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Concepts → External Data Source

About an External Data Source

An external data source defines how to connect to an API, a database, a data lake, a data warehouse, or SaaS service using a built-in connector.

As such, an external data source is an object in a tenant with defined properties. As an object, an external data source has an owner who is typically the user who initially created the object. With Discretionary Access Control (DAC), the object owner can control access to the object. The access rights are View, Share, and Edit.

Note: LocalFiles

LocalFiles is a built-in, non-exposed external data source that uses the File System connector. All users have access to LocalFiles as a data source.

External Data Source usage

There are several uses for an external data source:

  • Create a physical schema, physical schema tables, and joins between physical schema tables in a physical schema using the Schema Wizard
  • Define the data source for a physical schema table in a physical schema
  • For an external session variable, define the data source

To learn how to create and manage an external data source, see Tools → Data Manager.

To discover the connectors for this release, see Connectors → All.