Asset types and properties
An asset is an item that contains information about data, other valuable information, or another item that works with data. You can create assets by working with tools in collaborative workspaces or by writing code.
You add assets by importing them or creating them with tools. You work with assets in collaborative workspaces. The workspace that you need depends on your tasks and which platform experience that you are working in. The primary workspace for working with assets across all experiences is the project. The other most common workspaces that are available in most of the experiences are catalogs and deployment spaces. Each experience has other workspaces for specialized tasks.
| Workspace | Description | Cloud Pak for Data | watsonx | Data Fabric | watsonx.data as a Service |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projects | Where you collaborate with others to work with data and create assets. | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Catalogs | Where you store assets to share with your organization or go to find assets that you need to work with. | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Deployment spaces | Where you deploy and run assets that are ready for testing or production. | ✔️ | ✔️ |
You can find any asset in any of the workspaces for which you are a collaborator by searching for it from the global search bar.
You can create many different types of assets.
Asset types
To create most types of assets, you must use a specific tool.
The following table lists the types of assets that you can create, the tools you need to create them, and the workspaces where you can add them in watsonx.data as a Service context.
| Asset Type | Description | Tools to Create It | Workspaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connected data asset | Represents data that is accessed through a connection to a remote data source. | Connected data tool, Metadata import tool | Projects, Catalogs |
| Connection | Contains the information to connect to a data source. | Connection tool | Projects, Catalogs |
| Data asset from a file | Represents a file that you uploaded from your local system. | Upload pane | Projects, Catalogs |
| Data querying | Manage, curate, and query data | Data workbench (Query tool) | Projects |
| Document Library | Create a collection of document sets | Document library | Projects |
| Folder asset | Represents a folder in IBM Cloud Object Storage. | Connected data tool | Projects, Catalogs |
| Prompt template, Prompt session | Experiment with foundation models and build prompts | Prompt Lab | Projects |
| Pipeline | Automate the model lifecycles | Orchestration Pipelines | Projects |
| Spark application | Analyze and process data | Spark | Projects |
| Structured ingestion | Ingest structured data | Spark on watsonx.data | Projects |
| Unstructured data curation | Import unstructured documents, analyze those documents | Unstructured data curation | Projects |
| Unstructured Data Integration flow | Create an unstructured data flow | Unstructured data integration | Projects, Spaces |
Common properties for assets
Assets accumulate information in properties when you create them, use them, or when they are updated by automated processes. Some properties are provided by users and can be edited by users. Other properties are automatically provided by the system. Most system-provided properties can't be edited by users.
The Last modified field for an asset tracks both user actions and system actions. System actions often occur in the background and might involve only changes to the asset's internal metadata.
Common properties for assets everywhere
Most types of assets have the properties that are listed in the following table in all the workspaces where those asset types exist.
| Property | Description | Editable? |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The asset name. Can contain up to 255 characters. Supports multibyte characters. Cannot be empty, contain Unicode control characters, or contain only blank spaces. Asset names do not need to be unique within a project or deployment space. Whether asset names must be unique in a catalog depends on the duplicate handling method set for the catalog. | Yes |
| Description | Optional. Supports multibyte characters and hyperlinks. | Yes |
| Creation date | The timestamp of when the asset was created or imported. | No |
| Creator or Owner | The username or email address of the person who created or imported the asset. | No |
| Last modified date | The timestamp of when the asset was last modified. | No |
| Last editor | The username or email address of the person who last modified the asset. | No |
Common properties for assets in catalogs
In addition to the common properties that all assets have, assets in catalogs have the properties and pages that are listed in the following table.
| Property or page | Description | Editable? |
|---|---|---|
| Asset page | A view of the contents of the asset. | No |
| Privacy | Set to public by default. This setting can restrict access to an asset in a catalog when set to private. Only the owner and members of the asset can view and use private assets. | Yes |
| Access page | The owner and members of the asset. By default, the asset owner is the user who added the asset to the catalog. The asset members can view and use the asset when it is marked private. | Yes |
| Ratings page | Optional. Catalog collaborators can rate and review assets. | Yes |
| Tags | Optional. Text labels that catalog collaborators create to simplify searching. A tag consists of one string of up to 255 characters. It can contain spaces, letters, numbers, underscores, dashes, and the symbols # and @. | Yes |
| Relationships | Optional. Relationships that appear in the Related items section of the asset Overview page are informational and do not have other effects on the asset. Can be between assets in the same workspace or different workspaces. For example, you can add a relationship between an asset in a catalog and an asset in a project. | Yes |
Common properties for assets that run in tools
Some assets are associated with running a tool. For example, an AutoAI experiment asset runs in the AutoAI tool. Assets that run in tools are also known as operational assets. Every time that you run assets in tools, you start a job. You can monitor and schedule jobs. Jobs use compute resources.
For many assets that run in tools, you have a choice of the compute environment configuration to use. Typically, larger and faster environment configurations consume compute resources faster.
In addition to basic properties, most assets that run in tools contain the following types of information in projects:
| Properties | Description | Editable? | Workspaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Environment definition | The environment template, hardware specification, and software specification for running the asset. | Yes | Projects, Spaces |
| Settings | Information that defines how the asset is run. Specific to each type of asset. | Yes | Projects |
| Associated data assets | The data that the asset is working on. | Yes | Projects |
| Jobs | Information about how to run the asset, including the environment definition, schedule, and notification options. | Yes | Projects, Spaces |
Data asset types and their properties
Data asset types contain metadata and other information about data, including how to access the data.
