Overview

Tables and fields can be added to the Staging Area so that this data can then be incorporated into the reporting tables further downstream. This article will cover how to add additional tables and fields to the Staging Area.

Details

Adding Tables and Fields

To add more tables and fields to the Staging Area, you will log in to the Cosmos Portal, you must first ensure that you have checked out the extension that you would like to associate the additional tables and fields with. Next, you will navigate to the Staging section where the latest tables and fields in the data source will be synchronized. 

The first thing to do will be to click on the appropriate data source, if it isn't already selected, that you would like to bring in the tables and fields from. This will display all the tables and fields for the selected data source.

Next, in the Select Tables section you will find the tables that you would like to add to the Staging Area and check the box to the left of each table name. You can also start typing the table name in the Search Tables field at the top to filter down the list of tables being returned.

Once the tables have been added, you will see the new tables name in the Select Fields section on the right. You can expand the table to see all the fields that are available within the table. Check the boxes to the left of each field name to include these fields in the Staging Area. 

These tables and fields are now available in the Transformations and Data Model areas of Cosmos so you can incorporate them into the overall data model.

Fields Checked Out by a Different Extension

In the example below, three additional fields were added to the G/L Account table. The other fields that are shown are checked and disabled are letting the user know that those fields are already being brought into the Staging Area but are associated with another extension and therefore cannot be removed in the context of the extension that is currently checked out by the user.

Automatically Added Fields

Depending on the data source, some fields may be automatically checked when a table is added. For example, with Business Central data sources the "System ID" and "Modified At" fields are automatically checked and disabled, so they cannot be unchecked by the user. The reason for this is that Cosmos uses these when retrieving data from Business Central and the fields are required for the retrieval to work properly.

Fields that Cannot be Selected

You may notice some fields that are unchecked and disabled. These fields typically represent a small subset of data types that are not supported by Cosmos. For more details, please see the article here: Unsupported Business Central Field Types.