The Book:
Data Pipelines with Apache Airflow By Bas HarenSlak & Julian de Ruiter
Short Summary:
"Data Pipelines with Apache Airflow" is an introductory and intermediate book about Apache Airflow. The book covers everything from introducing Airflow to giving some excellent ideas for generic use cases. The book has four parts: "Getting Started," "Beyond the Basics," "Airflow in Practice," and "In the Clouds." "Getting Started" and "Beyond the Basics," detail Airflow- such as how to use the framework and interacting with DAGs. "Airflow in Practice" also has some Airflow details but focuses more on the practical parts of Airflow, such as security. "In the Clouds" give examples of deploying a project using AWS, Azure, and GCP.
What I liked:
The first two parts are excellent - the authors do a great job explaining Airflow. I learned so much that I was able to use immediately. Airflow is such a massive framework, but somehow, they were able to condescend all the essential concepts into these two parts without going into unnecessary topics.
What I disliked:
The last two parts went into some detail but didn't work for me as much as they assume a lot about your project. I understand the thinking behind these parts - they wanted to show examples and starting points - but for me, a lot of it was irrelevant. The only chapter I admit to skipping is chapter 17 because it discusses deployment in Azure, and I don't see myself using Azure anytime soon.
Review round-up:
This book is excellent for anyone working with Apache Airflow. Although I couldn't say the last two parts worked for me, the authors say in their "About this Book" that after chapter five, the reader can read what they feel is necessary. So perhaps, I overread what I needed/ overread what the Authors suggested, and I don't think it takes away from everything you can learn from this book. Again the first two parts are more than worth it, and if you decide to read the book, skim the chapters and see if you need to read the entire book.
Rating:
8/10 Python Snakes
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