Using the Shared Dimension step for SDR

The Shared Dimension step works in much the same way as the Annotate Stream step, refining your data through the creation of dimensions that can be shared for later use. You must designate one annotation in the Shared Dimension step as the dimension key.

You can create multiple annotations on the same field, such as an attribute and a dimension key. For example, in the Shared Dimension step, you can select the field Year and annotate it as a dimension key. You can also select the field Year again to annotate it as an attribute. You can also create multiple annotations to modify the same data model.

The transformation that builds a shared dimension should run before the Build Model job entry, or in a separate job that runs before Build Model. Here is an example transformation for a shared dimension.

Shared dimension workflow

After you are done with your data model, you are ready to publish it.

Metadata injection support

All fields of this step support metadata injection. You can use it with ETL metadata injection to pass metadata to your transformation at runtime.

When using metadata injection with the Shared Dimension step, the system loads the currently defined annotations in the Shared Dimension step, whether or not the shared dimension name is a match. The new set of annotations is saved to the transformation and in the metastore. If a shared dimension with the same name already exists in the metastore, it is overwritten with the new shared dimension.