Data Catalog

RudderStack’s Data Catalog feature lets you create the events and properties for configuring tracking plans. You can also define all the necessary details for your events and properties like name, type, description, category, etc.

Once created, you can select the required events and associate them with properties while creating a tracking plan.

You can also use the Data Catalog API to:

• Create and manage your tracking plans programmatically.
• Add or update events and properties in your data catalog.
• Create and manage new categories for your data catalog events.

See this self-paced product tour for data catalog:

Add event

1. Log in to the RudderStack dashboard and go to Govern > Data Catalog option in the left sidebar.
2. In the Events tab, click Add event.

3. Select event type from the dropdown. Note that you cannot update the event type later.
4. Specify the event name and description.

Note that:

• You cannot set a blank event name - it must be at least 1 character long.

• RudderStack supports all UTF-8 characters in event names.

• The event name can start with a letter, number, or special character. Some examples of valid event names:

  • Test Event
  • 5Test Event
  • @4Test Event

5. Optionally, specify the event category from the dropdown.
6. Click Save.

Event details

Once created, you can click the event to see the following:

• Event details
• Connections to tracking plans, along with the connected sources and associated properties (only visible after you use the event to create a tracking plan)
• Delete event

You cannot delete an event from the data catalog if it is connected to any tracking plan.

You can also make any changes to the event and click Save for the changes to take effect:

Add property

1. Log in to the RudderStack dashboard and go to Govern > Data Catalog option in the left sidebar.
2. Go to the Properties tab, click Add property.

3. In the Property details tab, specify the property name and description.

Note that:

• You cannot set a blank property name - it must be at least 1 character long.

• RudderStack supports all UTF-8 characters in property names.

• The property name can start with a letter, number, or special character. Some examples of valid property names:

  • test_property
  • 1test_property
  • @1Ttest property

4. Choose the data type for your property from the dropdown. You can choose multiple data types as per your requirement or leave it empty to accept any data type.

5. If you choose Array from the dropdown, select the data type of its elements in the Array of field . For example, if you choose String, RudderStack accepts only string elements for that array.

6. Click Save to save the changes and add the new property to your data catalog.

Add multiple properties with same name

You can create multiple properties with the same name as long as:

• They have a different data type, OR
• In case of arrays, they have different Array of values.

For example, suppose you create a property called test_property of the array data type and the Array of field set to String, as shown:

In that case:

• You can create another property called test_property with a different data type, for example, Integer.
• You can create another property called test_property with an array data type and a different Array of field setting, for example, Boolean and String.
• You cannot create another property called test_property with an array data type and the Array of field set to String.

Property details

Once created, you can click the property to see the following:

• Property details like name, description, and data type.
• Connections to tracking plans, along with the connected sources and associated events (only visible after you map the property to an event while creating a tracking plan).
• Delete property from data catalog.

You cannot delete a property from the data catalog if it is connected to any tracking plan.

You can make any changes to the property details in this tab. Make sure to click Save for the changes to take effect:

Advanced rules

While adding or editing a property, go to the Advanced rules tab to add rules that define how RudderStack should capture a property.

You can set advanced rules for properties of all the data types except Object and Null.

You can define the following advanced rules for the property depending on its data type:

• Enum: Define the acceptable values for the property.

• Format: Define the acceptable format in which the property values should be captured. RudderStack supports the below formats:

  • date-time
  • date
  • time
  • email
  • hostname
  • ipv4
  • ipv6
  • uuid

• Pattern: Define the property constraints using regular expressions. RudderStack supports the below patterns:

  • Email
  • Date-time (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS)
  • Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
  • Time (HH:MM:SS)
  • URL
  • IPv4
  • IPv6
  • Custom (define a custom pattern)

• Minimum/maximum length: Define the acceptable string length for the property.

• Enum: Define the acceptable values for the property.

• Minimum/Maximum: Define the range acceptable for the property.

• Exclusive Minimum/Maximum: Define the exclusive range acceptable for the property.

• Multiple Of: Define a number whose multiples are the only acceptable values for this property.

• Minimum/Maximum items: Define the minimum and maximum number of items acceptable for this property.

• Unique items: Specify whether RudderStack should accept arrays with only unique items. To do so, turn on the Allow unique items toggle.

• Enum: Define the acceptable values for the property.

Manage event categories

You can associate an event in the data catalog with a category it best fits into.

1. Go to the Events tab and click Select category.
2. Choose a category from the dropdown.

RudderStack provides the following categories by default:

• Conversion
• General
• Marketing
• Onboarding

You can also assign a custom category to an event. Click Select category and enter the required category name.

Questions? Contact us by email or on Slack