Adding a dynamic view of connected data to a project

A dynamic view is a data asset that is created dynamically based on an SQL query. Such data asset can contain data from one or more tables in a single data source.

With a dynamic view, you can access only relevant data, which improves security and usability. Depending on your SQL query, the dynamic view can contain a subset or a superset of columns based on column selection, an explicit set of rows based on a conditional expression, or a combination of both.

You can use the resulting asset in the same way as a regular connected data asset:

As a data steward, you can profile and enrich such assets through metadata enrichment.
As a data quality analyst, you can run data quality analysis on such assets.

Requirements

You can create dynamic views under the following circumstances.

Required service

Dynamic views require the IBM Knowledge Catalog service.

Required permissions

To create a dynamic view, you must have the Admin or Editor role in the project. See Supported data sources.

Additional requirements

The connection that you want to use must exist in the project and must support SQL queries. Before you start creating the dynamic view, check whether that connection is configured with personal credentials. Open the connection asset and check the Credentials section. If required, enter your credentials to unlock the connection.

Creating the asset

To add a dynamic view of data from a connection to a project:

From the project page, click the Assets tab, and then click New asset > Create a dynamic view of data.
Enter a name and optionally a description. The maximum number of characters that are allowed for the name or the description is 100 each.
Select an existing connection asset as the source of the data. The connection must support SQL queries.
Optional: Add tags as required.
On the Query tab, enter your SQL query for selecting the data for the dynamic view. Example:
```
SELECT name, address, client_id FROM BANK1.BANK_CLIENTS WHERE account_type='CHECKING' AND online_access='YES'
```
This query creates a view with the columns that contain the names, addresses, and client IDs of clients who have online access to their checking account. The source is the BANK_CLIENTS database table.

To validate your SQL statement, you can switch to the Preview tab. If the statement is valid, the selected columns with their data types are listed. Otherwise, your query is validated when you click Create. You must fix any SQL errors before you can create the asset.
Click Create.

The asset is added to the project Assets page. To differentiate dynamic views from other data assets, such assets are marked with the reference data icon ( reference data asset ). If folders are enabled in the project, a dynamic view is always created in the root folder, but you can move it to any subdirectory to organize your dynamic views.

When you click the asset name, you can see this information about a dynamic view:

The asset name and description.
The table type.
The tags for the asset.
The containing folder if you moved the asset to a subdirectory.
The connection name and the connector type.
The SQL query that generates the asset. You can edit the SQL query by clicking the pencil icon. After you edit the SQL query, you might need to rerun profiling or metadata enrichment, and update and rerun any data quality rules for the asset.
When the asset was last modified and by whom.
When the asset was added to the project and by whom.
A preview of the selected data.
A profile of the selected data.
Data quality information for the selected data.
Visualizations.
Feature groups.

Currently, you can't publish a dynamic view to a catalog, promote it to a deployment space, use it in Data Refinery, or create a masking flow for it.

Next steps

Learn more

Connection assets

Parent topic: Adding data to a project