Learning the Terminology

As with learning any new software, there are a number of terms that we use with which you may not be familiar.  This article provides you with a quick rundown of the most commonly used terms.

• Canvas: 
  Area of Designer user interface used for viewing or building data flows.
• Composite: 
  A grouping of multiple nodes for ease of reuse. The nodes within a composite are referred to as "contained nodes".
• Connection:
  A link between an output pin of one node and an input pin of another node.
• Data flow: 
  An instance of analysis, that is, a collection of nodes that are linked together sequentially to perform analysis on the underlying data.
• Details panel: 
  Area on the right side of the screen in the Data360 Analyze Directory user interface that contains information related to the selected item. For example, if a data flow is selected, the Details Panel displays the data flow name, run details and import information.
• Errors panel: 
  The errors panel contains an Errors tab and a Warnings tab. You can click an error to view and troubleshoot the corresponding node properties.
• Input Connector: 
  These are the nodes used to acquire data.  Referred to as "Acquisition Nodes" in LAE.
• Node: 
  An individual piece of functionality that applies logic to the underlying data at that particular step in the data flow.  These are the items that will be dragged onto the canvas to create your data flow.
• Pin: 
  Pins are the small circles that allow you to link nodes together. There are input and output pins; input pins are located to the left of a node, output pins are located to the right of a node. Clicking a node pin will highlight its connections. The color of a pin is a visual clue to the node status.
• Property: 
  A factor that defines the behavior or metadata of a data flow or node.
• Properties panel: 
  The properties panel displays data flow, run or node properties, according to what is selected on the canvas.
• Run Dependency (a.k.a. Clock):
  Used to enforce sequential dependencies between nodes that are not explicitly sequential as a result of the data flow structure.

For a full list please visit the Glossary section of the help documentation.