Overview

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

This enhanced connector is used to catalog Sigma BI data sources in Alation. It extracts Sigma objects like reports and fields and catalogs the objects in Alation. Alation users can then search for Sigma objects, curate the corresponding catalog object pages, apply policies, and understand the data lineage. The connector is available as a Zip file that can be uploaded and installed in the Alation application.

To get the Sigma enhanced connector contact the Forward Deployed Engineering team or ask your Alation account team.

Supported Sigma Versions

The following Sigma versions are supported by the connector:

Sigma Version

Connector Support

no public Sigma version number is published

Alation 2022.4 for the legacy interface. Alation 2023.3.2 for the v2 interface

Team

The following administrators are required to install this connector:

  • Sigma Administrator:

    • Creates the Sigma API Token

    • Determines the Sigma cloud provider

  • Alation Server Admin:

    • Installs the connector

    • Creates a BI source

    • Configures the BI source

Scope

The table below describes the dependencies and operations supported by the connector.

Feature

Description

Availability

Authentication

API Token

Authentication with an API Token created in the Sigma Administration interface

Yes

Extracted Metadata Objects

Workspaces

Logical areas in Sigma where teams can collaborate

Yes

Folders

Organizational units within Sigma can contain multiple workbooks or datasets.

Yes

Workbooks

Interactive sheets in Sigma where data is analyzed and visualized.

Yes

Workbook Owner

The individual who created or has ownership rights over a specific workbook.

Yes

Workbook Created Timestamp

The exact time and date when a workbook was initially created in Sigma.

Yes

Workbook Updated Timestamp

The most recent time and date when a workbook was modified in Sigma.

Yes

Pages

Individual screens / tabs in a workbook with specific pieces of analyzed data.

Yes

Datasets

Collections of data elements in Sigma that serve as the source for analyses in Sigma that serve as the source for analyses in workbooks including tables and visualizations, etc.

Yes

Dataset Owner

The individual who created or has ownership rights over a specific dataset.

Yes

Dataset Created Timestamp

The exact time and date when a dataset was initially created in Sigma.

Yes

Dataset Updated Timestamp

The most recent time and date when a dataset was modified in Sigma.

Yes

Alation Catalog Features

Metadata Extraction (MDE)

The process of retrieving detailed information about Sigma’s various objects and importing them into Alation.

Yes

Lineage

Ability to generate lineage against the Sigma artifacts

Yes*

* Lineage is only currently available using manual lineage creation.

Object Mapping

The diagram below describes the metadata objects extracted by this connector, their hierarchy, and how they are mapped to objects in Alation.

Sigma APIs Used

The following table lists the Sigma APIs used by this connector to extract metadata from Sigma:

Verb

Rest API Endpoint

Description

Post

{apiURL}/v2/auth/token

Returns the access and refresh tokens

Get

{apiURL}/v2/workspaces

Returns a list of workspaces

Get

{apiURL}/v2/members

Returns a list of members

Get

{apiURL}/v2/members/{memberId}/files

Returns all documents and folders accessible to a member

Get

{apiURL}/v2/workbooks/{workbookId}/pages

Returns a list of pages in a workbook

Get

{apiURL}/v2/workbooks/{workbookId}/pages/{pageId}/elements

Returns a list of elements in a workbook page

Get

{apiURL}/v2/workbooks/{workbookId}/lineage/elements/{elementId}

List lineage dependencies of a workbook element

Get

{apiURL}/v2/workbooks/{workbookId}/elements/{elementId}/columns

Returns the columns for an element in a workbook

If using these APIs for testing, the {apiURL} used must correspond to the cloud provider your Sigma organization is hosted on.

For additional information about these APIs, please review the Sigma documentation here.