Collection Types¶

Collection and composite types in OpenMetadata.

Overview¶

Collection types define arrays, objects, and complex structures used across schemas.

Entity Reference¶

Schema: type/entityReference.json

Reference to another entity:

{
  "id": "uuid",
  "type": "table",
  "name": "customers",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "db.schema.customers",
  "description": "Customer master table",
  "displayName": "Customers",
  "deleted": false,
  "href": "https://api.example.com/v1/tables/uuid"
}

Properties¶

id: Entity UUID
type: Entity type (table, dashboard, user, etc.)
name: Entity name
fullyQualifiedName: Unique FQN
description: Optional description
displayName: Display name
deleted: Soft delete flag
href: API endpoint

Usage¶

References are used for: - Ownership - Lineage - Relationships - Service connections

Entity Relationship¶

Schema: type/entityRelationship.json

Typed relationship between entities:

{
  "fromEntity": {
    "id": "source-uuid",
    "type": "table"
  },
  "toEntity": {
    "id": "target-uuid",
    "type": "table"
  },
  "relationshipType": "contains"
}

Relationship Types¶

contains: Hierarchical containment
uses: Usage dependency
owns: Ownership
createdBy: Creation attribution
upstream: Lineage (data flows from)
downstream: Lineage (data flows to)

Tag Label¶

Schema: type/tagLabel.json

Tag assignment to an entity:

{
  "tagFQN": "PII.Email",
  "description": "Personal email address",
  "source": "Classification",
  "labelType": "Manual",
  "state": "Confirmed"
}

Tag Sources¶

Classification: From taxonomy
Glossary: From business glossary
Derived: Automatically derived

Label Types¶

Manual: User-applied
Automated: Rule-based
Propagated: Inherited from parent
Derived: ML/pattern-detected

Change Description¶

Schema: type/changeDescription.json

Tracks field-level changes:

{
  "fieldsAdded": [
    {
      "name": "tags",
      "newValue": "[{\"tagFQN\": \"PII.Email\"}]"
    }
  ],
  "fieldsUpdated": [
    {
      "name": "description",
      "oldValue": "Old description",
      "newValue": "Updated description"
    }
  ],
  "fieldsDeleted": [
    {
      "name": "customProperty",
      "oldValue": "value"
    }
  ],
  "previousVersion": 1.0
}

Life Cycle¶

Schema: type/lifeCycle.json

Entity lifecycle information:

{
  "created": {
    "timestamp": 1704067200000,
    "user": "john.doe"
  },
  "updated": {
    "timestamp": 1704153600000,
    "user": "jane.smith"
  },
  "accessed": {
    "timestamp": 1704240000000
  }
}

Usage Summary¶

Schema: type/usageDetails.json

Usage statistics:

{
  "dailyStats": {
    "count": 150,
    "percentileRank": 0.85
  },
  "weeklyStats": {
    "count": 1050,
    "percentileRank": 0.90
  },
  "date": "2024-01-01"
}

Profile¶

Data profiling information:

{
  "profileDate": "2024-01-01",
  "rowCount": 1000000,
  "columnCount": 25,
  "sizeInBytes": 850000000
}

Array Types¶

Generic arrays:

{
  "type": "array",
  "items": {
    "$ref": "entityReference.json"
  }
}

Common arrays: - Tags: TagLabel[] - References: EntityReference[] - Users: EntityReference[] (type=user) - Teams: EntityReference[] (type=team)