Create a Fusion Source

This applies to: Visual Data Discovery

Fusing data in a source in Symphony Data Discovery is very similar to adding other data sources. Add multiple entities to a new or existing source, then use the Join Definition work area to identify and specify the data from those entities you want to join.

For an overview of Symphony’s data fusion capability, see Fuse Data Sources.

Important: You must log in as a user with the Administer Sources or Create New Data Sources privilege, or write permission for the source for which you want to create a join.

Before You Start

Before you attempt to create a fusion source, verify you can access the connections. If not, create them. See Manage Data Discovery Data Store Connections.

Configure a Fusion Source

To create a Fusion source, add multiple data entities to a new or existing source, then use the Join Definition work area to specify the fields and joins included in your fused source.

Add Joins to a New or Existing Source

Log in as a user with the Administer Sources or Create New Data Sources privilege, or write permission for the source for which you want to create a join.
Select the Sources option from the main menu. The Sources page appears.
Create or edit an existing source, adding multiple entities From Connection or From File. You will only see the connections you have read permission for. See About Source Permissions.

Note: If your source contains multiple data entities, you must use all entities in a join to save the source.

You can also use a Managed Dashboard connection as a source or in a fusion source in Visual Data Discovery. See Add and validate a connection to a data cube.
Select Add in the Join Definition work area. A Join work area opens.
Define your entities, join type, and fields.

Note: Ensure you have matching fields across the data sources you are joining.
- Entity Left: Select an available entity from the data entities you defined.
- Join Type: Select Left, Inner, or Full Outer.
- Entity Right: Select an available entity from the data entities you defined.
- Enable Dimension Entity: Select the settings icon to enable dimension for one or both entities. This improves the performance of queries execution by removing unused data entities from the join.
- Field Left: Select at least one field from this entity. You can add multiple fields by selecting the add field icon, or remove fields by selecting the remove icon.
- Field Right: Select at least one field from this entity. You can add multiple fields by selecting the add field icon, or remove fields by selecting the remove icon.
Select Apply to finish creating the join. Symphony names the join and adds it to the Joins list. Remove joins by selecting the remove icon.

You can also view the relationships of your joins and add more joins in a visualization. See Visualize Joins.
After creating your joins, select Preview Source to preview your data, or select Save Source to save your updated source.
As needed, update the default settings on the Fields tab, Cache tab, or Global Settings tab.

Fields Tab for Fusion Sources

Use the Fields tab to manage your fused source data: rename field Labels, add derived fields, or select the custom metrics tab add a custom metric. If your fused data sources include duplicate field names, Symphony appends a number to the duplicate field name.

Cache Tab for Fusion Sources

Use the Cache tab to enable or disable caching of aggregated results of queries for this source. See How Symphony Caches Data.

Global Settings Tab for Fusion Sources

Use the Global Settings tab to configure settings for new visuals for this fused source. Not all visual styles are available for Fusion data sources. See Data Fusion Limitations.

Visualize Joins

You can use the provided work area to create joins, or view and create joins in a move visual way.

Zoom in or out in this work area, or use the mini map to navigate among the various tables that make up your joins.

View or edit a joins for a fused data source

Create or edit a fusion source that uses a join.
Select the view icon in the Joins work area to open a visualization of existing joins.
Optionally, draw more joins in this work area, then Save your changes. New joins are added to the list of those in Join Settings.

Note: To remove a user-applied join, double-click to select the join, then select the backspace key. The relationship is removed.

Important: If you add joins that create one-to-many relationships here, Symphony may return an error that prevents use of the data in a visual. For best results, when you create a one-to-many relationship with a specific left entity, any additional joins must refer to that table as the right entity. See Recommended Joins.

Note: For Postgres connections, both tables and data relationship information are read from the connection. Other supported connections include table information but do not read relationship information. See Connector Support for Schema Visualization. No information is provided for unsupported connections.

use this work area to view and edit joins in this source

Recommended Joins

Symphony provides some visual guidance for recommended joins. You can add these suggested joins, or create your own.

Note: Recommended Joins may present one-to-many or many-to-one relationships that when implemented return an error. You can still implement the recommended joins: when you create a one-to-many relationship with a specific left entity, any additional joins must refer to that table as the right entity.

For example:

use this work area to navigate among the entities of a specifc join, and to draw relationships between tables

Table A has relationships with Table B, Table C, and Table D.

After defining a relationship with Table A as the left entity, include Table A as the right entity in additional joins.
If you are using the visual interface, position only one of the other tables (Table B, Table C, or Table D) on the left side of Table A. Remaining tables should be placed to the right of Table A.