Configure Dataform settings

This page shows you how to edit the Dataform processing settings for a specific repository.

You might want to edit the settings file to rename the schemas or add custom compilation variables to your repository.

About repository settings

Each Dataform repository contains a unique workflow_settings.yaml settings file. The file contains the Google Cloud project ID and the schema in which Dataform publishes assets in BigQuery.

Dataform uses default settings that you can override to best suit your needs by editing the workflow_settings.yaml file.

The following code sample shows a sample workflow_settings.yaml file:

  defaultProject: my-gcp-project-id
  defaultDataset: dataform
  defaultLocation: australia-southeast2
  defaultAssertionDataset: dataform_assertions

In the sample code, the key-value pairs, and all other options for Workflow Settings, are described in the configs reference for workflow settings.

You can access the properties defined in workflow_settings.yaml in your project code as properties of the dataform.projectConfig object. The following mappings from workflow_settings.yaml options to the code accessible dataform.projectConfig options are applied:

  • defaultProject => defaultDatabase.
  • defaultDataset => defaultSchema.
  • defaultAssertionDataset => assertionSchema.
  • projectSuffix => databaseSuffix.
  • datasetSuffix => schemaSuffix.
  • namePrefix => tablePrefix.

For more information about the dataform.projectConfig object, see IProjectConfig Dataform core reference.

The following code sample shows the dataform.projectConfig object called in a SELECT statement in a view:

  config { type: "view" }
  SELECT ${when(
    !dataform.projectConfig.tablePrefix,
    "table prefix is set!",
    "table prefix is not set!"
  )}

Before you begin

  1. Create a repository.

  2. Create and initialize a development workspace in your repository.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to configure Dataform settings, ask your administrator to grant you the Dataform Admin (roles/dataform.admin) IAM role on repositories. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access.

You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

Configure schema names

This task shows how to configure defaultDataset and defaultAssertionSchema properties in the workflow_settings.yaml file.

To change the name of a schema, follow these steps:

  1. In your development workspace, in the Files pane, click the workflow_settings.yaml file.

  2. Edit the value of defaultDataset, defaultAssertionSchema, or both.

The following code sample shows a custom defaultDataset name in the workflow_settings.yaml file:

  ...
  defaultDataset: mytables
  ...

Create custom compilation variables

Compilation variables contain values that you can modify with compilation overrides in a Dataform API request.

After you define a compilation variable in workflow_settings.yaml and add it to selected tables, you can use modify its value in Dataform API compilation overrides to execute tables conditionally.

To create a compilation variable that you can use across a repository, follow these steps:

  1. Go to your Dataform development workspace.
  2. In the Files pane, select the workflow_settings.yaml file.

  3. Enter the following code snippet:

    "vars": {
 "YOUR_VARIABLE":"VALUE"
}

    Replace the following:

    • YOUR_VARIABLE with a name for the variable.
    • VALUE with the default value of the compilation variable.

The following code sample shows the myVariableName compilation variable set to myVariableValue in the workflow_settings.yaml file:

  ...
  vars:
    myVariableName: myVariableValue
  ...

The following code sample shows the workflow_settings.yaml file with the executionSetting compilation variable set to dev:

defaultProject: default_bigquery_database
defaultLocation:us-west1
defaultDataset: dataform_data,
vars:
  executionSetting: dev

Add a compilation variable to a table

To add a compilation variable to a SQLX table definition file, follow these steps:

  1. Go to your Dataform development workspace.
  2. In the Files pane, select a SQLX table definition file.

  3. In the file, enter a when clause in the following format:

    ${when(dataform.projectConfig.vars.YOUR_VARIABLE === "SET_VALUE", "CONDITION")}

    Replace the following:

    • YOUR_VARIABLE with the name of your variable, for example executionSetting.
    • SET_VALUE with a value for the variable, for example, staging.
    • CONDITION with a condition for execution of the table.

The following code sample shows a table definition SQLX file with a when clause and the executionSetting variable that executes 10% of data in the staging execution setting:

select
  *
from ${ref("data")}
${when(
  dataform.projectConfig.vars.executionSetting === "staging",
  "where mod(farm_fingerprint(id) / 10) = 0",
)}

The following code sample shows a view definition SQLX file with a when clause and the myVariableName variable:

  config { type: "view" }
  SELECT ${when(
    dataform.projectConfig.vars.myVariableName === "myVariableValue",
    "myVariableName is set to myVariableValue!",
    "myVariableName is not set to myVariableValue!"
  )}

What's next