Data Catalog automatically discovers assets (tables, streams, business intelligence tools, and dbt) based on the Credentials you have added to Validio and enabled for catalog.

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Catalog Asset Discovery

It may take longer for the catalog assets to populate the first time that a catalog job runs for a new credential. For more information, see About Credentials.

From the Assets tab, you can do the following:

• Search and filter to quickly find relevant assets
• View and update information about an asset
• Assign glossary terms, tags, and descriptions to provide business context
• Convert assets to sources to track and validate data
• Refresh the catalog to discover new assets

Search and Filter Assets

You can search and filter to quickly find relevant assets in the list. For example, you can search for specific assets using keywords and then apply quick filters to narrow your results further by selected values.

• Search: Type keywords into the search bar to match against the Name and Description. The asset list will update automatically to show matching results. When you type more than one keyword, the results will return all assets that include any of the keywords.
• Filter: Select one or more values of Type, Location, Glossary, Domain, or Tags to filter the list. Clicking on the filters shows a count of the assets that match each value. You can include or exclude selected values using Any of, All of, and None of operators.
• Sort: Select a field to sort by and toggle between ascending and descending order. The results of searching and filtering will respect the sorting that has been applied to the table.
• Save as view: Save your search, filter, and sorting as a custom view that you can share and revisit again.

For more information about search, filtering, and saving views, see Customizing and Saving Views.

View Asset Details

Click an asset row to open the details sidebar panel, or click the asset name to navigate to the asset details page. Asset details include:

• Header section -- Asset name, type, location, and descriptions from external systems and Validio, with inline editing.
• Performance statistics -- Key metrics about the asset.
• Configuration and ownership -- Credential, schema, and ownership information.
• Tags and glossary terms -- Assigned tags and glossary terms for business context. See Glossary Term Assignments.
• Linked resources -- Links to convert the asset to a source or view the asset in lineage. See Convert Assets to Sources and About Lineage.
• Resource info -- (Sidebar only) The asset ID and timestamps for creation and last update.
• Schema & Profiling -- (Details page only) Schema details and data profiling results. See Reviewing Sources.
• dbt relations -- (Details page only) Related dbt models and tests.

Enrich Asset Context

You can enrich your catalog assets with additional context by adding custom descriptions, tags, and glossary terms. This information is searchable and visible across the catalog to help your team understand and organize your data.

Add Custom Catalog Descriptions

Validio imports descriptions and tags automatically from external systems, such as BigQuery and dbt. You can also add your own descriptions to a catalog asset. All existing descriptions are included in the Description column of the assets table, with icons to indicate where they originate.

To add a custom catalog description,

1. Click the asset Name in the table to open its asset details page.
2. In the Overview tab, click the edit icon next to Add description.
3. Type in your description.
4. Click the check mark to save your description.

When you return to the Catalog page, the custom description will display in the table with the Validio icon next to it.

Add Asset Tags

You can add tags to organize and prioritize your data assets with descriptive labels or other relevant information. Tags can be added directly in the asset table or in the asset sidebar.

Assign Glossary Terms

You can assign glossary terms to catalog assets to add business context. Glossary terms appear as chips in the Terms column of the assets table.

To assign terms to a single asset, click the asset row to open the asset sidebar, then use the glossary terms section to add or remove terms.

To assign terms in bulk, select multiple assets using the checkboxes and click Update terms in the selection toolbar. For more information, see Glossary Term Assignments.

Convert Assets to Sources

Validio does not actively monitor or validate the data and schema of the catalog assets until you convert the asset to a source and create validators on that source. You can select different types of assets to convert to sources in one batch operation. For more information, see About Sources.

To convert a catalog asset to a source,

1. Navigate to Catalog > Tables and check rows in the table for each asset you want to convert to a source. You can convert more than one asset at a time, and the assets do not need to be the same type.
2. Click Convert to Source to open the configuration wizard.
3. Under Catalog asset,

   1. Select the credentials to associate with each catalog asset when converting to a source. The credential will authenticate your connection to the data source.

      For each asset, the credential list is filtered for the type of asset.

   2. Set how many days of historic data to use when you start the source.

   3. Specify how frequently the validators on the source will check for changes.

   4. Click Continue.

      If one or more of the assets you are converting is a BigQuery or Snowflake table, the next step will be adding recommended validators on those sources. Otherwise, this is the last step of the configuration.

4. (Optional) Under Validators, select the metadata validators to add to your BigQuery or Snowflake sources. These validators will not be added to other types of sources.
5. Click Continue to convert the asset to a source.

Refresh Catalog Assets

You can manually refresh your catalog to discover new assets since the last refresh. When refreshing your catalog assets, you can select specific credentials or refresh all assets.

• You can only choose credentials that have been enabled for catalog.
• A full refresh of assets performs over the past 30 days.