✦TL;DR

Update, remove, or add descriptions to assets programmatically using the Atlan Python SDK (pyatlan).

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Change description

There are actually two descriptions per asset

There are actually two fields in Atlan that capture the description of an asset: description and userDescription.

In the UI, userDescription will take precedence. This is the field that's updated when a user updates the description through the UI.

When a system updates a description, it will populate the description field. This field is only shown in the UI when the userDescription field is empty.

The examples below therefore all update the description field, to allow a user to still override this value through the UI. If you want to actually override any users' descriptions, however, replace description in the examples below with userDescription.

Change existing asset

Could create a new asset

Remember that Atlan matches the provided qualifiedName to determine whether to update or create the asset.

To change a description on an existing asset:

dbt

Change description on existing asset

models:
  - name: TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS # (1)
    description: >- # (2)
      My new description

1. You must of course give the name of the object.
2. You just use the normal dbt description field to provide a description—no need for the meta.atlan.attributes structure.

Java

Change description on existing asset

Table table = Table.updater( // (1)
        "default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV/TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS", // (2)
        "TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS") // (3)
    .description("My new description") // (4)
    .build(); // (5)
AssetMutationResponse response = table.save(client); // (6)
assert response.getUpdatedAssets().size() == 1 // (7)

1. Use the updater() helper method to create the minimal object necessary to do an update.
2. The qualifiedName of the object.
3. The name of the object.
4. Provide the new description.
5. Build the updater into an object.
6. Send the update to Atlan. Because this operation will persist the asset in Atlan, you must provide it an AtlanClient through which to connect to the tenant.
7. The response will include that single asset that was updated.

Python

Change description on existing an asset

from pyatlan.client.atlan import AtlanClient
from pyatlan.model.assets import Table

client = AtlanClient()
table = Table.updater( # (1)
    qualified_name="default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV/TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS",
    name="TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS",
)
table.description = "My new description" # (2)
response = client.asset.save(table) # (3)
assert 1 == len(response.assets_updated(asset_type=Table)) # (4)

1. Use the updater() method to create an asset suitable for modification that is, with all the requisite attributes.
2. Provide the new description.
3. Send the update to Atlan.
4. The response should only include that single asset that was updated.

Kotlin

Change description on existing asset

val table = Table.updater(  // (1)
        "default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV/TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS",  // (2)
        "TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS")  // (3)
    .description("My new description")  // (4)
    .build()  // (5)
val response = table.save(client)  // (6)
assert(response.updatedAssets.size == 1)  // (7)

1. Use the updater() helper method to create the minimal object necessary to do an update.
2. The qualifiedName of the object.
3. The name of the object.
4. Provide the new description.
5. Build the updater into an object.
6. Send the update to Atlan. Because this operation will persist the asset in Atlan, you must provide it an AtlanClient through which to connect to the tenant.
7. The response will include that single asset that was updated.

Raw REST API

POST /api/meta/entity/bulk

{
  "entities": [ // (1)
    }
  ]
}

1. All assets must be wrapped in an entities array.
2. You must provide the exact type name for the asset (case-sensitive).
3. You must provide the exact name of the asset (case-sensitive).
4. You must provide the exact qualifiedName of the asset (case-sensitive).
5. Provide the new description.

Remove from existing asset

To remove a description from an existing asset:

dbt

It's currently not possible to remove a description from an asset via dbt.

Java

Remove description from existing asset

Table table = Table.removeDescription( // (1)
    client, // (2)
    "default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV/TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS", // (3)
    "TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS"); // (4)

1. Use the removeDescription() helper method, which for most objects requires a minimal set of information. This helper method will construct the necessary request, call the necessary APIs, and return with the result of the removal operation all-in-one.
2. Because this operation will directly change the asset in Atlan, you must provide it an AtlanClient through which to connect to the tenant.
3. The qualifiedName of the object.
4. The name of the object.

Python

Remove description from an existing asset

from pyatlan.client.atlan import AtlanClient
from pyatlan.model.assets import Table

client = AtlanClient()
table = Table.updater( # (1)
    qualified_name="default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV/TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS",
    name="TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS",
)
table.description = None # (2)
response = client.asset.save(table) # (3)
assert 1 == len(response.assets_updated(asset_type=Table)) # (4)

1. Use the updater() method to create an asset suitable for modification that is, with all the requisite attributes.
2. Set the description to None.
3. Send the update to Atlan.
4. The response should only include that single asset that was updated (again, removing owners is an update to the asset—we'ren't deleting the asset itself).

