A manual data element is the business representation of data that may not be available in the catalog but is essential to capture for governance purposes in your organization.
A manual data element represents a data element that the business understands or consumes which may not directly translate to a technical data element. Manual data elements are not found in catalog sources and, therefore, their metadata is not extracted.
If you are a business user, you can manually create a data element within a data set. A data set can either have technical data elements or manual data elements or a combination of both. Although a manual data element is a type of business asset, it exists in a business data set and not as a standalone business asset. You can associate a manual data element with one business data set only.
If you want to create a large number of manual data elements, consider creating a custom catalog source for all the manual data elements in Metadata Command Center and scan the catalog source. You can also create a manual data element through API and bulk upload.
You can create a manual lineage between the manual data element and other assets to visually represent the complete flow of data between catalogued and non-catalogued assets. For more information about manual lineage, see Lineage types in Working With Assets help.
Creating a manual data element
Create a manual data element that represents a data that may not be available in the catalog but is essential to capture for governance purposes in your organization. Enter properties that add technical or business context to the manual data element.
To create a manual data element in a business data set, perform the following steps:
1Open a business data set in Data Governance and Catalog.
2Select the Contains tab, and click the Add icon. Select Create Manual Data Element option.
The New Manual Data Element dialog box opens.
3Enter all the mandatory field values, and click Create.
You have successfully created a manual data element.
Note: You cannot create a manual data element with the same name within a single data set. However, you can create a manual data element with the same name across different data sets.
4Go back to the business data set, select the Contains tab, and click the Refresh icon.
The manual data element that you created appears along with other technical data elements in the business data set.
Note: You cannot add stakeholders for a manual data element. Stakeholders are automatically inherited from the parent data set.
