Forum Discussion

timrodman's avatar
timrodman
Helper I
11 years ago
Do you know if Azure Data Catalog allows you to store the meta data relationships across data sources so that the relationships between them would automatically be brought in when they are used?
  • AlongTheseLines's avatar
    AlongTheseLines
    Advocate III
    11 years ago

    Good question. I was just playing around in the preview and it looks like right now only the metadata for individual tables/views is exposed. I don't see any notion of relationships or of higher granularity objects like a database. Of course, it's just the initial release of a preview...

    • timrodman's avatar
      timrodman
      Helper I
      11 years ago

      Thanks for the info. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

      • andre's avatar
        andre
        Memorable Member
        11 years ago

        Azure Data Catalog is not the new version of Power BI Data Catalog.  Right now its a tool that allows one to register a number of data sources and then crowdsource table and field definitions in a controled fashion.  Microsoft calls it "an enterprise metadata portal for the self-service discovery of data".  Whether the two will be merged at some point is yet to be seen, although it obviously makes sense.

  • MatthewRoche's avatar
    MatthewRoche
    Microsoft Employee
    11 years ago

    Hi Tim,

     

    Azure Data Catalog does not currently track relationships, but the scenario you describe is one that is on our plan. We'll be regularly releasing new capabilities as we progress through public preview, with four main "capability axes" on the plan:

     

    1. Data sources - we'll continue to add support for more data sources, including structured and semistructured data
    2. Client applications - we'll add support for, and integrate with, more data producing and data consuming applications
    3. Metadata - we'll expand on the structural, descriptive, and functional metadata that the catalog tracks
    4. Management and oversight - we'll keep adding capabilities to make it easy for Catalog administrators to understand and control usage of the catalog contents

    If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I don't check the Power BI forums every day, but I check the Azure Data Catalog forum ( https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/azure/en-US/home?forum=azuredatacatalog ) regularly.