Astera Data Virtualization features an intuitive, drag-and-drop interface, and provides a complete arsenal of functionalities for business users to design, deploy, and consume virtual data models. The product has been designed to facilitate the non-technical business users in designing virtual data models and exposing their dispersed data for consumption in business processes.
Here’s a walkthrough of Astera Data Virtualization UI to help you get familiar with the environment.
Designer
Astera Data Virtualization features an intuitive designer where you can create a visual illustration of virtual data models through simple drag-and-drop actions.
This is how the designer for virtual data models looks like.
Figure 1: Virtual Data Model Designer
Toolbox
The toolbox for virtual data models provides users with everything they need to design a virtual abstraction layer for their data. The features are categorized into Sources, Transformations, Web Services, and EDI.
Astera Data Virtualization offers native, high-speed connectivity to a wide range of sources, including structured and semi-structured sources, in-memory formats, database sources, and enterprise applications. You can also include sub-flows or call data residing in online sources through REST services.
Figure 2: Virtual Data Model Toolbox
Virtual Data Model Browser
The Virtual Data Model Browser enlists all entities constituting a virtual data model, along with their respective keys and elements. You can right-click on an entity in the Virtual Data Browser to open its properties, enable or disable caching, refresh layouts, set cache schedule, or save it as a shared action.
Figure 3: Virtual Data Model Browser
Data Source Browser
The Data Source Browser provides you instant and easy access to all the databases deployed on the server. You can browse through different database tables and query data through a simple drag and drop action onto the designer.
Figure 4: Data Source Browser
Toolbar
The toolbar is an extensive console featuring different functionalities that the user can activate with a single click. It features options such as:
Figure 5: Toolbar
- Enable Cache for All Entities – this activates caching for all entities constituting a virtual data model.
- Disable Cache for All Entities – this option deactivates caching for all entities that were cache-enabled previously.
- Deploy Virtual Data Model – an instant way to deploy your virtual data model on the server.
- Link Nodes to Create Reference Relationships in a Data Model – enables the user to inter-link different entities together by creating relationships
- Refresh – is used to refresh all entities in a virtual data model with a single click
- Show Reference Alias Labels – when enabled, it shows the reference alias labels for inter-linked entities on the corresponding mapping link.
- View at Entity Level – when enabled, it will show all entities at the entity level, that is, only the headers for each entity will be visible in the virtual data model.
- View Entity and All Elements – when enabled, it shows all elements of an entity inside the object.
- View Entity and Keys – when enabled, it shows entities at entity level with only the primary key for each entity visible inside the object.
- Select Multiple Entities – when clicked, it opens a new window where all entities constituting the virtual data model are listed and you can select multiple entities from the list.
Deployment Monitor
The Deployment Monitor provides you insights into the virtual database deployments, such as the deployment ID, status, cache status, created and updated by, and the date and time of the last update. You can also create new deployments, delete the existing ones, or modify the current deployments in the deployment monitor.
Figure 6: Deployment Monitor
Deployment Log
The deployment log provides you comprehensive insights about the jobs that were run as part of a virtual data model deployment, along with their status, progress, and caching info. You can also get complete details about the caching progress for each cache-enabled entity by clicking the ‘P’ flag in the sidebar. This will open a new tab in the deployment log where you can get a complete summary of the caching process for an entity.
Figure 7: Deployment Log
Project Explorer
You can keep your data virtualization projects organized in a dedicated project explorer, which gives users easy access to parameters, schedules, virtual data models, and shared connections. You can add or remove items from your data virtualization project directly from the project explorer.
Figure 8: Project Explorer
This concludes the Astera Data Virtualization UI walkthrough.
Let us know if you found it helpful. You may also browse through more help articles on designing and publishing virtual data models in Astera Data Virtualization.
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