0220 Files and Folders

A metadata catalog typically contains information about the data files that can be processed and their location. Files and folders describe physical files and how they are organized on the file system.

DataFile

DataFile catalogs a physical file. It inherits from DataStore to declare that it is a physical artifact. There are subtypes for DataFile that identify the format of the file:

• CSVFile contains comma-separated values.
• AvroFile is organized according to the Apache Avro specification.
• JSONFile is encoded using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

FileFolder

A Filefolder represents a folder or directory used to group related files together.`

FolderHierarchy

FolderHierarchy links FileFolder elements together to show a hierarchical organization.

NestedFile

NestedFile links a file to a folder.

LinkedFile

Files can also have a symbolic link (LinkedFile) to a element to show that it logically belongs to the other content in the element.

DataFolder

DataFolder is a special case of Filefolder for cataloguing directories that are contain a collection of data. The files and nested folders within it collectively make up the data content. They are not individually catalogued.

Hierarchical file structures

The diagram below illustrates the structure of a file system.

The FileSystem is typically a Software Capability. The root folders (of type FileFolder) are connected to it using the ServerAssetUse relationship. Beneath that are FileFolders with DataFiles nested beneath them.