Set Up Data Products Marketplace¶

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Before you set up the Marketplace, make sure the Data Products App has been enabled on your instance:

See Get Started with the Data Products App for information about enabling the App.

See Default Role Assignment in the Data Products App for information about what users can set up the Marketplace.

The Marketplace allows you to:

List data products

Set and govern data product standards

Validate that data products are compliant to standards

Discover available data products

Trust that the data products you find are high quality and well-governed

The Marketplace enforces its own:

Minimum standards (what a data product must include to be listed). This ensures that only useful and trustworthy data products are shown to consumers. If a data product doesn’t meet a minimum standard, it’s not displayed in the search results even if it exists.

Role-based permissions (who can view, list, approve, or remove data products)

In this topic:

Set Up the Marketplace
Configure the Marketplace
Marketplace Standards and Badges Framework
Marketplace YAML Example

Set Up the Marketplace¶

To set up the Marketplace:

In the left-side navigation, click the Data Products App icon. Expand the navigation panel if it’s collapsed. Initially, you see the Set Up Marketplace page.
You have two options:
- Create Marketplace: Provide the required properties in the user interface and create a basic Marketplace. To add a more advanced configuration, you’ll edit the Marketplace definition later.
- Create Marketplace in Advanced Mode: Set up the Marketplace using advanced configuration by editing its definition in a YAML file. See Configure the Marketplace for details.
Let’s create a basic Marketplace from the user interface. Provide the required information:
Marketplace Name (required): The name is visible to all Marketplace users in the user interface.

Contact Email (required): The email address users can contact with questions about the Marketplace. Ensure the inbox is monitored and ready to receive messages.

Contact Name (required): The name of the Marketplace administrator.

Marketplace ID (required): A unique ID.
Click Create Marketplace.
The initial Marketplace is created, and you are redirected to the new Marketplace catalog page. The left-side navigation now shows all available options for the Data Products App, including the Manage Marketplace menu item. To add more properties, such as governance standards, see Configure the Marketplace.

Configure the Marketplace¶

Only users with the Marketplace Admin role at the Marketplace level can change the definition of the Marketplace. For information on assigning the Marketplace roles, see Configure Access in the Data Product App.

To configure the advanced properties of the Marketplace:

In the left-side navigation, click the Data Products App icon. Expand the navigation panel if it’s collapsed.
Click Manage Marketplace. The Marketplace settings open.
On top right, click Edit Marketplace. The Marketplace editor opens on the Preview tab displaying the current layout of the Marketplace landing page.
Click Edit YAML to open the Marketplace definition.

Note

For reference, you can use the schema specification marketplace_schema.yaml at https://<base_URL>/static/swagger/specs/data_products/marketplace_schema.yaml on your instance (example: https://mycatalog.com/static/swagger/specs/data_products/marketplace_schema.yaml) when developing the YAML file content.

The default definition for the Marketplace looks similar to the example below. You can edit the YAML file directly in the editor and preview the changes in real time. The minimal required properties are un-commented. Additional optional properties are commented out.

schema: https://<base_URL>/static/swagger/specs/data_products/marketplace_schema.yaml
marketplace:
  marketplaceId: marketplace_id_example
  contactName: Marketplace Owner
  contactEmail: [email protected]
  en:
      name: Marketplace Name
      # description: |                  # Optional: Markdown description
      #   This is a description of the marketplace.
      # shortDescription: Short summary of the marketplace.    # Optional: max 200 chars
      # heroImage: ""                   # Optional: URL or base64-encoded image
  # dataProductRequirementsSchema: {}   # Optional: custom schema for product requirements
  # heroBackgroundColor: "#FFFFFF"      # Optional: hero section background color (hex)
  # badges:                             # Optional: list of badge objects
  #   - {}
  # minimumStandard:                    # Optional: list of minimum standard objects
  #   - {}

We’ll walk through editing the YAML file block by block and preview the changes, starting with the required properties.

Leave the schema property as is. It contains the URL for the schema of the Marketplace object on your instance.
Most of the required properties are nested under the marketplace property, and the name property is under the en property:
- marketplaceId: The Marketplace ID.
- contactName: Name of the Marketplace admin.
- contactEmail: Email of the Marketplace admin.
- name: A name for your Marketplace visible to all Marketplace users.
Toggle on the Preview tab periodically to see how your updated information is displayed on the catalog page.
Uncomment and add optional properties. These optional properties allow you to configure Marketplace standards, a banner (or “hero”) image, long and short descriptions, and badges. Some of these settings control visual appearance, while others influence the features available within data product objects. Find more information on each of these properties below.
- description (optional): Markdown-supported content that provides the purpose, business context, and key usage information for the Marketplace.
- shortDescription (optional): A short summary for the Marketplace.
- heroImage (optional): An image to use as the background banner for the search bar on the Marketplace landing page. Images must be accessible from within your network. If you don’t provide this property, Alation uses a default image.
- heroBackgroundColor (optional): A background color for the hero image. If you don’t provide this property, Alation uses a default color.
- dataProductRequirementsSchema (optional): A custom schema for data product objects.
- badges (optional) and minimumStandard (optional): See Marketplace Standards and Badges Framework below.
Find an example of a fully defined Marketplace YAML file in Marketplace YAML Example.
Click Save on top right to save the updated Marketplace definition.

