You can define relationships between assets of the same type, or between assets of different types. You can use the relationships that you define to visualize and understand how changes to one asset would impact other assets, and to understand how business terms relate to applications, reports, processes, policies and to each other.
Relationship types capture a specific type of relationship between two specific types of asset. Relationships are formed between two assets (the subject and an object) using a predicate. A predicate is a term which explains the nature of the relationship. The following are examples of common relationship types:
| Subject | Predicate | Object |
|---|---|---|
| Application | stores | Business Term |
| Business Term | synonym of | Business Term |
| Policy | governs | Business Term |
| Report | contains | Business Term |
| Report | similar | Report |
Relationships are bidirectional, so the inverse of a relationship must also be defined, for example:
| Subject | Predicate | Object |
|---|---|---|
| Business Term | is stored by | Application |
| Business Term | synonym of | Business Term |
| Business Term | is governed by | Policy |
| Business Term | is contained in | Report |
| Report | similar | Report |
To browse existing relationships, go to the relevant asset page and click the Relationships tab. All of the defined relationship types for the asset are listed on the left panel, together with the asset and asset path. Unused relationships do not display. The Filters panel on the right enables you to select the appropriate relationship types to display. You can add filters for any custom fields that are displayed in the grid, if an appropriate relationship type has been selected. If you select a different relationship type, any custom field filters are automatically cleared. If you navigate away from the page, any previously defined filters are retained.
If all relationships displayed on the grid have the same relationship type, you can see any custom fields that have been defined.
If a relationship type has been defined where the subject and object are both the same asset type, for example a Semantic Relation type, both the relationship and its inverse are displayed.
If you select a relationship type in the left panel, click the Information button to display its details in the Information panel. You can toggle between the Information panel and the Filters panel as required, by clicking the appropriate button.