Extending Metadata

Setup of additional fields

Summary

Custom fields give the user an opportunity to add more metadata content for each of the data objects. OvalEdge provides a list of standard fields like:

  • Minimum / maximum count
  • Density
  • Null density
  • Distinct count etc.
A user can create additional fields such as the median, sum, etc. to add more information about the data from the custom field module. In OvalEdge,
  • Custom fields can be created on a single domain or on all the domains in the application (global).
  • Create Custom fields on a single or all the crawled data connections. Connections are database names. For each connection type selected, there is a set of object types that a user can select to create custom fields. Example: For a file system, the custom fields are created on files and file columns.
    • Users can select Table/ Table Column/ Report/ Report/ Report Column/ Query/ Schema/ Package as object types.
  • For a Global connection type, users can create custom fields on any of the object types individually.
    • If you set any custom fields at the global definition level then the related object level will not be appearing for the rest of the connections.
  • Custom fields on Global connection are now applied to existing as well as new connections created in OvalEdge.
  • Custom fields can be created on Tags.

You must have Administrator permission or Meta write permission to access the Custom Fields module. 

Benefits of Custom Fields

  • Need to include additional metadata to the data objects.
  • Can sort or search a data object by a specific Custom field

Create a Custom Field

To create a Custom Field,

  1. Expand the Administration tab in the object browser and select Custom Fields.
  2. Choose and select the field type as Connection/Domain/Tag.
    Note: If you choose the field type as Connection, follow step 3
                  If you choose the field type as Domain follow step 5
                  If you choose a field type as Tag, follow step 6.
  3. Select the Connection type from the list.
    Note: Custom fields created on a Global object will be applied to all the database connections in OvalEdge. Custom fields created on individual connections will be applicable only on that database connection.
  4. Select the object type from the list for the selected connection. Go to Step 6.
    Note: If you set any custom fields at the global definition level then the related object will not be appearing for the rest of the connections.
  5. Select an individual Domain to create custom fields on each Domain. Alternatively, you can choose Global to create common custom fields on all domains configured in OvalEdge.
  6. Select the Custom Field Data Types and define the respective field label.
  7. Select the Custom Field Label access settings (Editable/Viewable) on each data object created.
  8. Click Save Custom Field Definition to finish saving the custom fields created.

If a user needs custom fields on all the connections, choose the connection type as Global and the corresponding object type and create the custom fields. 

Custom Field Data Types

There are 4 custom field data types: 

1.  Field Type: Text

Description: Users can enter any combination of letters and numbers or symbols and store them as a text field type. The maximum number of text characters allowed for a custom field name is 245.

2. Field Type: Code

Description: These are like Picklist fields, where users can select values from the list that Admins have defined during creating fields. To define multiple Code Custom Field values, see how to Add / Edit Code Custom Field Values at the bottom of this article.

3. Field Type: Date

Description: Users can enter a date and time from a pop-up calendar

4. Field Type: Number

Description: Double

OvalEdge does not support calculations as values of a custom field.

User Settings on Custom Field Definitions

When creating a custom field label, by default the values of the field labels are not visible or editable. Users who have permission to create the custom field labels can decide whether the field value should be visible and editable or only visible to other users. 

If a Custom field label is enabled as visible, the user can only read the custom field label. If a Custom field label is editable, the user can see and edit the custom field label values.

Example: On a connection name sql_new (database name/ connection name), and an object type Table, define the custom labels and enable access settings as shown below.

  • Text custom field (Data Reviewer)
  • Code custom field (Includes Negative profit)
  • Number custom field (Number of branches)
  • Date custom field (Sales table Generated Date)

The fields that can be edited are displayed as Edit. Users can click the Edit button to update the values for the corresponding custom field. The fields that are created with only viewable access cannot be edited. 

Editing Custom Field Values

A user can only enable custom field values if they are editable.

 To edit the values of a Custom field,

  1. Select the Specific data to object to see the custom fields.
  2. Select the fields that have an Edit option.
  3. Enter the new value and click Save.     

Add / Edit Code Custom Field Values

  1. To add multiple values to a code custom field and edit it follow the following steps.
  2. Expand the Administration tab in the object browser and select Custom Fields.
  3. Select the Code Custom Field values from the page.
  4. Select the field type, connection type and object type where the custom fields created exist.
  5. Choose the name of the Code Custom Field you want to add values to and Click Options.
  6. Enter the values and Click + to add more values.
  7. Click Save to finish adding values to the selected code custom field.
  8. Navigate to the specific data object to see the new code custom field with an option for users to select from the listed values.
  9. Click Select and choose a value from the drop-down option and click the icon to Save the value.

To edit the values of a code custom field, follow step 7 in this section and change the value and save.

Delete the Custom Field labels

To delete the Custom field labels:

  1. Expand the Administration tab in the object browser and select Custom Fields.
  2. Select the field type, connection type and object type where the custom fields created exist.
  3. Choose the Custom field label to delete and remove the definition and disable the selected access settings from the list.
  4. Save the Custom Field Definition.
  5. Navigate to the Data catalog module and select the specific data object to see the update.

To delete the Custom Fields created on Global connection / Global Domain:

  1. Expand the Administration tab in the object browser and select Custom Fields.
  2. Select the field type, connection type and object type where the custom fields created exist.
  3. Click the nine dots and select Delete Global Custom Definition to remove the custom fields configured Globally.