Asset Status
Assets in Katalogue can be tagged with a status label. The use case for this is to get a simple workflow and/or lifecycle management functionality.
Assets in the glossary hierarchy (Glossaries, Business Terms, Field Descriptions and Field Description Values) and the system hierarchy (Systems, Datasources, Dataset Groups, Datasets and Fields) have different collections of statuses. The statuses are fully customizable, see Defining Asset Statuses.
For example, assets in the glossary hierarchy can have statuses like “draft”, “review” and “approved” to support a more business-oriented workflow. The assets in the system hierarchy can have statuses like “planned”, “test”, “production” and “decommission” to support a more developer-oriented lifecycle management functionality, see Datasource Sync Task Behaviour for additional details.
Full list of assets that support the status property:
| Asset | Asset Hierarchy |
|---|---|
| Glossary | glossary |
| Business Term | glossary |
| Field Description | glossary |
| Field Description Value | glossary |
| System | system |
| Datasource | system |
| Dataset Group | system |
| Dataset | system |
| Field | system |
The status is visible in the GUI in the Status column in tables, or next to the asset type label in the asset details pane.
Workflow Example
Section titled “Workflow Example”This section describes a general workflow example for working with statuses in Katalogue. Use it as inspiration for your organization.
Example 1: Glossary Hierarchy
Section titled “Example 1: Glossary Hierarchy”The use case with this example is to enable domain experts to use Katalogue as a design tool for new business terms:
A domain expert that is the owner of a number of business terms and field descriptions are working on a couple of new business terms. The new terms are added as empty placeholders to Katalogue with the status “Draft”. The descriptions and definitions are then iteratively refined until the domain expert is satisfied. Status is then changed to “Review” and is thus flagged as subject for approval in the next data governance meeting.
The terms are approved in the meeting and the status of the assets is changed to “Approved”. The wider organization can now trust these terms and begin referring to them.
Example 2: System Hierarchy
Section titled “Example 2: System Hierarchy”The use case with this example is to let data engineers use Katalogue as a design tool and a means of communicating upcoming changes to data consumers:
An engineer is tasked with rebuilding an existing mart by adding a few new dimension tables and removing others. The tables and main columns that are to be added are manually created in Katalogue and given the status “Development”, i.e. before they actually exist in the datasource. The ones that will be deleted are given the status “Decommission” to highlight that they will be deleted in the future.
The engineer works on the task and builds the new tables in the datasource. Once they get completed, Katalogue will pick them up on the next datasource sync and automatically change the status to “Production”. Finally, the engineer deletes the old tables in the datasource which causes them to be deleted from Katalogue at the next datasource sync as well.
Setting the Status on Assets
Section titled “Setting the Status on Assets”The property Status will show up in the add/edit asset dialog on supported assets (see table above) if there is at least two statuses defined for the asset hierarchy.
- Add or edit one or more asset in Katalogue to open the dialog.
- Select a Status.
- Click ADD/SAVE to save.
Datasource Sync Task Behaviour
Section titled “Datasource Sync Task Behaviour”Running a datasource sync task will affect the status on assets in the system hierarchy like so:
- Assets with a status in lifecycle stage < Production (i.e. Development or Test) will be changed to Production.
- Assets with a status in lifecycle stage >= Production (i.e. Production, Endorsed or Decommission) will be unchanged.
Defining Asset Statuses
Section titled “Defining Asset Statuses”By default, there is only one “in production” status configured in Katalogue. All assets added to Katalogue gets assigned to it. As long as there is only one status configured, the status labels and related functionality will be hidden everywhere in the GUI.
To enable the feature, define at least two statuses for the glossary or system asset hierarchy.
To manage asset statuses:
- Login to Katalogue as an admin
- Go to Settings -> Enumerations -> Asset Status
- Click +ADD to add a status
- Set the following properties:
- Name. Use a clear, short name to describe the status. The name must be unique within each Asset Category
- Description. Will show up as a tooltip on the status label.
- Lifecycle stage. This determines the visual appearance of the label in the GUI. There can be multiple statuses in the same lifecycle stage.
- Asset Category. Defines which assets the status will be available to.
- Is Default. If checked, this status will be pre-selected in the dialog when creating new assets in the GUI.
- Click ADD to save. You might have to reload the browser/Katalogue website for the status labels to appear in the GUI.