Create a New Data Definition

If you plan on creating a new data visualization or concatenation, you can select one or more existing definitions, otherwise the definitions must be created prior to creating the data visualization or concatenation. If you’re creating an assessment, you can select existing definitions or create a new one from the Edit Assessment page.

Because the structure of data definition resembles a tree, the anchor object type is also known as the root, the relationships and references on the anchor are the branches, and the object types within those relationships or references are the leaves on the branches.

To create a new data definition:

  1. Click theicon in the top bar > Data Definitions in the Data Model section.
  2. Click Create Data Definition.
  3. Enter the name of the data definition in the Name field.
  4. Optional: Enter a description of the data definition in the Description field, which will appear on the Edit Data Definition.
  5. Select an anchor (root) object type from the Anchor dropdown menu. Your selection here will determine the starting point, or root, of the data path.
    A new data definition that has an anchor selected, but does not yet have a defined data path.
  6. In the Select Data Paths section, click the monogram in the first node of the tree, which represents the anchor, to select it, expand the node, and reveal any relationships and references saved to the anchor. If you only need to select one object type, skip to step 10.
  7. Click a relationship or reference (branch) to show the object type(s) within those relationships or references (e.g. clicking the “People Involved” relationship will reveal the Person and Employee Record object types).
  8. Click an object type (leaf) monogram to place a checkmark next to it and include it in the data definition. To remove a checkmark and remove the leaf from the data path, click the monogram again. The anchor object type is selected by default and the cannot be deselected.
  9. Continue clicking the branches to reveal the relationship and reference object types and select them as needed. If necessary, click an expanded branch with no leaves to collapse it.
    Selecting the object types that will be part of the data path.
    If you intend to use this data definition as the focus of a data visualization, you may only select one leaf per level (branch) in the data path. See Focus Eligible Definitions for more information.
  10. Click Create to display Data Definitions page. By default, this page will be displayed under the By Anchor tab and your new definition can be found below the anchor object type you selected in step 5 above (e.g. Incident). To view the data definition by leaf, or the last object type in the data path (e.g. Employee Record), click the By Leaf tab.