Upgrade to Superset Version 5 to 6 (Issues Faced)

[user1500177]

We recently attempted to upgrade Apache Superset from version 5.x to 6.x.

1. ImportError: cannot import name 'SQLA' from 'flask_appbuilder'

Failed to import config for SUPERSET_CONFIG_PATH=/app/superset/superset_config.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/app/superset/config.py", line 2299, in
spec.loader.exec_module(override_conf)
File "", line 940, in exec_module
File "", line 241, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "/app/superset/superset_config.py", line 11, in
from flask_appbuilder import expose, IndexView,SQLA
ImportError: cannot import name 'SQLA' from 'flask_appbuilder' (/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/flask_appbuilder/init.py)

How to solve this issue

Code snippet where we used it

  from flask_appbuilder import SQLA
  from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
  
  class DashboardModelView1(BaseFormView):
      session: Session = SQLA().session
  
      def this_form_post(self):
          # ...
          self.session.execute(stmt1)
          self.session.commit()

ERROR faced
ImportError: cannot import name 'SQLA' from 'flask_appbuilder'

[dosubot[bot]]

The ImportError happens because Superset 6.x (with Flask-AppBuilder 5.x) no longer supports importing SQLA directly from flask_appbuilder. Instead, Superset now exposes a singleton SQLAlchemy instance via superset.extensions.db, and all session management should use db.session from there. This keeps your code aligned with Superset’s app lifecycle and avoids session/context issues.

To fix your code, replace:

from flask_appbuilder import SQLA
from sqlalchemy.orm import Session

class DashboardModelView1(BaseFormView):
    session: Session = SQLA().session

with:

from superset.extensions import db
from sqlalchemy.orm import Session

class DashboardModelView1(BaseFormView):
    session: Session = db.session

You can then use self.session.execute(...) and self.session.commit() as before. This pattern matches how Superset internally manages sessions and is the recommended approach for custom extensions or config overrides in 6.x source.

Also, make sure your dependencies are compatible: Flask-AppBuilder 5.x requires Flask-SQLAlchemy 3.x. If you see related errors, update your dependency to flask-sqlalchemy>=3.0.0,<4.0.

No official migration guide exists for this change, but following the above pattern will resolve the ImportError and keep your session management compatible with Superset 6.x source.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[user1500177]

@dosu or Anyone can answer

I am facing another issue now
ISSUE 2

Title: Superset 6.0.0: AttributeError 'CustomSsoSecurityManager' object has no attribute 'get_session'

Body:

Hi community,

After upgrading to Superset 6.0.0, I’m facing an error during app startup related to a custom security manager. The error is:

AttributeError: 'CustomSsoSecurityManager' object has no attribute 'get_session'

This happens when trying to create or update service account users in my custom security manager. The relevant code looks like this:

Before (working in Superset 5.x):

class CustomSsoSecurityManager(SupersetSecurityManager):

    def create_or_update_service_account_users(self):
        # ...existing code...
        if user:
            # ...existing code...
            user.active = True
            user.account_id = "SERVICE_ACCOUNT"
            user.businessunit_id = "SERVICE_ACCOUNT"
            user.customer_id = "SERVICE_ACCOUNT"
            user.warehouse_id = "SERVICE_ACCOUNT"
            self.get_session.commit()
            logging.info(f"Service account user '{username}' created successfully.")
        else:
            logging.error(f"Failed to create service account user '{username}'.")
        # ...existing code...

After upgrading to Superset 6.0.0, I get the error above.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is there a recommended way to handle session commits in custom security managers with the new version? Any guidance or examples would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

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Let me know if you want to add more details or context.

[dosubot[bot]]

This error happens because Superset 6.x removed the get_session method from the security manager. The new pattern is to use the session attribute instead. So, anywhere you had self.get_session, you should now use self.session. For your example, just change:

self.get_session.commit()

to

self.session.commit()

This applies to queries as well (e.g., self.session.query(...)). This change was made in Superset 6.x and is reflected in recent updates to the security manager codebase—see PR #35290 for details.

If you need to access the session outside the security manager, you can also use db.session from superset.extensions, but within your CustomSsoSecurityManager, self.session is the recommended approach.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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