About this user journey
This short tutorial will guide you through the main steps to :
- Import your reports into the usage catalog using the online connector
- Document your reports
- Create and use the links between objects to benefits from graphical restitution such as the lineage
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
Start your DataGalaxy journey by importing the data from your analytics tools (reporting, dashboard...). This means using our connector to populate the usage catalog.
The usage catalog is one of the 4 DataGalaxy modules. It allows you to answer the question : What is this data used for? with it you can describe, from a business perspective, all data usage. You can learn more about the usage catalog in this article.
DataGalaxy contains 3 more modules
- The business glossary is a comprehensive inventory of the data available in an organization's IT landscape.
- 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.
To use the connector, you'll need only one element : credentials to connect to your analytic tools.
Some special authorization might be requested depending on the technology of your analytic tool. Help articles are available by technology to precise it. For example, you can read this article for Power BI and this one for looker.
This operating mode will guide you through the different steps required to import your 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 : document your reports from a business perspective
Following the import, you can discover the imported elements by going into the usage catalog.
The usage catalog is composed of different type of objects (you can find the detail here). You can document these objects with the attributes available on the object card. Among those one, you can use :
- The business name
- A description and a summary
- The object lifecycle : this attribute is used to identify an object lifecycle : Is it a recently created object? one whose definition has been validated? or an obsolete one that is no longer used? By default objects are created with a "proposed" status. Depending on the selected status, some editing restrictions can be applied. To know more about it, you can read this article.
The object ownership: each object can have its own governance, that's why each object can have different roles. By default each object displays two roles : steward & owner. They are automatically filled up with default values. Users with this kind of role can have extended rights on the object. To know more you can read this article
Tags: are attributes designed to help you classify your data. Each tag has a color and you can use as many as required to classify your data. You can read this article to know more
Third step : See the data
One of the main strengths of DataGalaxy is its ability to create all kinds of links to identify the connections between objects. For example. it's possible to identify which data source are used in a report (link with the dictionary) or which KPI are displayed (link with the business glossary). You can read this article to know more.
The easiest way to create those links is to open the service panel as shown below.
Depending on the tecnology of your analytic tool (power BI, Tableau, Looker) the online connector will have created links. You can see a graphical representation in the lineage tab
There is two type of graphical restitutions
- The exploration: allows the user to discover boh the semantic and technical scope of the data. With this feature you can navigate between the differents object. To learn more about this feature, you can read this article
- The lineage : allows the user to understand the traceability of an object by visualizing both the objects impacted by this object and what impact this object. More information about the lineage on this article.
Dig deeper
You can pursue your journey by adding different information. For instance, you can :
- Identify the different data sources : to do so you need to create objects in the data dictionary. to know more about this module, please read this article
- Identify the different data used in the reports (KPI, Business Term...) thanks to the business glossary. Please refers to this article to learn more
You can also get into the administration menu to customize your space (set up new attributes for example) or invite new users. To do so you can read this article
We wish you a good data journey