Overview of Asset Types
This page explains the main asset types in the Decube Catalog and how they relate to each other to provide a quick mental model of what lives in the catalog.
If you use the Catalog top panel, the asset-type "pills" filter the view. For example, click the "Collection" pill to show Collection items such as Schemas and Folders.
Short summary (at a glance)
Collection: container for other assets (folders, schemas). Not a data-bearing object.
Dataset: data-bearing object (tables, views, streams).
Source: where data originates (database, BI tool).
Chart / Dashboard: visualizations built on datasets.
Property: the smallest data element (column, JSON attribute).
Data Job / Task: executable units that transform or move data.
Catalog asset definitions
Chart
What: a single visualization (e.g., a Looker or Tableau chart).
Notes: Charts can appear on multiple Dashboards. They carry metadata such as description, owner, lineage, and documentation.
Dashboard
What: a collection of charts grouped for a specific use case (e.g., executive or product dashboard).
Notes: includes metadata and lineage like Charts.
Collection
What: a container for other assets (for example, Schemas and Folders).
Notes: Collections organize items but usually do not contain data themselves.
Data Job
What: an executable job that consumes, produces, or transforms data (examples: Airflow DAGs, dbt runs, Fivetran jobs).
Subtypes: DataJobRun, DataTaskRun.
Data Task
What: a discrete step inside a data job or pipeline (transform, validate, enrich, move).
Dataset
What: structured data, often tabular (tables, materialized views, streams, or files in object storage).
Common subtypes: Table (physical table), View (materialized or virtual), Virtual Table (logical representation).
Source
What: the origin system for datasets and other assets (databases, data warehouses, BI tools).
Common subtypes: Database, Business Intelligence (BI) tool.
Property
What: the smallest logical data element (column, JSON attribute).
Examples: Column (physical table column), Virtual Column (from a virtual table).
Asset hierarchy (simple)
The following Mermaid diagram shows the top-level relationships between the common asset types.
Assets used in a Data Mesh
Decube supports data-mesh concepts to group and govern assets at a domain level. Key items:
Data Domain
What: a top-level curated container for related assets. Use domains to organize assets, apply governance, and control access.
Data Subdomain
What: a finer-grained grouping inside a domain.
Entity
What: a Catalog object that has been added to a Data Domain and used to model data assets for a data product.
Data Product
What: a curated bundle of assets (datasets, dashboards, reports) intended for consumption by other teams. Data Products carry contracts and governance metadata.
Data Asset
What: a dataset or other data-bearing object (tables, files, views) that is included in a Data Product. In the Catalog these are typically modeled as Datasets.
Data Asset Property
What: a property (column) of a Data Asset; e.g., user_id or transaction_date.
Data Mesh hierarchy (simple)
Glossary assets
Glossary: a central repository of business terms and definitions.
Term: a single glossary entry (business term) that can be linked to assets for context.
Category: hierarchical grouping of glossary terms for easier navigation.
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