Discovery from Database View can be access from the Discover section of the main menu on the Data Discovery tab:
Database Views are the SQL Queries that were designed to get data from your database in a way that the business understands.
They may have been designed when the database was first made or created later for reporting. DSF can use these Views to discover information in business terms.
Not all users have the needed database permissions to discover data with this method. Some organizations “lock down” their databases, this is called “hardening a database”. Hardening a database is implemented to reduce misuse of possible security vulnerabilities. One such hardening restriction is to remove the rights to read Table and View definition information. If a DBA has locked users from this information then data discovery with this method CANNOT be performed without elevated credentials. DSF will prompt for the elevated credentials if needed.
Database View Discovery
All accessible database Views across all Schemas will be listed. If you are missing database permissions to read the View definitions then the definition column will be blank.
Check off which Views you wish to use for discovery and click the Discover button on the menu. Selecting ALL on the list is equivalent to running the Data Wizard with the Normal Option setting.
Special Considerations
Each View selected will try to create a new Entity with the database View name. If the Entity (database View) name already exists a new default unique name will be created (Name1, Name2, etc.).
The system re-discovers the database View and will merge any changes. However, if a View of the same name has already been discovered and the View's definition does not match the original context, then new Entity will be created.
Existing Entities created from database Views cannot be arbitrarily refreshed or changed simply because the names of a discovered database View happens to match. The actual SQL Query definition that makes up the database View could be different than the originally discovered version thereby changing the context of the Entity completely.
If you are confident that the context of the duplicate Entity is simply because of a duplicate database View discovery then the duplicate Entity can be deleted. Otherwise, the Entity should be re-named to match the context to which it pertains.
Discovering data by database View is a convenient way to select Views individually when you have many Views in your database and do not want to process them all at once with the Data Wizard. It can also be used when you know new Views have been added and don’t want to re-run a full discovery.
The most important thing to remember is that discovered database Views may create new Entities whether they have been previously discovered or not.