Marketplace Standards and Badges Framework¶

The Marketplace standards and badges framework in the Marketplace YAML specification ensures that data products meet essential requirements and enables automatic certifications for products that exceed baseline quality.

Minimum standards (the minimumStandard property) define the base criteria a data product must meet to be listed in the Marketplace.

Important

When minimum standards are defined in the Marketplace YAML file, users with permission to edit data products will see a Validate button in the data product editor. This allows them to check whether the data product specification meets the defined Marketplace standards. If the data product does not meet the minimum requirements, the user will receive feedback outlining which conditions must be addressed before the product can be listed.

Badges (the badges property) are applied automatically to data products that meet predefined criteria. They appear in the Properties panel on the right side of the page, in search results, and on Marketplace tiles, helping users quickly assess the quality of a data product at a glance.

Both minimum standards and badges rely on conditions to determine compliance. You can configure conditions flexibly, either as part of the minimumStandard property or as badges (the badges property), depending on your requirements for the Marketplace.

Conditions¶

Conditions are evaluations based on attributes directly defined in the data product metadata. For example, a Supported badge may require a defined Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Define Conditions for Minimum Standards¶

Within the minimumStandard property, each condition consists of:

type: Currently, only the static type is supported (type: static)

key: Points to the property in the data product’s YAML definition that is being evaluated

check: Defines the the requirement in English or using simple statements like not null

onFail: The validation response, such as warn or suspend

displayName: Describes how the condition is shown in the user interface in the validation feedback

Examples of Static Minimum Standards Conditions¶

Condition: The Product Description Field is Filled Out¶

type: static
key: "product.description"
check: "not null"
onFail: warn
displayName:
  en: "Has a Description"

Condition: The Data Collection Method is Clearly Explained (AI-driven check)¶

type: static
key: "product.description"
check: "It's possible to understand how the data in this product was collected, including the source and intended use."
onFail: warn
displayName:
  en: "Data Origins"

Condition: Custom Property Validation¶

type: static
key: "product.x-department"
check: "not null"
onFail: warn
displayName:
  en: "Department Owned"

Example Marketplace Minimum Standard¶

marketplace:
  marketplaceId: example_marketplace
  minimumStandard:
    - key: "product.description"
      type: static
      check: "not null"
      onFail: warn
      displayName:
        en: "With description"
    - key: "product.contactEmail"
      type: static
      check: "not null"
      onFail: warn
      displayName:
        en: "With contact email"

Define Badges¶

Badges provide additional validation beyond the minimum standard. They can be defined using an English language check statement similar to the minimum standard.

Each badge consists of:

displayName: The badge label that is visible to users in the user interface

type: Currently, only the static type is supported (type: static)

key: Points to the data product property being evaluated, for example: “product.recordSets”

check: Defines the the requirement in English (like “description has use cases or examples”) or simple statements (like not null)

icon (optional): Adds an icon to the badge: ImportExport, Description.

Example Marketplace Badges in YAML¶

badges:
  - displayName:
      en: Data Sample
    type: static
    key: product.recordSets
    check: every record set has a valid sample
  - displayName:
      en: Use Cases
    type: static
    key: product.description
    check: description has use cases or examples
    icon: Description

Marketplace YAML Example¶

Expand for a comprehensive example of the Marketplace YAML definition

marketplace:
    marketplaceId: sales_marketplace
    contactEmail: [email protected]
    contactName: Allie
    dataProductRequirementsSchema: {}
    en:
        description: Sales datasets including ARR, new sales, renewals, and churn.
        name: Sales Data
        shortDescription: Sales data marketplace
        heroImage: https://exampleimages.com/uploads/2Ca2L9pXKAgCEex/MarketplaceHeroImage.png
    heroBackgroundColor: '#FFFFFF'
    badges:
        - check: The description of the product describes where the data originates from
          displayName:
            en: Origin
          key: product.description
          type: static
          icon: Description
    minimumStandard:
        - check: Product must have a contact email
          displayName:
            en: Has a contact email
          key: product.contactEmail
          type: static
        - check: Has declared a support response time SLA in the description
          displayName:
            en: Has a support SLA
          key: product.description
          type: static

Marketplace YAML Field Reference¶

Your Alation instance includes the Marketplace specification at https://<base_URL>/static/swagger/specs/data_products/marketplace_schema.yaml (substitute <base_URL> with the base URL of your instance).

Here’s a short reference listing the main properties:

Expand to view the YAML reference

Field	Required	Description
`marketplaceId`	Yes	Unique ID for the Marketplace
`contactEmail`	Yes	Email address for inquiries
`contactName`	Yes	Name of Marketplace administrator
`en.name`	Yes	Display name for the Marketplace
`en.description`	No	Long description of the Marketplace
`en.shortDescription`	No	Short summary (max 200 characters)
`heroImage`	No	PNG or JPG image for branding
`heroBackgroundColor`	No	Hex color code for background
`minimumStandard`	No	Required conditions for data product listing
`badges`	No	Optional badges for qualifying data products