o NEW METADATA QUERY LANGUAGE (MQL) & METADATA REPORTING WORKSHEETS:
-
New METADATA QUERY LANGUAGE (MQL)
allows users to define powerful and
complex metadata queries with the familiar SQL syntax. The MQL is available
through the REST API and constitute the foundation of a brand new Metadata
Reporting UI.
-
New METADATA WORKSHEETS
based on the new Metadata Query Language (MQL)
and a brand new UI. Users start from simple search and powerful filters
(automatically building MQL queries) to produce a set of metadata on which the
user can select the desired columns (metadata properties) to create/save a
Worksheet.
· Worksheets can be shared with other users (of selected group), and easily managed with quick access to Favorites and search for worksheets shared by other.
· Worksheets implement the
Metadata Tabular Reporting (Grid Mode) solution, and can be switched to simple
business friendly reports (List mode).
Worksheets are also foundations
(building block) or the total metadata reporting solution which includes
Dashboards in the next version.
· Worksheets are a lot more
powerful than static reports, they allow users to dynamically interact by
refining filters, sorting columns, etc.
In fact, Worksheets also implement
the powerful Metadata Bulk Editing capabilities, allowing users to search/filter
and easily set some common properties (including custom attributes and
curation).
o IMPROVED USER INTERFACE EXPERIENCE:
-
New CUSTOMIZABLE HOME PAGE
based on an open source sample of a tile
based home page with customizable JSON files with short cut icons with internal
or external URL, MQL based reports, etc.
Warning: this custom code home page
approach is only a short term solution as it will be replaced by the new
official full Dashboard capabilities of the next version.
-
New METADATA EXPLORER MENUS
have been redesigned to replace the BROWSE
menu based on the new metadata reporting capabilities (now with worksheets and
soon dashboards) where all existing capabilities (and new ones) have been
organized as follows:
· HOME
has been removed from
the menu bar (to gain space), and replaced by clicking on the top left home
logo.
· A new EXPLORER PANEL
is
available on the left side as a pull down arrow menu (the explorer panel can be
pined) which emphasizes navigation using a various organizational structures
presented as a hierarchy (tree or drill down). The Explorer Panel offers quick
access to metadata through:
§ The Browse tab offers tree navigation from the root of the repository deep into one or multiple models on a single simple tree. It also supports tree browsing from the technical perspective organization of the entire repository, or from the business driven organization of a given configuration. The tree navigation can be set to drill navigation when you need to work with a long list of siblings (e.g., 10K of tables in a database schema).
§ The Search tab offers quick access to metadata query/filters and even save them as reporting worksheets (see above).
§ The Collections tab offers quick access to predefined metadata Collections (see below).
· OBJECTS
allows users to
search for metadata objects, manage (view, build, favorites, share with me)
metadata object collections, look at recently accessed objects (history), browse
by object categories (e.g. databases, files).
· WORKSHEETS
allows users to
manage (view, design, favorites, share with me) metadata reporting worksheets,
look at recently accessed worksheets (history), quick access to favorites,
dynamically create worksheets by categories and sub categories (e.g. databases /
tables / columns)
· DASHBOARDS
will be
available as part of the next version.
· MANAGE
remains unchanged
(for administrators only).
-
New METADATA COLLECTIONS
re-branding the previous concept of Lists and
harmonizing it with the new Worksheets in terms of UI usage and management.
-
Improved GRAPHICAL LINEAGE DIAGRAMS
with better layout for improved
object readability and data flow navigation.
o ARCHITECTURE, DEPLOYMENT & INTEGRATION
-
New SSO Authentication with SAML 2.0
has been added (in addition to
OAuth 2.0 added in the previous version). SAML (Security Assertion Mark-up
Language) is an umbrella standard that covers federation, identity management
and single sign-on (SSO). In contrast, the OAuth (Open Authorization) is a
standard for, color me not surprised, authorization of resources. Unlike SAML,
it does not deal with authentication.
- Oracle JDK has been replaced by OpenJDK 11.
- All Third-Party & Open Source Software has been upgraded to the latest versions for better security vulnerability protection.
o UPGRADE:
- There are no upgrade specific steps as this is a minor version upgrade fully compatible with the previous repository. However, you must perform a clean install of the new software (i.e. this us is not a cumulative patch on top of previous version)
- Some java bridges depend on the tool's SDK which is not necessarily compatible with OpenJDK 11 which is now the default JRE for the bridges (typically these tool's older SDK can only work with older versions such as Java 8). In such case the bridge tries to automatically run with the JRE bundled with the tool software / SDK instead. When this is not possible, the bridge offers the ability to manually point to a compatible JRE in the bridge's Miscellaneous parameter. Bridges for tools having compatibility issues with OpenJDK 11, include at least Oracle Data Integration, and SAP BusinessObjects.