Compatibility issue between Superset 6.0.0rc2 (dockerized image) and "apache-superset[excel]" (xlrd)

[herve-lg]

Bug description

Hello, the dockerized image of Superset 6.0.0rc2 available on dockerhub seems to be written for an older version of Flask-AppBuilder. When I install it (the image should normally look for the flask-appbuilder 5.x version), I get the following error message:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'flask_appbuilder.utils.legacy'

Do other people encounter the same problem?

Screenshots/recordings

No response

Superset version

master / latest-dev

Python version

3.9

Node version

16

Browser

Chrome

Additional context

No response

Checklist

• I have searched Superset docs and Slack and didn't find a solution to my problem.
• I have searched the GitHub issue tracker and didn't find a similar bug report.
• I have checked Superset's logs for errors and if I found a relevant Python stacktrace, I included it here as text in the "additional context" section.

[dosubot]

This error happens because Superset 6.0.0rc2 expects Flask-AppBuilder (FAB) 5.x, which provides the flask_appbuilder.utils.legacy module, but the docker image is likely using an older FAB version (such as 4.x) that doesn't include it. This mismatch triggers the ModuleNotFoundError you’re seeing.

A fix for this was merged in Superset to handle the missing module gracefully by falling back to flask_sqlalchemy.SQLAlchemy if the import fails. You can see the details in PR #35235. Superset upgraded to FAB 5.x in PR #33055, so Superset 6.0.0rc2 and later require FAB 5.x.

To resolve this, make sure your docker image is using Flask-AppBuilder 5.x. If you’re using an official image and still seeing this error, try pulling the latest image after the fix was merged (post-2025-09-23), or manually update the FAB version in your environment to 5.x. If you need more details on breaking changes and migration, check the UPDATING.md file.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[herve-lg]

OK. I solved my problem.

When I indicate in my Dockerfile...

FROM apache/superset:6.0.0rc2
USER root
...
RUN uv pip install --no-cache-dir
"apache-superset[postgres,playwright,clickhouse,excel]"
...

... I am getting the following error message:

ModuleNotFoundError: no modules named "flask_appbuilder.utils.legacy

When I then force the installation of version of Flask-AppBuilder required by Superset 6.0.0rc2, i.e. Flask-AppBuilder 5.x (https://github.com/apache/superset/blob/6.0.0rc2/pyproject.toml) adding "Flask-AppBuilder===5.0.1" to my "RUN uv pip install", I get the following error message:

because we know ... that all versions of apache-superset [excel] depend on one of:
flask-appbuilder>=2.1.9,<2.3.0
flask-appbuilder>=2.3.1,<2.4.0
flask-appbuilder>=3.0.1,<4.0.0
flask-appbuilder>=4.1.3,<5.0.0
... And because you require apache-superset [excel] and flask-appbuilder>=5.0.1, we can conclude that your requirements are unsatisfiable...

When I remove [excel] from my "RUN uv pip install" with only

"apache-superset[postgres,playwright,clickhouse]"

, the installation of Superset 6.0.0rc2 comes to an end and Superset starts without any problem.

It therefore seems that "xlrd>=1.2.x" is not suitable for flask-appbuilder 5.x and therefore incompatible with Superset 6.0.0rc2. Is it possible to bring this compatibility?

[dosubot]

Superset 6.0.0rc2 explicitly requires Flask-AppBuilder <5.0.0, so it cannot be installed with Flask-AppBuilder 5.x when using the [excel] extra. This is enforced by static version constraints in the dependency files—there’s no conditional logic or workaround in the codebase to allow [excel] (which depends on xlrd) to work with FAB 5.x in this release. To use [excel], you must stick with Flask-AppBuilder 4.x for now. There’s currently no documented plan or migration path to bring [excel] compatibility to FAB 5.x in 6.0.0rc2; future support would require an upstream update to these constraints and possibly additional testing or code changes.
You can see the relevant constraints in the pyproject.toml and requirements/base.txt.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[herve-lg]

I understand. In this case, it would be useful to remove the mention "excel = ["xlrd>=1.2.0, <1.3"]" from the file:

https://github.com/apache/superset/blob/6.0.0rc2/pyproject.toml

[dosubot]

Removing the line excel = ["xlrd>=1.2.0, <1.3"] from pyproject.toml will disable the ability to install Superset with Excel file support via the [excel] extra. This resolves the compatibility issue with Flask-AppBuilder 5.x, but users who need to import Excel files through xlrd will lose that option unless an alternative solution is provided. There’s no evidence of another supported method for Excel import in Superset 6.0.0rc2, so removing this extra may impact workflows that rely on Excel file ingestion. If documentation or UI references Excel import, those features may become unavailable or confusing for users expecting them. Dependency management for install extras is centralized in pyproject.toml, so this change only affects installation, not runtime code paths.
You can review the relevant section in the pyproject.toml.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[sadpandajoe]

@SupersetOdT instead of removing it from pyproject.toml, you can try to remove the lower and upper bound to find a version that will work. I think xlrd is now up to 2.x

[rusackas]

Let us know if @sadpandajoe 's comment worked, @SupersetOdT - otherwise we might just close this one out :D

[herve-lg]

OK, I specified the desired version in my file "/app/docker/requirements-local.txt": "xlrd==2.0.2".

Everything works, I can now import "xls" files into my database via the "Upload Excel" button.

apache-superset[excel] actually installs version "xlrd==1.2.0", which creates a bug in Superset 6.0.0rc2 because Pandas requires version 2.0.1 or newer.

It should be noted that this problem is also found in Superset 5.0.0: it also requires a version 2.0.1 or newer.