About this user journey
This short tutorial will guide you through the main steps to
- Import your data into the dictionary using the connector
- Use the glossary to describe and model your data from a business perspective
- Exploit the link between objects in graphics restitutions such as lineage or exploration
This tutorial is followed by a selection of articles to guide you through your client space administration.
No prior knowledge of DataGalaxy is required.
In this tutorial, you will use the online connector to retrieve data from your systems. To do so, you need to have the credentials to the systems you want to query. This process is completely secure for your systems : the online connector only retrieves metadata without performing any operations on the data.
Before you begin
Client space, workspace, module... so much terms ! for an overview of the main concepts and notions, please refer to this article
If you wish, the first step of this quick start is described in this video.
First step : import your data
Begin your DataGalaxy journey by importing the data from your database. This means using our connector to import data into our dictionary.
The dictionary is one of the 4 DataGalaxy modules. It allows you to answer the question : where are stored my data? It's a shared visualization of your data sources, whether they're structured or not, in an ergonomic, simple, and collaborative environment. You can learn more about the dictionary in this article.
DataGalaxy contains 3 more modules
- The glossary is an organized collection of data objects, described in business vocabulary, for a company-wide understanding
- The data processings catalog to describe all data flows between databases and the transformations in between
- The usage catalog to describe, from a business perspective, all data usage
The online connector allows you to retrieve information from your tools and import them directly into DataGalaxy. This does not involve any security risks for your data or your tools. To learn more about the online connector please read this article.
The connector can also be downloaded. It is then known as the desktop connector. In both cases the connector can retrieve information from 3 kinds of tools : databases, reportings and data processing tools.
To start the connector, click on the "import" button available on the homepage of your workspace.
You'll need two elements to use the online connector : a token and a target database to import the data.
- The token is an authentification key allowing the connector to import data into the platform. By default, the online connector is set up to use your Personal Access Token : the P.A.T. it's linked to your account and benefits from the same level of authorisation. Next time, you might consider using the integration token. Unlike the P.A.T, the integration token is linked to your client space and has specific rights. To generate this kind of token, please read this article
- The target database : this is where the connector is going to import the data (if you require more details about the objects included in the dictionary, please check this article). This database can be created directly from the online connector . The online connector will match the type of database with the technology you previously selected.
This article will guide you through the different steps to import the data.
The import can take from one minute to a couple of hours according to the volume of data to import. You can wait for it by continuing to read this quick start!
Second step : describe your data from a business perspective
The purpose of the module Glossary is to answer the question: what are the data used? It's a referential of definition that will help to contextualize data. For more information you can look up this article
In this module, you can use different types of objects to model, label and document your data. Like the 3 other modules, you can manually create objects in the glossary. You can also import data from your dictionary into the glossary. This way you can :
- Reuse those technical elements and give them a business point of view
- Identify the link between the technical and the business perspective, which will be of great help for the lineage.
To do so you can read this article
Third step : View your data
After you have imported data into your dictionary and your glossary, you can start to visualise and explore your data using the graphical restitutions. There is two type of graphical restitutions : the lineage and the exploration. All DataGalaxy objects can be displayed in those two representations. To learn more, you can read this article
Dig deeper
You can pursue your journey by adding different information. For instance, you can :
- Identify the different dataflows that have imported data into your data source thanks to the data processings module. To know more about this module, please read this article
- Identify the different data usage (reports, dashboard, algorithm...) thanks to the usage module. Please refers to this article to learn more
You can also get into the administration menu to customize your space (set up new fields for example) or invite new users. To do so you can read this article
We wish you a good data journey