Create and Manage a Data Product

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Creating and maintaining a data product involves taking responsibility for its accuracy, usefulness, and reusability. This topic explains how to create and manage a data product throughout its lifecycle. You can manage a data product through the Alation UI and the API.

To start using data products through Alation UI, contact Alation Support. Alation Support will enable the alation.feature_flags.DEV_enable_data_products feature flag upon request.

Create a Data Product

To create a data product, you must define it through a YAML file. You can write the YAML manually or use Alation’s UI to construct it. Once you’ve created the YAML file, you must upload it to Alation if using APIs to do so.

Create a Product Spec YAML File Manually

1. Open a text editor of your choice (example, Visual Studio Code or Sublime Text).

2. Start a new file and name it with a .yaml extension.

3. Refer to the specification to develop the .yaml file content.

4. Save the file.

Create a Product Spec YAML File in Alation

1. Go to the Data Product App > Manage Marketplace page.

2. Click Add or Edit Data Product.

3. Click the Create in Editor button.

4. Enter the required metadata in the guided form.

5. Add one or more record sets and define their schema.

6. Add a delivery system and paste in the data connection URI.

7. Preview the product page to review your metadata.

8. Click Save or download the YAML file to get a copy of the spec file from the Data Product Options (three-dot menu in the top right) on the Preview tab.

   

Upload the YAML File through API or UI

To upload via UI:

1. Go to the Data Product > Manage Marketplace page.

2. Click Add or Edit Data Product.

3. Click on the Upload YAML button.

4. Browse to your YAML file and select it.

5. Click Upload.

To upload via API:

1. Use the endpoint /integration/data-products/v1/data-product/.

2. Set the Content-Type to application/x-yaml.

3. Include the full YAML file in the request body.

4. Send a POST request using your API token.

YAML Field Reference

Each data product YAML file must include fields specified in the specification.

Here are some of the common fields:

Field	Required	Description
productId	Yes	Unique identifier for the product
version	Yes	Semantic version string Example: 1.0.0
contactEmail	Yes	Contact email for support or questions
contactName	Yes	Human-readable name of the product owner
en.name	Yes	Display name for the product
deliverySystems	Yes	List of systems where the data is accessible
recordSets	Yes	One or more tabular datasets included in the product

You may also add custom properties anywhere in the YAML using the x- prefix. For example, x-department or x-security-tier.

Update a Data Product

To update a data product, you can modify the YAML file using the Alation UI or via API.

To update via UI, perfrom the following steps:

1. Go to the Data Product > Manage My Data Product page.

2. From the list of products under the Data Products table, locate the one to update.

3. Scroll to the extreme right of the table and click Edit.

4. Edit the YAML file and preview the changes.

5. Click Save.

To update via API, perform the following steps:

1. Use the endpoint /integration/data-products/v1/data-product/.

2. Send a PUT request.

3. Save the returned YAML from the spec_yaml field.

Download a Data Product

To download via UI:

1. Navigate to the product’s detail page.

2. Click Data Product Options (the three-dot menu in the top right).

3. Select Download Data Product to download the YAML file.

To download via API:

1. Use the endpoint /integration/data-products/v1/data-product/{product_id}/.

2. Send a GET request.

3. Save the returned YAML from the spec_yaml field.

Assign Product Roles

To assign roles to users or groups for a data product.

Manage Who Can View or Edit Data Product

1. Open the product page.

2. Click Data Product Options (the three-dot menu in the top right).

3. Select Manage Permissions.

   

4. Use the table to add users or groups.

   

5. Choose the appropriate role: Admin or Viewer.

6. Click Save.

Only users with the Admin role can edit the product or assign roles.

Delete a Data Product

To delete a data product via UI:

1. Go to the Data Product App > Manage My Data Products page.

2. From the list of products under the Data Products table, locate the one to delete.

3. On the extreme right of the table, click the three dots.

   

4. Select Delete Data Product.

To delete a data product using the API:

1. Identify the productId of the product to delete.

2. Use the endpoint /integration/data-products/v1/data-product/{product_id}/.

3. Send a DELETE request.

4. Confirm that the product no longer appears in your list.