Browse Hierarchically using the Object Explorer

Once in the Object Explorer panel, you may use the Browse tab and navigate the hierarchical structures in the configuration. This Browse functionality provides a single hierarchy that may be navigated down to the lowest level of granularity (e.g., fields in a file, or columns in a table) without stopping at the model (harvested) level.

Steps

1. Click the OBJECTS tab at the top of the panel and select Explore.

Example

Go to OBJECTS > Explore in the menu.

The default hierarchical presentation is a tree view based upon the configuration folder structure.

Explore Further

The Object Explorer panel Browse tab has several options in terms of presentation. You may specify display Preferences.

1. Click Preferences.
2. Select the specific options.

DISPLAY MODE

There are two modes of navigating the resulting hierarchy.

• Tree - The Tree presentation shows a limited number of siblings and allows you to jump to them all, much like a traditional tree interface.
• Drill - The Drill presentation is useful when you need to work with a long list of siblings (e.g., 10K of tables in a database schema)

HIERARCHY TYPE

This option allows you to show the tree structure based upon one of the following hierarchical structures, as they are defined in different components within Talend Data Catalog :

• None – Simply a flat structure of the models in the configuration.
• Configuration – Displays the tree using the structure of folders and models defined in the configuration itself.
• Repository – Displays the tree using the structure of folders and models defined in the repository.

MAXIMUM OBJECTS PER LEVEL

Tree structures may be huge and thus Talend Data Catalog “paginates” the results in order to improve responsiveness over networks. This option allows you to specify the number of elements to display at a particular level.

SHOW ATTRIBUTES

Additional attributes may be shown in the tree, including all the curation icons as well as Alternate Name.

Example

DISPLAY MODE

Click Preferences and click Tree.

Tree Mode

Expand the Glossary folder and click the Finance glossary item.

Click the GDPR term in the object page. Here, we navigate to the GDPR term, but the Object Explorer panel does not update to GDPR.

Now, select Show in Object Explorer from the More Actions pull down in the upper right of the object page, and the Object Explorer panel is updated.

Drill MODE

Click Preferences in the Object Explorer panel and click Drill.

Click the caret to expand the Glossary folder.

Click the Finance glossary item.

Click the GDPR term in the object page. Here, we navigate to the GDPR term, but the Object Explorer panel does not update.

Now, select Show in Object Explorer from the More Actions pull down in the upper right of the object page, and the Object Explorer panel is updated.

Hierarchy TYPE

Click Preferences and select Repository for the HIERARCHY TYPE.

SHOW ATTRIBUTES

Click the Preferences, and click Tree, and select all of the options under SHOW ATTRIBUTES.

Navigating a Hyperlinked Tree

In some instances, there are a number of relationships between elements in a model that cannot be represented by a simple tree structure. E.g., and index on a table relates to a specific set of columns, but is not contained in any one column, so it is shown as contained with the table with hyperlinks (represented by a curved arrow over its icon) to related columns.

Steps

1. Open the Object Explorer panel.
2. Expand to the tree or drill to a reference (hyperlink). This is an icon with an arrow in the lower left corner.
3. Right-click the reference and select Go to reference or double-click.

Example

Navigate in the tree or drill-down to Glossary > Accounts Payable > POLineItemInvoiceItem > VendorID > VendorID reference (hyperlink):

Click the reference.

Pinning the Explorer Tree

Large enterprise customers can have metadata systems with many thousands of objects at some levels of their hierarchy. In the case of Walmart, the Hive server has 2,000 databases.

The Object Explorer tree shows a limited number of items per level. When the tree does not show an object you cannot see its children either. For example, it prevents you from analyzing the internals of a database or folder in the Tree when it has an ascendant level with too many children.

When presented with this limited view, you may Pin to a level in the tree. For example, you can search for the level object, navigate to it by drilling up or down.

The Pin interface shows you the pinned level object at the root of the tree and the path breadcrumb of the object. The breadcrumb header allows you to un-pin (show the whole repository tree) or re-pin (pin any parental object in the breadcrumb).

The UI provides you with the Pin in Tree menu option in the Drill and Object Details panels.

Steps

1. Sign in as a user with at least read access to the metadata.

Explorer

2. Go to OBJECTS > Explore.
3. Navigate to any level in the tree or drill-down presentation.
4. Right-click an object and select Pin in Tree.

Object Page

5. Navigate the object page for an object.
6. Click More Actions and select Pin in Tree.

Example

Go to OBJECTS > Explore. Navigate to the MITI-Finance-AP level in the tree and right-click the object and select Pin in Tree.

Click the X next to the pinned level to remove the pin.

Click More Actions and select Pin in Tree.

Organize the Configuration

You may organize the models presented for the particular configuration.

Steps

1. Sign in as a user with at least the Metadata Editingcapability object role assignment to the configuration you wish to organize.
2. Go to MANAGE > Repository.
3. Click the configuration version.
4. In the configuration manager, click New Folder to create folders.
5. Drag any model in the configuration into a folder to organize.

Example

Sign in as Administrator and go to MANAGE > Repository.

In the Repository panel, expand the tree until you see the Demo Enterprise Architecture configuration.

Expand the plus sign next to this configuration and click the Published version.

Note, there is already a structure. Right-click the root of the tree (Configuration) then select Add, then Folder and name it “Warehouse”.

Drag the Dimensional DW model into that folder.

Right-click on the Published configuration version and select Switch to this configuration. Then go to OBJECTS > Explore.

Organize the Repository

You may organize the models presented in the Repository Tree for the Repository as a whole.