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Quickstart: Create your first graph in Microsoft Fabric

In this quickstart, you use graph in Microsoft Fabric to create a basic graph with two nodes and one edge, and then run a query. This process takes about 15 minutes.

For a comprehensive tutorial that covers the full Adventure Works data model and more advanced scenarios, see the graph tutorial.

Prerequisites

Before you start this quickstart, verify that:

  1. You have access to a Microsoft Fabric capacity (F2 or higher) or a Fabric trial.

  2. Graph is available in your region.

  3. You're a member of a Fabric workspace or have permission to create items in the workspace. For more information, see Workspaces in Microsoft Fabric.

    Important

    Access management of the graph is restricted to the workspace that hosts it. Users outside of the workspace can't access the graph. Users within the workspace who have access to the underlying data in the lakehouse can model and query the graph.

Load sample data

To create your graph, first load sample data into a lakehouse in your Fabric workspace.

Download the sample data

  1. Go to the graph in Microsoft Fabric GQL example datasets on GitHub.

  2. Select the adventureworks_docs_sample.zip file and download it to your local machine.

    Tip

    To download a file from GitHub, select the file, and then select the Download raw file icon.

  3. Extract the downloaded adventureworks_docs_sample.zip file to a folder on your local machine.

    Tip

    In File Explorer, right-click the zip file and select Extract All, then choose a destination folder.

Create a lakehouse

  1. In Microsoft Fabric, select the workspace where you want to create the lakehouse.
  2. Select + New item.
  3. Select Store data > Lakehouse.
  4. Enter a name (for example, "AdventureWorksLakehouse"), clear the Lakehouse schemas option, and select Create.

Load the data into tables

For this quickstart, you only need two tables: adventureworks_customers and adventureworks_orders. Upload the full sample data folder, and then load just these two tables.

Note

The full set of sample files is used in the full graph tutorial. You can also use them to explore additional data on your own.

  1. In your lakehouse, hover over Files, select the ellipsis (...), and then select Upload > Upload folder.
  2. Browse to the extracted folder and upload it. This action uploads all the sample data files to your lakehouse.
  3. Expand Files and the uploaded folder to see the subfolders. For this quickstart, you only need to load two of them as tables.
  4. Hover over the adventureworks_customers subfolder, select the ellipsis (...), and choose Load to Tables > New table.
  5. Set the file type to parquet and select Load.
  6. Repeat steps 4-5 for the adventureworks_orders subfolder.

When you finish, you see the two tables under Tables in the lakehouse Explorer panel.

Screenshot showing the adventureworks_customers and adventureworks_orders tables.

Create a graph model

  1. In your Microsoft Fabric workspace, select + New item.

  2. Enter graph in the search box, press Enter to search for graph items, and select Graph instance. Alternatively, scroll down to Analyze and train data > Graph instance.

    Screenshot showing the new item menu with the option to select Graph model.

  3. Enter a name for your graph model, such as AdventureWorksGraph, and select Create.

After creating the graph model, you're taken to the graph view where you can see the default mode is set to Model. Across the top ribbons, you see buttons for Save, Get data, Add node, Add edge, and Delete.

Screenshot showing the default view of the graph model.

Add data to your graph

To add data to your graph, follow these steps in graph view:

  1. In the top ribbon, select Get data.

  2. From the OneLake catalog, select your lakehouse with the Adventure Works data.

  3. Select Add.

  4. Select the adventureworks_customers and adventureworks_orders tables, and then select Load.

    Screenshot showing the get data dialog with selected tables.

Define your graph's structure

Now that your data is loaded, define your graph's structure by adding nodes and edges. In this quickstart, you add two node types (Customer and Order) and one edge type (purchases) to model the relationship between customers and their orders.

Add two nodes

  1. In the top ribbon, select Add node.

  2. Configure the first node:

    • Node label: Customer
    • Source table: adventureworks_customers
    • Key: CustomerID_K

    Screenshot showing the add node to graph dialog.

  3. Select + Add property, Add all columns, and Apply. This step makes all columns in this source table available as properties for the node.

    Screenshot showing the add node to graph dialog with four properties.

  4. Select Create. You see a node for Customer appear on the graph canvas.

  5. Select Add node again.

  6. Configure the second node:

    • Node label: Order
    • Source table: adventureworks_orders
    • Key: SalesOrderDetailID_K

  7. Select + Add property, Add all columns, and Apply. This step makes all columns in this source table available as properties for the node.

  8. Select Create.

You now have two nodes, Customer and Order, visible on the graph canvas.

Screenshot showing two new nodes on the canvas.

Add one edge

  1. In the top ribbon, select Add edge.

  2. Configure the edge:

    • Edge label: purchases
    • Source table: adventureworks_orders
    • Origin node: Customer
    • Origin key: CustomerID_FK
    • Target node: Order
    • Target key: SalesOrderDetailID_K

    Screenshot showing the add edge dialog.

  3. Select + Add property, Add all columns, and Apply. This step makes all columns in this source table available as properties for the edge.

  4. Select Create.

  5. In the top ribbon, select Save.

You see the node and edge labels in the graph view canvas.

Screenshot showing the new edge between the two nodes on the canvas.

The data might take a few minutes to finish loading. Wait for the Data load is in progress label to show Data load completed... before proceeding to the next section.

Screenshot showing the confirmation message that data load completed.

Query your graph

Run a GQL query to find the top five customers by order count.

  1. In the Modes panel, select Query mode.

  2. In the top ribbon, select Query builder > Code editor.

    Screenshot showing how to select query mode and the code editor.

  3. Enter the following GQL query in the input box:

    MATCH (c:Customer)-[:purchases]->(o:`Order`)
RETURN c.fullName AS customer_name, count(o) AS num_orders
GROUP BY customer_name
ORDER BY num_orders DESC
LIMIT 5

  4. In the top ribbon, select Run query. You see five rows listing customer names and their order counts, sorted from most to fewest orders.

    Screenshot showing the result of running a GQL query.

Congratulations! You created your first graph in Microsoft Fabric and ran a query against it.

Next steps

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