Data modeling allows you to define metadata and other aspects of your data. For example, you can give data columns search friendly names or predefine how they can be explored and aggregated. Metadata include such information as Column Names, Column Visibility, Column and Data Definition, Column Rank and so forth.
When you load data, ThoughtSpot has defaults for data modeling metadata. After loading data, you can start searching your data without doing any data modeling, creating relationships, or tagging. However, since you know your data best, you can customize the modeling settings. Putting some thought into these will make the data even easier and more intuitive to search for your end users.
User interfaces for modeling data
Data modeling is a very lightweight process compared to what you may have experienced in other tools. You can configure the model for an individual data table or you can view and configure all the system data using a modeling file. Editing the data model file requires that you have administrative privileges.
The model file contains a row for each column in your data set. It isn’t unusual to have tens of thousand of rows in this file. This means editing this file is equivalent to editing all the tables at once. When you add new data to your system, this file expands to accommodate the new data columns you have added.
Both of these methods, have the same effect, they improve search. Moreover, while they have different effects of scale, they use the same mechanisms to accomplish these effects.
Modeling topics
The following topics explain how to model your data:
- Change a table’s data model
Explains how to make modeling settings for a table you’ve just loaded, or to make a quick change to existing settings. - Edit the system-wide data model
Explains how to define a default data model to use for data system-wide. - Data modeling settings
Explains the possible data model settings and their accepted values. These are the same for a table or the system. - Link tables using relationships
Linked tables can be searched together or combined into a worksheet for easy searching. Tables that have no relationship between their columns can not be combined in a single search. - About stickers
You can create stickers to make it easier for people to find data sources and pinboards.