# Visualizing Your Ontology

> **Availability:** DataHub Cloud only — _Private Beta_

:::caution Private Beta
Ontology is currently in Private Beta. Features, UI, and configuration options are subject to change.
:::

A graph makes things easy to spot that a list does not: which concepts are central, which are
orphaned, and where two teams have modelled the same idea twice.

DataHub gives you two views of the same graph: a **global** view across the whole glossary, and a
**focused** view anchored on one term.

Available in DataHub Cloud **v2.2.1** and later.

## The global view

Navigate to **Govern → Ontology** in the left sidebar. This renders every glossary term that
participates in at least one relationship, laid out automatically.

<p align="center">
  <img width="90%" src="/imgs/ontology/ontology-global-graph.png" alt="The global ontology graph under Govern → Ontology"/>
</p>

Terms with no relationships at all are hidden — they carry no information in a relationship graph,
and hiding them keeps the layout readable. The info bar at the bottom tells you how many were left
out.

Two controls sit at the top left:

- **Search** filters the graph to terms matching your query, along with the terms they are connected
  to. Use the up/down arrows in the search bar to step through matches; the graph pans to each one.
- **Relationship types** filters the graph to specific relationship types. Selecting only
  _Inherits_, for example, collapses the graph down to your concept taxonomy and hides everything
  else. Each type shows how many edges of that type exist.

:::note
On a large glossary the initial view is capped at a fixed number of terms so the first render stays
fast. The info bar says when the cap is in effect. Expand individual nodes, search, or filter by
relationship type to reach beyond it.
:::

### Reading the graph

- Each **node** is a glossary term. Click a node to open its details; click **Expand** on a node to
  pull in its neighbours that are not currently drawn. A node with more neighbours than are drawn
  shows a count badge.
- Each **edge** is a relationship, labelled and colour-coded by its type — `Is A`, `Has A`,
  `Is Synonym Of`, `Is Related To`, and any custom types. Directed edges are drawn with an arrow
  pointing from source to destination. Hover an edge to see its type, whether it is directed, and
  whether it is transitive.

:::note
Edge labels use the underlying relationship type names (`Is A`, `Has A`), while the **Related Terms**
tab uses the friendlier display names for the same relationships (_Inherits_, _Contains_).
:::

## The focused view

Every glossary term has a **Relationships** tab that shows the same graph, anchored on that term.

<p align="center">
  <img width="90%" src="/imgs/ontology/ontology-term-relationships-tab.png" alt="The Relationships tab on a glossary term, anchored on that term"/>
</p>

This is the view to reach for when you are answering a question about one concept: _what depends on
Customer?_, _what does Revenue connect to?_ The anchor term is badged as **Home**, and the graph
starts one hop out. Expand any neighbour to walk further.

Because the tab is anchored, search is hidden here. The relationship-type filter still applies.

You can also deep-link to the focused view directly, which opens the same graph on the full-width
Ontology page:

```text
https://<your-datahub>/ontology?urn=urn:li:glossaryTerm:customer
```

## Related Terms vs. Relationships

A glossary term has two tabs that both show relationships:

- **Related Terms** is a tabular view, grouped by relationship type. It supports editing — this is
  where you add and remove relationships.
- **Relationships** is a graphical view. It is read-only, but it shows more than one hop, so you can
  explore outward from the term.

## Empty states

An empty graph means one of the following:

- **"No glossary terms yet"** — the glossary itself is empty. Create terms first.
- **"No relationships between glossary terms"** — you have terms but no relationships. See
  [Relating Glossary Terms](relating-glossary-terms.md).
- **"No relationships yet"** (focused view) — this particular term has no relationships, though
  others do.
- **"No matching glossary terms"** — your search or relationship-type filter excluded everything.

## Enabling this feature

Contact your DataHub representative to have this enabled for your instance.

For self-managed deployments, set the flag on GMS and restart:

```bash
SHOW_ONTOLOGY_GRAPH=true
```

Or via Helm:

```yaml
datahub-gms:
  showOntologyGraph: true
```