How you create a data asset depends on where your data is:
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If your data is in a file, you upload the file from your local system to a workspace.
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If your data is in a remote data source, you first create a connection asset that defines the connection to that data source. Then, you create a data asset by selecting the connection, the path or other structure, and the table or file that contains the data. This type of data asset is called a connected data asset.
The following graphic illustrates how data assets from files point to uploaded files in storage. Connected data assets require a connection asset and point to data in a remote data source.
You can create the following types of data assets in workspaces:
- Data asset from a file
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Represents a file that you uploaded from your local system. The file is stored in the storage container that is associated with the workspace. The contents of the file can include structured data, unstructured textual data, images, and other types of data. You can create a data asset with a file of any format. However, you can do more actions on CSV files than other file types.
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You can create a data asset from a file by uploading a file in a workspace. You can also create data files with tools and convert them to assets. For example, you can create data assets from files with the Data Refinery, Jupyter notebook, and RStudio tools.
- Connected data asset
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Represents a table, file, or folder that is accessed through a connection to a remote data source. The connection is defined in the connection asset that is associated with the connected data asset. You can create a connected data asset for every supported connection. When you access a connected data asset, the data is dynamically retrieved from the data source.
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You can import connected data assets from a data source with the connected data tool in a workspace.
- Folder asset
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Represents a folder in IBM Cloud Object Storage. A folder data asset is a special case of a connected data asset. You create a folder data asset by specifying the path to the folder and the IBM Cloud Object Storage connection asset. You can view the files and subfolders that share the path with the folder data asset. The files that you can view within the folder data asset are not themselves data assets. For example, you can create a folder data asset for a path that contains news feeds that are continuously updated.
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You can import folder assets from IBM Cloud Object Storage with the connected data tool in a workspace.
- Connection asset
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Contains the information necessary to create a connection to a data source.
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You can create connections with the connection tool in a workspace.
Properties of data assets from files and connected data assets
In addition to basic properties and common catalog properties, data assets from files and connected data assets have the properties or pages that are listed in the following table.
| Property or page | Description | Editable? | Workspaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columns | A summary of the properties of the columns in the data asset. Includes the quality score, description, assigned data classes, and assigned business terms for each column. The assigned data classes and business terms can affect the asset.
For example, an assigned business term can trigger the enforcement of a data protection rule. Primary key and key relationship information: • A column that is set as the primary key is identified by a key icon (  ). A primary key is also shown in the asset side panel.• If key relationships exist for the asset, you can click the View key relationships link. On the Parent of tab, you see all relationships for the primary key. On the Child of tab, you see all relationships for which the asset contains a foreign key. |
No | Catalogs |
| Tags | Optional. Text labels that users create to simplify searching. A tag consists of one string of up to 255 characters. It can contain spaces, letters, numbers, underscores, dashes, and the symbols # and @. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs |
| Format | The MIME type of a file. Automatically detected. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
| Asset details | Information about the size of the data, the number of columns and rows, and the asset version. In projects, also the table type of relational data is shown. |
No | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
| Source | Information about the data file in storage or the data source and connection. | No | Catalogs, Spaces |
| Activities pane | The history of actions performed on the asset in all workspaces. | No | Projects, Catalogs |
| Preview asset or Asset page | A preview of the data that includes a limited set of columns and rows from the original data source. | No | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
| Profile page | Metadata and statistics about the content of the data. For example, when an enriched asset is published to a catalog, the expanded metadata is also published, and Display name and Description, which can be an AI-generated or an edited version, show on this page. This information is also surfaced on the Overview page. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs |
| Data quality page | Information about the data quality of an asset and its columns, and the data quality checks that were applied. | Yes * | Projects, Catalogs |
- Projects only
Properties of connection assets
The properties of connection assets depend on the data source that you select when you create a connection. Connection assets for most data sources have the properties that are listed in the following table.
| Properties | Description | Editable? | Workspaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connection details | The information that identifies the data source. For example, the database name, hostname, IP address, port, instance ID, bucket, endpoint URL, and so on. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
| Credential setting | Whether the credentials are shared across the platform (default) or each user must enter their personal credentials. Not all data sources support personal credentials. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
| Authentication method | The format of the credentials information. For example, an API key or a username and password. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
| Credentials | The username and password, API key, or other credentials, as required by the data source and the specified authentication method. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
| Certificates | Whether the data source port is configured to accept SSL connections and other information about the SSL certificate. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
| Private connectivity | The method to connect to a database that is not externalized to the internet. | Yes | Projects, Catalogs, Spaces |
Unstructured data asset types
You can create the following types of unstructured data assets in the projects:
- Document set
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Contains structured information about a dataset, including its purpose, contents, and usage. This asset type is created during unstructured data enrichment or by Unstructured Data Integration flows in a project, and can be published to catalogs.
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You can use document sets as a source when you're creating Unstructured Data Integration flows.
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Available document set sources:
- Connected data asset added through a supported connection.
- Data asset from a file.
- Document set created during unstructured data curation. One document set is used as an input to create another document set.
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You can group similar or related document sets into document libraries.
- Document library
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Collection of document sets. A centralized repository for managing and organizing documents efficiently.