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Lineage Tips & Tricks

Everything on a Lineage canvas is driven by the toolbar at the bottom left, the search box and trail at the top left, and what each node reveals on hover. This page is the reference for them, on a container's Lineage tab and on a datastore's. A container's own lineage, below, means its Lineage tab or a container opened from a datastore's canvas.

The Canvas Toolbar

Control What It Does
Zoom out Decreases the magnification by one step.
Zoom level The button between the two zoom controls shows the current percentage. Clicking it opens presets at 200%, 150%, 100%, 75%, and 50%, and picking one jumps straight to that magnification.
Zoom in Increases the magnification by one step.
Fit view Sets the zoom and position so that everything currently on the canvas is visible at once. The quickest way back after scrolling away from the graph.
Show minimap / Hide minimap Shows or hides a small overview of the whole canvas, which you can pan and zoom. Off by default.
Reorganize Re-applies the default layout. Expansions add nodes to the existing arrangement rather than recomputing it, so this is what to reach for once the graph starts to look tangled.
More options Opens the menu described below.
Impact analysis Lists what the selected container, or the container whose view you are on, feeds and what feeds it. On a datastore's canvas with nothing selected, ranks the datastore's containers instead. See Impact Analysis.
Show more On a datastore's canvas, when only part of its lineage is drawn: shows how many assets are drawn out of the total, and draws the next part.
Legend Explains what each kind of card stands for. See The Legend.

On a narrow screen the toolbar wraps onto two lines.

Search and the Trail

Control What It Does
Search assets Finds a container by name. On a container's own lineage it searches the cards on screen. On a datastore's map or all-containers canvas it also finds the datastore's other containers that have lineage, and picking one that is not drawn yet loads it. In the lineage between two datastores, search stays within the connections between the two ends.
The trail Names the view you are on: the container and its datastore, the two ends of the lineage between two datastores, or the datastore. On a container's own lineage, its tooltip tells users who can edit what they can change there.
Back On a datastore's Lineage tab only. Returns from a container to the canvas, and from the canvas to the map, as you left them.

The More Options Menu

Entry What It Does
Focus current Returns the view to the container whose lineage you are on, however far you have navigated. Only on a container's own lineage.
Focus selection Centers the view on what you have selected. Grayed out while nothing is selected.
Expand fields Opens the field list on every node at once, instead of one node at a time.
Collapse fields The same entry, once the field lists are open. Closes them all.
Expand upstream Loads the upstream side of the graph without picking a node first. Grayed out when nothing is left to load on that side, or while another expansion is running. Only on a container's own lineage.
Expand downstream The same, in the other direction.

The Datastore Map Toolbar

The map a datastore's Lineage tab opens on has a toolbar of its own, at the bottom left:

Control What It Does
Zoom out, Zoom level, Zoom in, Fit view The same as on the canvas.
Reorganize Undoes any cards you dragged and fits the map back into view.
More options Focus current centers this datastore. Show more upstream and Show more downstream show the next cards on that side, and are grayed out when nothing is hidden there.
Show more Appears when the map does not fit in one go. Shows how many cards are drawn, and shows more on each side that has more.
Legend In this datastore, In another datastore and Not in Qualytics.

Working With the Graph

  • Expanding is one way. There is no collapse for the graph itself, only for field lists. Reload the Lineage tab to get back to the starting view.
  • Esc steps back one thing at a time. It closes an open menu or dialog first. Otherwise it closes the Pick from list panel if it is open, or clears the selected card or field. With nothing selected, on a datastore's Lineage tab, it goes Back. It never goes back while you are typing.
  • Reorganize after a big expansion. New nodes are placed around what is already there, so the layout drifts as the graph grows.
  • Focus before you zoom. On a dense graph, clicking a node or a field dims everything unrelated, which is usually faster than zooming in to find one chain.
  • Copy a name you cannot open. An asset that is not registered in Qualytics is drawn with a dashed border and has no page to visit. Right-click it and use Copy Name to take its full name, as the source spells it, into a search or a ticket.
  • Find the gaps from the listing. Turn on the container listing's Has lineage filter to keep only the containers with connections, then compare it with the unfiltered list to spot the containers that have none, rather than opening tabs one by one.