Configuration

info

refter uses a lot of the default dbt configs and properties to generate your documentation.

info

Each section below lists both the dbt properties and refter specific properties that are used by refter to generate your documentation.

Model config properties

dbt model properties

The below dbt model properties are used by refter:

• name
• description
• tags
• configs
  • config meta - owner # used to communicate ownership of a model or table
• access
• version

refter model properties

You can configure the following properties on a model. All properties are optional and are configured under config.refter:

Property	Type	Description	Default
disabled	boolean	Don't show this model in your refter documentation	false
deprecated.enabled	boolean	Show this model as deprecated in your refter documentation	false
deprecated.reason	string	The reason why this model is deprecated	null
deprecated.date	string	The date when this model was deprecated	null
group	string	Group this model with other models in your refter documentation	null
owner	string	Assign an owner to this model in your refter documentation	null

Example

version: 2
models:
- name: customers
  description: Table containing all customers
  docs:
    show: false # same result as setting `refter.disabled: true`
  config:
   tags:
    - pii
   meta:
    owner: data-team
   refter: # refter model properties
    disabled: false
    deprecated:
    enabled: false
    group: customers
    owner: data-team

Column config properties

dbt column properties

• name
• description
• data type
• tests

refter column properties

You can configure the following refter specific properties on a column. All properties are optional and are configured under by adding a refter section for your column:

Property	Type	Description	Default
deprecated	boolean	(lifecycle mgmt) Flag this column as deprecated in your refter documentation	false
relations	object	Configure relations between models	[]

Relation config properties

You can configure the following properties on a relation, a column can have multiple relations:

Property	Type	Description	Default
model	string	The name of the model this column is related to	null
column	string	The name of the column this column is related to	null
type	string	The type of relation between the two columns	null

Allowed relation types

• one-to-one
• one-to-many
• many-to-one
• many-to-many

Example

version: 2
models:
- name: orders
  columns:
  - name: order_id
    data_type: int # refter uses dbt data types
    tests:
    - unique
    - not_null
  - name: old_order_id
    data_type: int
    refter: # refter column properties
    deprecated:
      enabled: true
      reason: "This column is deprecated, use `order_id` instead"
      date: "2021-01-01"
  - name: customer_id
    data_type: string
    refter:
    relations: # define ERD relations
    - model: customers
        column: customer_id
        type: many-to-one
  - name: status
    description: The status of the order

Referencing models

Single project deployment

If you are deploying a single dbt project to Refter you can reference models by their name. dbt requires all models to have a unique name on a per project basis.

Multi project deployment

If you are deploying multiple dbt projects to the same Refter project you can reference models by their database object name. A fully qualified database object name consists of the schema or database name and the table name separated by a dot. For example: schema_name.table_name or database_name.table_name.