Bronze Entities in Medallion Architecture

Bronze entities are the initial stage of processed data in the Medallion Architecture. After data is ingested into the landing zone, it transitions to the bronze stage for preliminary cleaning and transformation. At this stage, duplicates are removed and basic formatting is applied, preparing the data for further enrichment and analysis in the silver and gold stages.

How bronze entities relate to landing zone entities

A single landing zone entity can be associated with multiple bronze entities. This flexible relationship enables efficient data processing and organization as data moves through the architecture.

Bronze entity values

Bronze entities support a range of configuration values. The following tables describe the available options for each data source type.

All data source types

Name	Description	Used for	Required	Default
timeout_total_in_seconds	Maximum duration for processing the entity (in seconds)	All Sources	No	43200
timeout_per_cell_in_seconds	Maximum duration for processing a notebook cell (in seconds)	All Sources	No	1800
valid_dq_deduplication_modes	Deduplication method if primary keys are insufficient	All Sources	No	none, other valid values: row, key

TIP
For more information about the Data Quality options and examples, go to Data-Quality.

CSV data source types

Name	Description	Used for	Required	Default
CompressionType	Compression type for CSV files	CSV Source	Yes, if CSV	none, valid: gzip, bzip2, lz4, snappy, deflate
ColumnDelimiter	Character used to separate columns	CSV Source	Yes, if CSV	;
RowDelimiter	Character used to separate rows	CSV Source	Yes, if CSV	\r\n
EscapeCharacter	Character used for escaping	CSV Source	Yes, if CSV	\
Encoding	Encoding format for the data	CSV Source	Yes, if CSV	UTF-8
FirstRowIsHeader	Indicates if the first row contains headers	CSV Source	Yes, if CSV	1 (0 = False, 1 = True)

TIP
If FirstRowIsHeader is False then the columns will be named _c0 ... _c99

JSON data source types

Name	Description	Used for	Required	Default
Collection	Name of the collection to extract data from	JSON Source	No
DateFormat	Format for date values (ISO-8601 by default)	JSON Source	No
Multiline	Indicates if the JSON contains Multiline data	JSON Source	No	false

TIP
For more information about the Entity values or examples, go to Collection and DateFormat.

'Fixed width' data source types

Name	Description	Used for	Required	Default
TxtType	Must be specified if the txt file is of type 'fixed width'	Fixed width Source	Yes	FixedWidth
FirstRow	The row where the header is located	Fixed width Source	No	False

Column mapping defines how fixed‑width text files are sliced. SourceColumn must always be "start,width" (start is 1‑based). TargetColumn is the name of the resulting column. The engine extracts width characters starting at start, trims the value, and assigns it to TargetColumn. Example:

[
  {
    "SourceColumn": "1,5",
    "TargetColumn": "ID"
  },
  {
    "SourceColumn": "6,10",
    "TargetColumn": "Name"
  }
]

Applied to "00123John Smith" → ID="00123", Name="John Smith".

Excel data source types

Name	Description	Used for	Required	Default
SheetName	Name of the sheet containing the data	Excel Source	Yes, if Excel
FirstRowIsHeader	Row number where the header is located	Excel Source	Yes, if Excel	1
ColumnRange	Range of columns to extract	Excel Source	Yes, if Excel	A:E
RowsRange	Range of rows to extract	Excel Source	Yes, if Excel	ALL
NaValues	Strings to treat as null values	Excel Source	No	NONE
Thousands	Character used as thousands separator	Excel Source	No
Decimal	Character used as decimal separator	Excel Source	No	,
Comment	Rows containing comments to exclude	Excel Source	No
SkipRows	Rows to skip	Excel Source	No

XML data source types

Name	Description	Used for	Required	Default
RootTag	The single outermost element that encloses all other elements in a document	XML Source	Yes
RowTag	Refers to a repeating element within the root (or another parent) that represents a single record or data row	XML Source	No

XML Example:

<library>
  <name>Liberty Library</name>
  <books>
    <book>
      <title>De Ontdekking van de Hemel</title>
      <author>Harry Mulisch</author>
    </book>
    <book>
      <title>Het Diner</title>
      <author>Herman Koch</author>
    </book>
  </books>
  <members>
    <member>
      <name>Anna</name>
      <borrowed>
        <book>Het Diner</book>
      </borrowed>
    </member>
    <member>
      <name>Tom</name>
    </member>
  </members>
</library>

Translated into a diagram:

graph TD
    A --> B[books]
    A[library] --> A1[name: Liberty Library]
    A --> C[members]

    B --> D[book 1]
    B --> E[book 2]
    D --> D1[title: De Ontdekking van de Hemel]
    D --> D2[author: Harry Mulisch]
    E --> E1[title: Het Diner]
    E --> E2[author: Herman Koch]

    C --> F[member 1]
    C --> G[member 2]
    F --> F1[name: Anna]
    F --> F2[borrowed]
    F2 --> F21[book: Het Diner]
    G --> G1[name: Tom]

There are couple of ways to configure this XML with different results:

---

Option 1: Only RootTag
When the RootTag is set to: library the result in Bronze will be:

name	books	members
Liberty Library	[{"title": "De Ontdekking van de Hemel", "author": "Harry Mulisch"}, {"title": "Het Diner", "author": "Herman Koch"}]	[{"name": "Anna", "borrowed": [{"book": "Het Diner"}]}, {"name": "Tom", "borrowed": []}]

---

Option 2: Set RootTag on outer layer and RowTag on most inner level When the RootTag is set to: library and the RowTag to borrowed the result in Bronze will be:

name	members_member_name	members_member_borrowed_book
Liberty Library	Anna	Het Diner

IMPORTANT
Because Tom hasn't borrowed any books, setting the RowTag on this level his record will not show up anymore
Parent element names are prefixed to the element names, like members & name

---

Option 3: Set RootTag on not the most outer layer When the RootTag is set to: books and result in Bronze will be:

book_title	book_author
De Ontdekking van de Hemel	Harry Mulisch
Het Diner	Herman Koch

How to create a bronze entity

To create a bronze entity:

1. Use the Entity Wizard.
2. Alternatively, create an entity directly from the landing zone entities panel.