Kotlin

Remove description from existing asset

val table = Table.removeDescription(  // (1)
    client, // (2)
    "default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV/TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS",  // (3)
    "TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS")  // (4)

1. Use the removeDescription() helper method, which for most objects requires a minimal set of information. This helper method will construct the necessary request, call the necessary APIs, and return with the result of the removal operation all-in-one.
2. Because this operation will directly change the asset in Atlan, you must provide it an AtlanClient through which to connect to the tenant.
3. The qualifiedName of the object.
4. The name of the object.

Raw REST API

POST /api/meta/entity/bulk

{
  "entities": [ // (1)
    }
  ]
}

1. All assets must be wrapped in an entities array.
2. You must provide the exact type name for the asset (case-sensitive).
3. You must provide the exact name of the asset (case-sensitive).
4. You must provide the exact qualifiedName of the asset (case-sensitive).
5. You must set the description to null.

When creating asset

To add a description when creating an asset:

dbt

Add description when creating an asset

models:
  - name: TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS # (1)
    description: >- # (2)
      My description of the asset

1. You must of course give the name of the object.
2. You just use the normal dbt description field to provide a description—no need for the meta.atlan.attributes structure.

Java

Add description when creating asset

Table table = Table
    .creator("TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS", // (1)
        "default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV")
    .description("My description of the asset") // (2)
    .build(); // (3)
AssetMutationResponse response = table.save(client); // (4)
assert response.getCreatedAssets().size() == 1 // (5)

1. Use the creator() method to initialize the object with all necessary attributes for creating it (../advanced-examples/create.md#build-minimal-object-needed).
2. Set the description that should be added.
3. Call the build() method to build the enriched object.
4. Call the save() method to actually create the asset with this description. Because this operation will persist the asset in Atlan, you must provide it an AtlanClient through which to connect to the tenant.
5. The response will include that single asset that was created.

Python

Add description when creating asset

from pyatlan.client.atlan import AtlanClient
from pyatlan.model.assets import Table

client = AtlanClient()
table = Table.creator( # (1)
    name="TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS",
    schema_qualified_name="default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV",
)
table.description = "My description of the asset" # (2)
response = client.asset.save(table) # (3)
assert 1 == len(assets_created := response.assets_created(asset_type=Table)) # (4)
table = assets_created[0] # (5)

1. Use the creator() method to initialize the object with all necessary attributes for creating it.
2. Set the description.
3. Call the save() method to actually create the asset with these owners.
4. Since a save can add, update, delete or partially update multiple assets the assets_created() method can be used to return a list of the assets of the specified type that were added. The assert statement is present to make sure a Table asset was created.
5. Since only one Table has been created we use an index of 0 to retrieve the newly created table.

Kotlin

Add description when creating asset

val table = Table
    .creator("TOP_BEVERAGE_USERS",  // (1)
        "default/snowflake/1657037873/SAMPLE_DB/FOOD_BEV")
    .description("My description of the asset")  // (2)
    .build()  // (3)
val response = table.save(client)  // (4)
assert(response.createdAssets.size == 1)  // (5)

1. Use the creator() method to initialize the object with all necessary attributes for creating it (../advanced-examples/create.md#build-minimal-object-needed).
2. Set the description that should be added.
3. Call the build() method to build the enriched object.
4. Call the save() method to actually create the asset with this description. Because this operation will persist the asset in Atlan, you must provide it an AtlanClient through which to connect to the tenant.
5. The response will include that single asset that was created.

Raw REST API

POST /api/meta/entity/bulk

{
  "entities": [ // (1)
        },
        "description": "My description of the asset" // (6)
      }
    }
  ]
}

1. All assets must be wrapped in an entities array.
2. You must provide the exact type name for the asset (case-sensitive).
3. You must provide a name for the asset.
4. In the case of a table, the qualifiedName must be the concatenation of the parent schema's qualifiedName and the name of the table.
5. When creating a table, you must specify the schema to create it within. This is defined by the atlanSchema attribute. You must specify both the type (must be Schema) and qualifiedName of the schema within the atlanSchema attribute—and the schema must already exist.
6. Provide the description.