Asset types and properties

Asset types

The following table lists the types of assets that you can create, the tools you need to create them, and the workspaces where you can add them.

Common properties for assets

Assets accumulate information in properties when you create them, use them, or when they are updated by automated processes. Some properties are provided by users and can be edited by users. Other properties are automatically provided by the system. Most system-provided properties can't be edited by users.

The Last modified field for an asset tracks both user actions and system actions. System actions often occur in the background and might involve only changes to the asset's internal metadata.

Data asset types and their properties

Data asset types contain metadata and other information about data, including how to access the data.

How you create a data asset depends on where your data is:

• If your data is in a file, you upload the file from your local system to a workspace.

• If your data is in a remote data source, you first create a connection asset that defines the connection to that data source. Then, you create a data asset by selecting the connection, the path or other structure, and the table or file that contains the data. This type of data asset is called a connected data asset.

  For data sources that support SQL queries, you can also create dynamic views, which are data assets of the type Query. To create such an asset, select the connection and provide an SQL query that retrieves only the data that you need.

The following graphic illustrates how data assets from files point to uploaded files in storage. Connected data assets require a connection asset and point to data in a remote data source.

You can create the following types of data assets in workspaces:

Data asset from a file

Represents a file that you uploaded from your local system. The file is stored in the storage container that is associated with the workspace. The contents of the file can include structured data, unstructured textual data, images, and other types of data. You can create a data asset with a file of any format. However, you can do more actions on CSV files than other file types.

You can create a data asset from a file by uploading a file in a workspace. You can also create data files with tools and convert them to assets. For example, you can create data assets from files with the Data Refinery, Jupyter notebook, and RStudio tools.

Connected data asset

Represents a table, file, or folder that is accessed through a connection to a remote data source. The connection is defined in the connection asset that is associated with the connected data asset. You can create a connected data asset for every supported connection. When you access a connected data asset, the data is dynamically retrieved from the data source.

You can add the same connected data asset to more than one catalog. As a result, the same physical asset that resides in a remote data source is represented by multiple connected data assets in different workspaces. To facilitate governance, such assets reference a shared properties record. For more information, see Identical data assets.

You can import connected data assets from a data source with the connected data tool in a workspace. If you want to import sets of connected data assets, for example an entire database schema, use the metadata import tool in projects.

In projects, you can create dynamic views that contain filtered data from one or more tables in a data source by using the query data-access tool. After you create your SQL query data asset, you can publish it to a catalog. In catalogs, you can't edit the query. If you need to update the query, edit the SQL query asset in the project and publish it again.

Folder asset

Represents a folder in IBM Cloud Object Storage. A folder data asset is a special case of a connected data asset. You create a folder data asset by specifying the path to the folder and the IBM Cloud Object Storage connection asset. You can view the files and subfolders that share the path with the folder data asset. The files that you can view within the folder data asset are not themselves data assets. For example, you can create a folder data asset for a path that contains news feeds that are continuously updated.

You can import folder assets from IBM Cloud Object Storage with the connected data tool in a workspace.

Connection asset

Contains the information necessary to create a connection to a data source.

You can create connections with the connection tool in a workspace.

Properties of data assets from files and connected data assets

In addition to basic properties and common catalog properties, data assets from files and connected data assets have the properties or pages that are listed in the following table.

Some of the properties are shared properties.

Properties of data assets from files and connected data assets

Property or page	Description	Editable?	Workspaces
Columns	A summary of the properties of the columns in the data asset. Includes the quality score, description, assigned data classes, and assigned business terms for each column. The assigned data classes and business terms can affect the asset. For example, an assigned business term can trigger the enforcement of a data protection rule. Primary key and key relationship information: • A column that is set as the primary key is identified by a key icon (). A primary key is also shown in the asset side panel. • If key relationships exist for the asset, you can click the View key relationships link. On the Parent of tab, you see all relationships for the primary key. On the Child of tab, you see all relationships for which the asset contains a foreign key.	No	Catalogs
Tags	Optional. Text labels that users create to simplify searching. A tag consists of one string of up to 255 characters. It can contain spaces, letters, numbers, underscores, dashes, and the symbols # and @.	Yes	Projects, Catalogs
Format	The MIME type of a file. Automatically detected.	Yes	Projects, Catalogs, Spaces
Asset details	Information about the size of the data, the number of columns and rows, and the asset version. In projects, also the table type of relational data is shown.	No	Projects, Catalogs, Spaces
Source	Information about the data file in storage or the data source and connection.	No	Catalogs, Spaces
Query	SQL query that generates the asset. Dynamic views only.	Yes	Projects, Catalogs
Connection details	For connected data assets, the path, the connection name, the type of connector, and the connection owner. For dynamic views, only the connection name and the connector type are shown.	No	Projects
Activities pane	The history of actions performed on the asset in all workspaces.	No	Projects, Catalogs
Asset page	A preview of the data that includes a limited set of columns and rows from the original data source.	No	Projects, Catalogs, Spaces
Profile page	Metadata and statistics about the content of the data. For example, when an enriched asset is published to a catalog, the expanded metadata is also published, and Display name and Description, which can be an AI-generated or an edited version, show on this page. This information is also surfaced on the Overview page.	Yes	Projects, Catalogs
Lineage page	A graphical depiction of the origin, transformations, and destination of data.	No	Catalogs
Data quality page	Information about the data quality of an asset and its columns, and the data quality checks that were applied.	Yes *	Projects, Catalogs
Visualizations page	Charts and graphs that users create to understand the data.	Yes	Projects
Feature group page	Information about which columns in the data asset are used as features in models.	Yes	Projects, Catalogs, Spaces

• Projects only

Learn more

• The value of assets
• Searching for assets across the platform
• Relationships
• Asset contents or previews
• Profiles
• Data quality
• Custom properties and relationships
• Activities
• Visualizations
• Adding data to a project
• Shared properties