Understand Silver Entities in the Medallion Architecture¶
Silver entities represent refined data objects within the Medallion Architecture. After initial data cleansing and transformation in the bronze stage, the silver stage focuses on further enrichment and contextualization. This includes advanced transformations such as joining data from multiple sources, aggregating values, and applying business logic. Silver entities deliver a structured and comprehensive dataset, supporting advanced analytics and reporting. Data in this stage is well-organized and prepared for the gold stage, where it is curated for specific business scenarios.
How Silver Entities Relate to Bronze Entities¶
Each silver entity is associated with a single bronze entity. This relationship ensures clear lineage and traceability as data progresses through the architecture.
Slowly Changing Dimension Behavior¶
By default, Silver entities maintain historical records using a Slowly Changing Dimension Type 2 (SCD Type 2) approach.
When a history-tracked column changes, the current record is closed and a new version is inserted. This preserves the previous version as a historical record.
For specific Silver entities, columns can be configured as No History Columns. When only these columns change, the current record is updated in place using a Slowly Changing Dimension Type 1 (SCD Type 1) approach. No additional historical version is created.
When both history-tracked columns and No History Columns change in the same record, the SCD Type 2 behavior takes precedence.
| Scenario | Processing behavior |
|---|---|
| A new primary key is received | A new record is inserted. |
| One or more history-tracked columns change | An SCD Type 2 change is applied. The current record is closed and a new version is inserted. |
| Both history-tracked columns and No History Columns change | An SCD Type 2 change is applied because SCD Type 2 takes precedence. |
| Only No History Columns change | An SCD Type 1 update is applied to the existing record. |
Tip
For a functional explanation of how Silver is incrementally loaded from Bronze, see Change Data Feed.
Configuring a Silver entity¶
Additional configuration options for Silver entities can be setup using Entity Values. To read more about all the possibilities, see Entity Values.
Create a Silver Entity¶
To add a new silver entity:
- For the smoothest experience, we recommend to use the Entity Wizard.
- Alternatively, create an entity directly from the silver layer entities panel.
For more information about configuring Silver Layer entities, see Configure a Silver Layer entity.