Custom attributes

Overview

In large-scale data governance and asset management, traditional technical metadata like table structures, lineage, and partition information often fails to fully describe an asset's business context. Its inheritance mechanism enables batch information management and improves metadata management efficiency.

Custom attributes help you solve the following problems:

• Missing business information: Technical metadata cannot answer key business questions, such as "Who is the business owner?" or "How is this metric defined?"

• Inefficient configuration: When thousands of tables or datasets must adhere to the same governance standard, such as a unified approval link, manually configuring each one is costly and difficult to maintain.

Core capabilities of custom attributes include:

• Custom attribute declaration: Administrators can define an attribute's name, Identifier, type (such as text or Enumerated item), and the entity types to which it applies.

• Attribute value configuration: Users can view and edit custom attribute values on the entities to which they apply.

• Attribute inheritance: Automatically inherits attribute values between object levels to reduce repetitive configuration.

Typical use cases:

• Tag datasets with business information, such as business domain and data owner, to facilitate search and management in Data Map.

• Configure a unified data approval link for a workspace. All datasets within that workspace automatically inherit this link, eliminating the need for individual configuration.

Limitations

• Custom attribute names must be unique within a tenant.

• The Identifier for a custom attribute must be unique within a tenant and cannot be changed after creation.

• The Type of a custom attribute cannot be changed after creation.

Permissions

The table below lists the permissions required for custom attribute operations for RAM users and roles. By default, an Alibaba Cloud account (primary account) has all permissions.

Create a custom attribute

Administrators can create custom attributes by following these steps.

1. Log on to the DataWorks console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Data Map.

2. Hover over the Configuration Management icon in the left-side navigation pane and select Custom Property Configuration.

3. On the custom attribute management page, click + Add.

4. In the Create Custom Property dialog box, configure the parameters as described in the following table.

   Category	Parameter	Description
   Attribute Configuration	ID	The unique identifier (key) for the custom attribute, used in scenarios such as API calls. It can contain only letters, digits, and underscores (_). It cannot be changed after creation.
   	Name	The display name of the custom attribute. It must be unique within the tenant. The name can be up to 128 characters long.
   	Type	Select the data type for the attribute value. This cannot be changed after creation. The following types are supported: Enum Value: The attribute value is selected from a predefined list of options. Text: The attribute value is a free-form text string. Link: The attribute value is a user-input link, which includes a Link Title and a URL.
   	Enum Value	If you select Enum Value as the attribute type, you must configure a list of selectable values.
   	Description	A description of the custom attribute.
   Effective Scope	Applicable Entity Type	Select the entity type to which this custom attribute applies. Supported types are workspace and dataset.
   	Inherit	Currently, this option is supported only for the workspace type. When enabled, this attribute supports inheritance. Datasets associated with the workspace automatically inherit the attribute value. For example, if you set an attribute such as "Environment Type: Production" for a workspace, its associated datasets automatically acquire the same attribute value. When the parent attribute value is updated, the inherited value changes accordingly.
   	Allow Overwrite	When enabled, child objects can modify the inherited attribute value. After modification, the value becomes a local value and no longer updates when the parent's value changes.
   	Enable as a Filter	When the attribute type is Enum Value, you can configure this custom attribute as a filter, allowing users to quickly filter data by this attribute during searches.
   	Show on Details Page	Controls whether this custom attribute is displayed on an object's details page.

5. Click Confirm . The new attribute appears in the custom attribute management list, where you can edit or delete it.

Configure and view custom attribute values

After creating a custom attribute, you can configure its values for workspaces and datasets.

Filter by custom attributes

For custom attributes of the Enum Value type with Enable as a Filter enabled, you can use the attribute to quickly filter workspaces or datasets during a search.

Attribute inheritance

Custom attributes support inheritance across object levels, allowing child objects to automatically inherit values from parent objects.

• Inheritance chain: The inheritance of custom attributes follows this hierarchy: Workspace > Dataset.

  For example, when you configure a custom attribute value at the workspace level, all datasets within that workspace automatically inherit that value.

• Inheritance policy: When you create a custom attribute, you can set the Allow Overwrite policy.

  • Allow Override : A child object (dataset) inherits the attribute value from its parent (workspace) by default, but you can override this value at the child level. For example, a workspace can be configured with a standard approval link that most of its datasets automatically inherit. For datasets that contain sensitive information, you can override this link with one that requires a higher level of approval.

  • Disallow Override: The child object must inherit the parent's attribute value, and this value cannot be modified at the child level.

• Changes to parent values: When a parent attribute value changes, all child objects that inherit it are updated simultaneously. Child objects with an overridden value are not affected.

• Inheritance indicator: On the dataset details page, an indicator icon is displayed next to custom attributes inherited from a workspace. Hover over the icon to view the inheritance source and override policy.

  

References

• Data Map

• Appendix: Overview of Data Map access control capabilities