Data modeling

Data modeling allows you to define metadata and other aspects of your data. For example, you can give data columns search friendly names or predefine how they can be explored and aggregated. Metadata include such information as Column Names, Column Visibility, Column and Data Definition, Column Rank and so forth.

When you load data, most of this data modeling metadata is set up for you automatically. However, since you know your data best, you can adjust the modeling settings to improve the experience for your users. After loading data, you can start searching your data without doing any data modeling, creating relationships, or tagging. However, since you know your data best, you can customize the modeling settings. Putting some thought into these will make the data even easier and more intuitive to search for your end users.

User interfaces for modeling data

Data modeling is a very lightweight process compared to what you may have experienced in other tools. It enables you to change some of the settings (or properties) of the data so that it becomes more searchable. You can configure the model for an individual data table, or you can view and configure all the system data using a modeling file. Editing the data model file requires that you have administrative privileges.

The model file contains a row for each column in your data set. It isn’t unusual to have tens of thousand of rows in this file. This means that editing this file is equivalent to editing all the tables simultaneously. When you add new data to your system, this file expands to accommodate the new data columns you have added.

Both of these methods have the same effect: they improve search. Moreover, while they have different effects of scale, they use the same mechanisms to accomplish these effects.

Modeling topics

The following topics explain how to model your data:

  • Change a table’s data model
    Explains how to make modeling settings for a table you’ve just loaded, or to make a quick change to existing settings.

  • Edit the system-wide data model
    Explains how to define a default data model to use for data system-wide.

  • Data modeling settings
    Explains the possible data model settings and their accepted values. These are the same for a table or the system.

  • Link tables using relationships
    Linked tables can be searched together or combined into a Worksheet for easy searching. Tables that have no relationship between their columns can not be combined in a single search.

  • About tags
    You can create tags to make it easier for people to find data sources and Liveboards.

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