Advanced Concepts
Parameterization​
Parameterization is the process of defining and using variables in your Flows. Variables allow you to parameterize your Flows, making them more flexible and reusable. You can define variables at the Flow level, as well as with Profiles. This allows you to create more generic Flows that can be customized for different environments (such as development, staging, and production), data, and use cases.
Automation​
An Automation streamlines your data lifecycle by triggering Flow runs based on events (e.g., Flow completion, schedules) or conditions.
Profile​
A Profile defines runtime parameters and default configurations for your Flows. Profiles enable you to reuse Flows across different Workspaces and Deployments by utilizing customizable parameters for connections, components, and vaults.
Smart Components & Partitioning​
In Ascend, Smart Components are a type of component that support "smart" logic, which allows you to define the component logic in a declarative manner, without having to write as much code. These Smart Components track additional metadata about the data they are processing, which can be used to drive more sophisticated and dynamic behavior in your flows. They do so by combining micro-partitioning and fingerprinting of both code and data to intelligently determine the most efficient processing strategy for the data.
Materialization​
Materialization is the process of creating a physical representation of your data. In Ascend, materialization is used to describe the process of creating a table in a warehouse, or a view in a database. There are a number of different materialization strategies available, including View, Table, and Smart Tables.
Schema Evolution​
Schema evolution is the process of updating the schema of a table or view in a warehouse. In Ascend, schema evolution is used to describe the process of adding, modifying, or removing columns in a table or view.