dScribe comes with a number of predefined asset types. The most important ones are Definition, Report and Dataset. Each asset type comes with its own properties and settings and can be further customized.

Asset Types can be managed in the Admin Portal > Asset Types.

1. Properties

Each asset comes with various properties to provide users with more information on that asset. There are 3 categories of properties:

Standard Properties

These properties are available by default and cannot be changed. They include the following information:

Asset type The type as defined in dScribe (Definition / Report / Dataset / ...)
Name The name of the asset. If the asset was crawled from a source system, the name cannot be changed.
Documentation A text field which can be used to describe the asset. Can include links, formatting, images & more.
Validation Status The validation status of the asset.
Discovery Policy allowing to restrict read access of asset (For more information, see Organisation)
Key activity info
- Created On When the asset was created or loaded for the first time in dScribe.
- Updated On Who last changed the asset in dScribe.
- Author Who created the asset in dScribe (user or process user).
- Last editor Who last changed the asset in dScribe.

Source Properties

Source Properties are automatically added on assets that were crawled from a source system. They include additional information retrieved directly from the source. The information available varies from the source crawled. Some examples include:

Source asset type The asset type as defined in the source.
Created by in source Who created the asset in the source system.
Created in source on When the asset was created in the source system.
Updated by in source Who last changed the asset in the source system.
Updated in source on When the asset was last changed in the source system.
Additional source-specific properties For example: 'Workspace' for Power BI assets, 'Schema' for SQL Server assets, etc.

Custom Properties

You can add additional properties to each asset type to further enrich the type of information you can document. See Custom Properties.

2. Layout

The layout of each asset type can be customized.

General documentation is always displayed at the top of every asset. Additional documentation (custom properties) can be organized in sections.

Step 1 - Creating sections

New sections can be simply added and reorganised by using or .

Optional settings for sections

Sections can be made conditional so it is only displayed in certain scenarios.

In the example below, a section is only displayed when the asset is cataloged from Salesforce:

Step 2 - Adding properties to sections

Properties can be added to a section via the menu on the right:

Tips:

Don't find a specific property? Make sure the property is enabled on your asset type. For more information see Custom Properties.
You can drag and drop property in sections to reorder them or move them to another section.

Optional settings for properties

Properties can be set up as mandatory when creating an asset. To do so, switch on the Required toggle. This toggle becomes available only when you hover over the section in the application.

Once a property is made mandatory, you can define specific conditions under which it applies. For example, if the asset being documented is a Metric, it may be required to include a formula explaining how the KPI is calculated.

Click on the 3 dots next to the property and select "Add a Condition" to define the condition under which the property should be mandatory. This ensures the property is required only in the relevant context.

3. Additional settings

A number of additional capabilities can be added to each asset type. Below are the most important ones.

Access request workflow

When enabled, a "Request Access" button will appear on assets of this type, allowing users to submit an access request to this asset. You can configure a step-by-step approval flow to trigger when a user submits a request.

For example, first ask the owner to approve the request, then automatically create an IT ticket to grant the necessary read permissions:

Glossary widget

Display a widget listing all related definitions on the detail page of this asset type. Especially useful on reports and datasets.

Data contract

Allow data contracts to be defined and managed for this asset type. Mostly used in the context of data products, but can also be enabled on individual datasets.