Property Groups Management¶

Most of the information that Data Catalog shows about the synchronized elements comes from Virtual DataPort: its name, its description, its schema, etc. We have already seen that the descriptions can be personalized, but Data Catalog allows more than that. You can define custom properties; add them to databases, views and web services; and give them a value on each element in order to improve the available information on them. For instance, you can create custom properties to specify:

Who is the owner of an element.
Who is its manager.
If the element is validated and by whom.
Who has permissions over the element.
The expected execution time for a view or web service.
A link to request execution permissions for the current user over a view. This link could point to an external tool, like a Data Governance tool.
Information about data quality and data privacy regulations.
And more.

Custom properties are not assigned individually to elements. Instead, they are grouped together in what we call a property group, which is the one that is assigned. Specifically, to add custom properties to elements, you have to follow these steps:

Create a property group.
Define a list of custom properties inside the property group.
Assign the property group to databases, views or web services.

The following sections will explain each step in detail.

Manage Property Groups¶

The Property group management page shows the current list of property groups in the Data Catalog. You can filter this list by name or description. Just enter some text in the search bar under the Filter property groups title, select the fields where to search the text and click the icon.

From the Property group management page you can administer the property groups in the Data Catalog¶

From this page you can manage the property groups available in the Data Catalog: create new property groups, edit the existing ones or remove them. In addition, you can assign them to a set of databases, views and web services and modify the order in which they are displayed.

Create Property Groups¶

The Data Catalog has a predefined property group called Default Group, so you can start working with custom properties from the beginning. However, you can create new properties groups as you need.

To create a new property group click the Add property group button. In the dialog that appears, you have to give values for the fields:

Name. The name of the property group.
Description. A description for the property group.
Show in. Select the place in the details page of the element where the custom properties will be shown:
- Summary tab. The properties will be placed under a section in the Summary tab of the element. The name of the property group will be used as the name of the section.
- Additional properties tab. The properties will be placed under a section in a new tab of the element called Additional properties. The name of the property group will be used as the name of the section.
- Group specific tab. The properties will be placed in a new tab specific for the property group. The name of the property group will be used as the name of the tab.

Dialog to create a new property group¶

Edit Property Groups¶

To edit a property group click its menu-item icon and select the Edit property group option. A new dialog will appear, similar to the one used to create a new property group, where you can modify its name, description, and the place where the custom properties should be shown.

Remove Property Groups¶

To remove a property group click its menu-item icon and select the Remove option.

You can remove several property groups at once. Select them and click the Remove button in the toolbar.

Note

The property group with the name Default Group cannot be removed.

Sort Property Groups¶

To modify the order in which property groups are displayed, click the Sort Property Groups button. Then select the property groups and use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to place them in the desired order. Finally, to confirm the changes click the Save Order button. You should note that property groups will be displayed according to the order specified here when accessing element information.

From the Property group management page you can modify the order in which property groups are displayed¶

Manage the Custom Properties of a Property Group¶

To manage the custom properties of a property group click its menu-item icon and select the Manage properties option. You will access a new page that shows the current list of custom properties of the property group. You can filter this list by name or description. Just enter some text in the search bar under the Filter properties title, select the fields where to search the text and click the icon.

Management page for administer the custom properties of a property group¶

From this page you can create new custom properties, edit the existing ones or remove them. In addition, you can modify the order in which they are displayed.

Create Custom Properties¶

To create a new custom property click the Add property button. In the dialog that appears, you have to give values for the fields:

Name. The name of the custom property.
Description. A description for the custom property.
Property type. Select the type of the custom property, which will determine the kind of values it supports and what editor will be rendered for the custom property:
- Text. The custom property only supports short texts. A text field will be used to change its value.
- Long text. The custom property supports long texts that can span several lines. A multi-line editor will be used to change its value.
- HTML. The custom property supports HTML code. An HTML editor will be used to change its value.
- Enumeration. The custom property only supports a text from a predefined set of values. A combo box with all available values will be used to change its value.
  
  In this case, you also need to define the set of valid values for the custom property. To add a new value to the set, enter a text in the Possible values field and click the button. Click its icon to edit a value or click the icon to remove it.
Allow variables in value. Enable it to allow variables in the value of the custom property, which will be replaced by their corresponding values when the custom property is shown to the user. You can use the following variables:
- $database_name
- $element_name
- $user_name
- $roles
For example, if the custom property is of type HTML, you could insert a parameterized link like the one below:
```
<a href="http://www.service.com/requests/access?view=$element_name&database=$database_name&username=$user_name&roles=$roles">
  Request Access
</a>
```
Default value. The default value of the custom property.

Dialog to create a new custom property¶

Edit Custom Properties¶

To edit a custom property click its menu-item icon and select the Edit property option. A new dialog will appear, similar to the one used to create a new custom property, where you can modify all its values.

For Enumeration property type you should take into consideration the following aspects:

If you edit a property value, all elements which had the old property value assigned will be automatically updated to assign the new value.
If you remove a property value from the enumeration list, you will be prompted for assigning a new value to the elements containing this property.

Dialog to remove enumeration property value¶

Note

In case you change the Property type, the Data Catalog needs to check that the current values assigned to the custom property in the elements are compatible with the new type. If they are not, a dialog will inform you that they will be replaced by its default value.

Remove Custom Properties¶

To remove a custom property click its menu-item icon and select the Remove option.

You can remove several custom properties at once. Select them and click the Remove button in the toolbar.

Sort Custom Properties¶

To modify the order in which properties are displayed, click the Sort Properties button. Then select the properties and use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to place them in the desired order. Finally, to confirm the changes click the Save Order button.

You should note that that properties of type Text or Enumeration will always be displayed at the top, while properties of type Long text or HTML will appear below. The order specified here only determines how properties within each of these subgroups are sorted.

From the custom properties management page you can modify the order in which properties are displayed¶

Assign Property Groups¶

To assign a property group to several databases, views and web services click its menu-item icon and select the Assign property group option. A new page will appear with the following elements:

In the sidebar you will see all the available views and web services in the server as a tree, which is organized by databases and folders. You can filter the elements in the tree using the search bar under the Database title.
The Views table, with all the views that currently have assigned the property group.
The Web services table, with all the web services that currently have assigned the property group.
The Databases table, with all the databases that currently have assigned the property group.

Dialog to manage the databases, views and web services that have assigned the property group¶

To assign the property group to databases, views or web services:

Select them in the tree on the sidebar.
Drag-and-drop them to the target table or click the Assign button in the toolbar.
Optionally, enter new values for the custom properties.

Right after assigning the property group, a new dialog appears with the values that will be set to the elements that participate in the assignment. They are initialized to their default values, but you can change them as you need.

Dialog to set values to the custom properties for the elements that participate in the assignment¶

You can set new values to the custom properties for the elements that have already been assigned. There are two ways of doing it:

To modify the values of the custom properties for an element, click its icon and select the Edit option. Set new values in the dialog that appears.
To modify the values of the custom properties for several elements at once, select them in the tables and click the Edit button in the toolbar. Set new values in the dialog that appears.

You can remove the custom properties from databases, views or web services in one of the following ways:

To remove them from an element, click its icon and select the Remove option.
To remove them from several elements at once, select them in the tables and click the Remove button in the toolbar.

USER MANUALS