Assigning and configuring generators
Required workspace permission: Configure column generators
You can use the Structural Agent to assign a generator to a column and and change its configuration, or ask the Agent to suggest generators for a column or columns. For example:
Assign the Custom Categorical generator to the Occupation column and generate a list of 20 occupations to use for the values.Change the time shift for the transaction-date column to be between 2 days before and 3 days after the current value.What generator do you suggest for the Selling_Season column?Apply the Conditional generator to the Username column. If Role is not Test, apply the Character Scramble generator. If Role is Test, use Passthrough.Apply the JSON Mask generator to the customer_summary column so that properties under name have the Name generator applied with the correct name type, the location properties have the Address generator applied with the correct location type, and the name property under work/properties has the Business Name generator applied.Apply the Regex Mask generator to the Product ID field to use the Random Integer generator to mask the numeric parts of the value.
Privacy Hub, Database View, and Table View also provide options to assign a generator to a column.
Selecting and updating generator presets
The selected generator is actually a generator preset. A generator preset provides a specific configuration for a generator.
Tonic Structural provides a built-in preset for its generators. You can also create custom presets.
Whenever a user selects a preset, the generator automatically uses the saved configuration for the preset, which we call the baseline configuration.
After you select the preset, you can:
Override the baseline generator preset configuration. For example, if the built-in preset for the Name generator uses the First Last format, but the column contains a first name, you can change the format to First.
Remove the overrides to the baseline configuration.
Save the updated configuration as the new baseline for the generator preset.
Save the updated configuration as a new custom generator preset.
For more information about generator presets, go to Managing generator presets.
Selecting the generator for the column
From the Generator Type dropdown, select the generator to assign to the column.
The list contains the names of the generator presets that can be applied to the column.
Use the filter field to search by generator preset name.
When you select a generator preset, the configuration is updated to match the current baseline configuration for that preset.
Reverting to Passthrough for the column
To remove the selected generator and set the generator to Passthrough, click Reset, then click Reset to Passthrough.
If the only reset option is to reset to Passthrough, then the Reset dropdown changes to a Reset button.
Working with generator preset configurations
Overriding the baseline configuration of a generator preset
After you select a generator preset, you can change the generator configuration. For details about the available configuration options for each generator, go to the Generator reference.
Overriding the configuration does not affect the baseline configuration for the generator preset.
A column is also considered to have overrides when someone changes the baseline configuration of the generator preset after they assign it to the column.
When there are overrides, the Overridden tag displays.
Note that the following configuration options are not part of the preset configuration:
Removing overrides to the baseline configuration of the generator preset
On the column configuration panel, to remove any overrides to the current baseline configuration for the generator preset, click Reset, then click Reset to Generator Preset.
If the only option is to reset to the baseline configuration, then the Reset dropdown changes to a Reset button.
Updating the baseline configuration of the generator preset
From the column configuration panel, you can save the updated configuration as the baseline configuration for the generator preset.
If there are other occurrences of the selected preset that you have permission to edit, then you can choose whether to update those occurrences to reflect the change. For occurrences that you do not update, Structural marks the columns as having overrides to the baseline configuration.
To do this:
Click Preset Options, then select Update baseline configuration.
On the confirmation panel:
To only apply the new configuration to future occurrences, select Future occurrences only.
To apply the new configuration to both future occurrences and to existing occurrences that you have permission to edit, select Existing and future occurrences. When you select this option, Structural displays the number of affected occurrences and the list of affected workspaces.
Click Confirm.
The next time you select a generator preset, it uses the new baseline configuration.
Saving the updated configuration as a new custom generator preset
From the generator configuration panel, you can save the current configuration as a new custom generator preset.
When you create a new custom generator preset, it is selected as the generator preset for the column.
To do this:
Click Preset Options, then select Create a new generator preset.
On the Create New Preset dialog, in the New Preset Name field, provide a name for the new custom generator preset.
Click Create.
Restoring inheritance from a parent workspace
Required license for workspace inheritance: Enterprise
In a child workspace, the configuration panel indicates whether the column currently inherits the configuration from the parent workspace.
The inheritance stops if you select a different generator or generator preset (including the Passthrough generator) or change the configuration.
When the column overrides the parent configuration, to reset to the parent configuration and restore the inheritance, click Reset, then click Reset to Parent.
If the only option is to reset to the parent configuration, then the Reset dropdown changes to a Reset button.
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