At what stage should column renaming happen

Jmoreno
Jmoreno Member
edited March 2023 in Scheduled Reports

Hello I am wondering at what stages of everyone's workflow does the renaming of columns happen.

A. Workbench

B. DOMO ETL

C. DOMO Card

I ask because we have tons of tables being brought into DOMO that do not have "business column names" I feel like if the names are changed in Workbench(A) then it is the root change and will remain going forward in DOMO. If it is done in DOMO ETL(B) then it will release the burden on some engineers of having to figure out what the names are supposed to be that the end users need. And if it is done in the DOMO Card(C) this can be both good and bad, good because the end user knows exactly what they want and what to call what. But it can be bad because now we are introducing consistency where the same column could be renamed in 3 or 4 different ways in the different cards.


I would like to hear what anyone has to say about this.


Thank You

Answers

  • Ashleigh
    Ashleigh Coach

    Personally, I like to do it in my ETLs to make the more common business names. I will also usually make any other data enhancements needed like joining with other workbench tables or adding in manual maps or date fields. The output of that flow is what I make public to my users, most people don't have access to the raw tables in my instance unless its for a pipeline we have not really developed.

    Sometimes we do rename things in cards but that is more for if I need a shorter name or just need it to be more specific.

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  • GrantSmith
    GrantSmith Coach

    Typically I'll do the same, pull in the raw tables with the actual field names then consolidate the business logic and renaming of the columns to be a standard value in the ETL (Magic or View) this way the same name is used across all cards and I have my actual raw tables with no modifications for easier debugging.

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  • ST_-Superman-_
    ST_-Superman-_ Coach

    I agree with both @Ashleigh and @GrantSmith . I prefer to change column names within the ETL. As a best practice, I will also then make a note on the output dataset to state the source and original name of that field by utilizing the Tags and Description fields when viewing the dataset

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    “There is a superhero in all of us, we just need the courage to put on the cape.” -Superman
  • MichelleH
    MichelleH Coach

    I agree with everything that's been said already about editing column names in the ETL. An added benefit of renaming at the ETL step is that it makes it easier to set up page filters, since they rely on the name of the field. This is especially useful if you are using multiple datasets on the same dashboard.

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