Publishing virtual data to a catalog with Data Virtualization

You can publish your virtual data to catalogs in IBM Knowledge Catalog. An administrator can configure Data Virtualization to automatically publish all virtual objects that are created in the user interface to a configured primary catalog.

By publishing your virtual data to a catalog, you can:

Before you begin

A governed catalog is a catalog that is governed with data protection rules, which control access to data, mask sensitive data, or filter rows restrict what data can be viewed. For more information, see Catalogs in the IBM Knowledge Catalog documentation.

To enforce publishing to a governed catalog for virtual objects and views that are created by using the user interface, an Admin must follow these steps.
  1. Navigate to Service settings.
  2. On the Governance tab, enable the Enforce publishing to a governed catalog option.

    A list of governed catalogs that you have Admin access to is shown. You must select a governed catalog as your primary catalog. When you set a primary catalog, all virtualized objects are published to this catalog automatically. The Publish to catalog option is disabled when you review your cart and virtualize tables.

    A screenshot that shows the Service settings page and the Enforce publishing to a governed catalog.

    If you disable Enforce publishing to a governed catalog, all assets that are virtualized are not published to the primary catalog automatically. A user can publish their virtualized data to any catalog if the user has Admin or Editor role in the catalog.

    Note: Automatic publishing of virtual objects to the catalog is limited to objects that are created in the user interface. Objects that are created using SQL are not published automatically and must be published to the catalog manually or by using the API.

About this task

The process of virtualizing and publishing data to the catalog involves several steps with different users and roles that are involved in each step.

Figure 1. Virtualize and publish data to the catalog
Process to virtualize and publish data.
Note: If you publish duplicate catalog assets for the same object, you must ensure that all duplicates have the same assigned metadata (such as terms, data classes, tags, classifications, and names) to avoid inconsistent behavior for enforcement of data protection rules.

Also, when you publish a Data Virtualization object to a catalog or project that does not yet have a Data Virtualization connection, a Data Virtualization connection is added automatically to the target catalog or project.

Authorizations for publishing virtual data

Data Virtualization users with the User role can publish only virtual objects that they created. All other roles can publish objects that they are assigned authorizations for.

If you have the Data Virtualization Admin or Engineer role, when you virtualize data by using the web client, your virtual data can be published to a governed catalog automatically if you select this option in your service settings.

To publish virtual objects that you create by using SQL or the Data Virtualization REST API to the catalog, you can go to the Virtualized data page, select the virtual object that you'd like to publish, and then click Publish to catalog.

Data Virtualization Admins can also enable enforced automatic publishing to a pre-selected catalog in the Data Virtualization service settings.

Procedure (publish virtual data to the catalog during virtualization)

During the virtualization of an object, you can manually publish it to the catalog:

  1. On the service menu, click Virtualization > Virtualize.
  2. Select the virtual objects that you want to publish and select Publish to catalog.
    A screenshot that shows the Publish to catalog option when you review your cart and virtualize a table.
  3. Continue with the virtualization process.

Procedure (publish virtual data to the catalog after virtualization)

After you virtualize an object, you can publish it to a catalog:

  • To publish an object to a target catalog, including as a duplicate, select Publish to catalog from the overflow menu of a virtual object.
  • To publish an object without creating duplicate assets, select Skip publish if assets already exist in the catalog before publishing.
    A screenshot that shows the Skip publish if assets already exist in the catalog option in the Publish to catalog page.
    Remember: If you publish duplicate catalog assets for the same object, you must ensure that all duplicates have the same assigned metadata (such as terms, data classes, tags, classifications, and names) to avoid inconsistent behavior for enforcement of data protection rules.

Results

When published, virtual views have the type:view tag assigned to them in IBM Knowledge Catalog to distinguish them from the virtual tables.

What to do next

If you want catalog collaborators to use virtual objects that you publish to the catalog, you must grant these collaborators access to those virtual objects. For more information, see Managing access to virtual objects.

A screenshot that shows how to grant access to objects.