Verify the consistency and quality of data models according to a glossary of class and prime terms, and to target-specific attribute rules such as precision/scale for numeric, and length for string data types.

1. Hackolade Tutorial
Tutorial – Verify Data Model
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2. What is model verification?
• Verify consistency and quality of data models
• Use a glossary of class and prime terms
• Use target-specific attribute rules
• Eg. precision/scale for numeric attributes
• Eg. length for string attributes
• Based on:
• Business Names and Non-target-specific for glossary-based rules
• Technical Names and Target-specific for property/attributed-based rules
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3. Background: naming theory
• Business names are expressions to describe a single data object
• Consists of
• A Class term:
• Highest level of classification
• Last word (or phrase like “unit of measure”) of the business name
• Identifies general purpose of the data object
• Prime terms:
• Most important modifier of the class term
• Single word (or phrase like “unit of measure”)
• Directly precedes the class term
• One or more modifying terms
• Add important business information
• Precedes the prime term
• Hackolade Studio Model Verifications only cover prime and class terms,
and ignore modifiers that are not declared as class terms
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4. Example: Currency Code
All following combinations are allowed
Component Invoice Amount Currency Code
Component Total Amount Currency Code
Unit Price Currency Code
Item Converted Price Currency Code
Item Original Price Currency Code
Item Total Converted Price Currency Code
Item Total Original Price Currency Code
We recommend experimenting with a small glossary first.
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5. Glossary verifications
• Check the business names in the model with the terms
in the glossary file
• Glossary file extends the existing abbreviations in Naming Conventions
• Additional column: Synonyms to be prevented (separated by “|”)
• Unlike Naming Conventions
parameters, this file is
the same for all targets
• Terms are checked
for each object in
the model
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6. Glossary verifications
• Current glossary-related rules
• Invalid Term: business name contains terms not in the glossary
• Inconsistent Terms: combination of prime+class term not in the glossary
• Synonyms: business name contains synonyms of glossary terms
• Rules that are not respected create an entry in the verification report
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7. Attribute verifications
• These verifications are target-specific
• Check technical OR business names against user-defined properties
rules in target-specific file.
• Technical names are optional, potentially using Naming Conventions
• Using propRules file in .hackolade/OPTIONS/<target>
• Technical name
• Required
• Default
• Data Type
• Length
• Precision
• Scale
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8. Attribute verifications
• Check that attribute matches the specification in the propRules file
• Report entries generated for
• Invalid data type, Missing required property, Invalid default property, Invalid length,
Invalid precision, Invalid scale
• Check additional rules of propRules file
• Technical name conflicts with reserved keywords, independent of glossary
• Excessive technical name length, independent of glossary
• Also pro-active warnings for duplicate table names in the same
schema, duplicate column name in the same table, dangling
relationships, mismatched data types in relationships
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9. Using model verification
• Configure paths access • Run
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10. Interpreting the exception report
• Failed results generate an entry in the report
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11. Interpreting the exception report
• Report can be long - recommend to run with highest priority exception only
• Some rules depend on other rules! (eg. wrong data type >> precision/scale)
• Failing multiple rules = multiple lines in the report
• Columns modelGUID, containerGUID, entityGUID, relationshipGUID, and
attribGUID can be hidden from report for interpretation
• Groups of columns:
• Verification failure identification
• Objects GUIDs
• Objects technical and business names
• Attributes properties
• Glossary entries
• Attribute rules values
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12. Reading material
• See Hackolade online documentation
• The Hackolade Blog
• This excellent new book:
MongoDB Data Modeling & Schema Design
• Many of the principles in the book are related to query
driven modeling based on access patterns
• Hackolade’s on social media: LinkedIn page, Twitter page
• Download Hackolade Studio for free
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13. Questions?
Answers!
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