consumption
Databricks Unity Catalog
Timbr integrates seamlessly with Databricks Unity Catalog, allowing semantic models to be surfaced directly within the Databricks ecosystem. Users can query concepts, relationships, and metrics defined in Timbr, directly from Unity Catalog, using both notebooks and BI tools.
Key Capabilities
Semantic virtualization
Queries against Timbr concepts are executed on Databricks clusters, federating data across sources while using Spark for performance.
Governed data access
Timbr’s model-level policies are applied harmoniously with Databricks governance, enforcing row-level security and permissions.
Unified metadata and semantic
Concepts, relationships, and business definitions in Timbr are discovered as metadata in Unity Catalog.
How it Works
Timbr maps ontologies into Databricks by:
- Exposing semantic schemas: Timbr publishes its semantic models as Databricks catalogs and schemas, making them visible in Unity Catalog.
- Enabling single sign-on (SSO): Users can access Timbr within Databricks via SSO, leveraging unified governance and permissions.
- Supporting SQL, Python, R, Scala: Users can consume Timbr concepts within notebooks or SQL endpoints using standard Databricks tools.
- Unlocking Catalog Explorer integration: Timbr concepts appear with semantic relationships and business definitions directly in Catalog Explorer, enhancing data discovery.
Key Benefits for Data Consumers
Timbr dramatically improves the user experience for analysts, engineers, and business users alike:
- Seamless DAG: No need to rebuild models, Timbr exposes concepts directly in Unity Catalog.
- Governance Alignment: Timbr and Unity Catalog share SSO access controls and data policies.
- Semantic Discovery: Rich context – relationships, labels, definitions – available in Databricks UI.
- Performance at Scale: Queries run across Spark clusters over federated data sources.
- Cross-Language Support: Use SQL, Python, R, or Scala uniformly against semantic models.
- Consistent Anywhere: Same semantic contracts enforceable with SQL, REST API, notebooks, and BI tools.
