage and welcome contributions to this package. Check out this dbt Discourse article on the best workflow for contributing to a package.

Are there any resources available?

If you have questions or want to reach out for help, see the GitHub Issue section to find the right avenue of support for you.
If you would like to provide feedback to the dbt package team at Fivetran or would like to request a new dbt package, fill out our Feedback Form.