Object Descriptions¶

Almost all the elements of a database of Virtual DataPort can have a description (data sources, views, the fields of the views, etc.).

When you create a JDBC base view using the Administration Tool or the Design Studio, the data source automatically tries to obtain the description of each field from the tables/views of the database (not all the databases are capable of providing the description). Then, the data source sets the description of each field of the new base views so these fields have the same description as in the underlying database.

For other types of views, you have to set the description manually.

The maximum length of the description of an object is 4,000 characters.

Usually, you have to add the description with the parameter DESCRIPTION. For example,

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW customer360
    DESCRIPTION = 'This is the view that business users need to use to obtain all the information of the customer'
AS SELECT ...

Setting the description of the views and their fields is very useful for business users. The Data Catalog displays these descriptions and many Business Intelligence tools (BI tools) also display them.