Step 4 defines the output ports that expose your product’s data, and auto-generates input ports for what it consumes. It is the fourth of the wizard’s six steps, building on the assets you selected in Step 3 — Data Assets.
What you set here
This step has two kinds of port: output ports that you define, and input ports that the wizard generates for you.
Output ports
Output ports are the consumable interfaces through which consumers get your product’s data. The wizard starts you with one port named Primary Output. Add more with Add Port. For each output port, set:
| Field | What you set |
|---|---|
| Port Name | A name for the port. |
| Description | What the port delivers, and to whom. |
| Attached Assets | Attach the assets this port publishes. The port’s technology is set automatically from the first asset you attach, and every other asset must match it. |
Input ports
You do not create input ports. The wizard generates them from your asset selection. For each distinct upstream output port that your selected assets come from, it creates one input port. If none of your assets come from another product’s output port, the wizard creates no input ports. Each generated input port is marked auto-generated and shows the upstream product and port it consumes, and how many of your assets come from it.
Why it matters
Ports are the product’s typed interface — the boundaries through which it exposes and consumes data. Output ports are how consumers receive your data, so their design decides how usable the product is. Keeping one technology per port keeps its delivery protocol, contract, and access model unambiguous. Clean, well-scoped ports are what make a product others can trust and buy in the Data Market.
Input ports record what your product consumes. Dawiso draws these links as data product lineage, so dependencies and impact stay visible across teams. A data contract attaches to an output port to govern what it delivers. For the full model, see Data product ports. For the guarantees a contract adds, see Data contracts.
Rules the wizard enforces
The wizard enforces these rules as you build ports:
- One asset, one port. Each data asset attaches to only one output port within this product.
- One port, one technology. All assets in a port must come from the same technology — for example Snowflake or Power BI, never mixed. A product can have several ports across different technologies, but each port stays internally uniform. This keeps its delivery protocol, contract, and access model consistent.
- No reselling. Assets already exposed by another product’s output port are not available here — a product cannot re-expose another product’s output. To consume that data, add an input port pointing at the upstream product instead. This happens automatically from your Data Assets selection.
- At least one asset per output port. Every output port must carry at least one asset before you can publish the product.
Recommendations
These are design choices rather than rules, and they decide how usable your ports are:
- Group assets into ports by how consumers use them, not by internal convenience.
- Use one port per technology and audience. This keeps each contract focused and each consumer’s dependency narrow.
- Name ports for what they deliver, such as
Sales APIorReporting export.
Clean, typed ports make the product easy to consume and safe to depend on. Next, attach a data contract to each output port in Step 5 — Contracts.