Working with data documentation
Data documentation helps you to define technical data in business terms that everyone can understand.
You can document any object in Talend Data Catalog.
- Business documentation provides a business name and description. You can use it as an alternative of the term documentation to enforce the understanding.
- Term documentation (previously called term classification) allows to document an imported object with one or more terms from a glossary. It now creates a "Is Defined By" relationship.
- Mapped documentation is documented based upon semantic mappings from conceptual or logical data elements like a glossary term or a data element in a data model.
- Other documentation provides data documentation on an imported object automatically generated from other objects involved in its data flow pass-through lineage and impact, terms associated with data classification and/or semantic relationships. This feature improves the automatic data documentation coverage on many data stores.
Talend Data Catalog can suggest you business names based on the technical names by using the naming standards and supervised learning features. It can also suggest a business description from the inferred documentation.
You can report on the data documentation coverage by using the data documentation attributes available in the REST API, MQL, worksheets and dashboards.
Editing the data documentation of an object
- from the Overview tab of the object page.
In the Overview tab of an object page, you can find a Business or Term Documentation section in the Documentation area.
- from the Semantic Flow tab of the object details
page.
In the Semantic Flow tab, you can see the different types of data documentation for an object. The order of priority is Defined, Classified, Mapped and Inferred types.
- using a worksheet with the appropriate columns.
You can use the "Business Name", "Business Description", "Term Documentation", "Mapped Documentation", "Inferred Documentation" and "Documentation" attributes.
Editing the data documentation manually
You have been assigned an object role with the Business Documentation Editing capability.
You can override the business name and description reused from a glossary term.
- You need to add a local business name and description manually in the Documentation area from the Overview tab of the object page.
- For database models, you can also edit the business name and description by exporting the database documentation to a CSV file, editing manually the file and re-importing the edited file using the Import Database Documentation feature.
Editing the data documentation using a glossary term
You have been assigned an object role with the Business Documentation and Term Documentation Editing capabilities.
You can reuse the business name and description from an existing glossary term or a new term.
- From the Overview tab, you can edit the Term Documentation section in the Documentation area.
- From the Semantic Flow tab, you can add a new
is Defined By relationship.
For more information on term classification, see Classifying an object with a term.
Editing the data documentation using a semantic link
You have been assigned an object role with the Business Documentation Editing and Metadata Editing capabilities.
You can reuse the name and definition of an object by using a semantic link as part of a semantic mapping.
Editing the data documentation using an inferred semantic relationship
You have been assigned an object role with the Business Documentation and Metadata Editing capabilities.
- From the Overview tab, you can edit the Inferred Documentation section in the Documentation area.
- From the Semantic Flow tab, you can add a new semantic
link using the Map feature.
For more information on mapped classification, see Mapping objects semantically.