The Data Preparation card is the first card in the SWARM Ops Dashboard and is where users can prepare and pull their data into the application in preparation for executing the SWARM Solution Engine to generate a Challenge Solution. This card is especially important for ensuring that necessary up-to-date data from a user's own database (e.g., SAP) is brought into the application before running the solution - this process of pulling data from an outside source into the SWARM application is called "hydration."
The Data Preparation card displays all of the datasets, also called assets, that have been connected to a specific solution in the SWARM Ops Dashboard. On this card, each row represents a single asset, and the number of rows present within each asset are also displayed. Depending on the solution, one or more assets may need to be hydrated into the application if the data for the asset is sourced from a database outside of SWARM. For any datasets that are stored in SWARM's secure databases, the user will not see an option to hydrate the asset since the data is already in the application.
Each asset row that can be hydrated will display have a checkmark box next to it. If a dataset hasn't been hydrated for a period of time, an orange dot will be shown to the left of the checkmark box to alert the user that the asset's data might be stale and may need to be hydrated.
Some asset rows may have a pencil icon on the right-hand side that can clicked to essentially filter the data that is to be hydrated from the asset. This can be particularly useful for very large datasets or for runs where the user only wants to use very specific subsets of data from an entire dataset.
When the user is ready to hydrate any assets into the application, the user can check the box next to each asset row and then click the 'Hydrate datasets' button at the bottom. The user will be alerted once the hydration has completed. Once the user is satisfied that all the necessary data has been pulled into the Data Preparation card, the 'Complete' button can be clicked at the bottom of the card, and the user will then be taken to the Inputs card.
Example
You're working on a Delivery Planning solution that your organization has in the SWARM Ops Dashboard, and you're working on the Data Preparation card to prepare for a solution run. As you're preparing the data, you notice that one of the two assets for this solution has an orange dot next to it, which means that the data needs to be rehydrated as it might be stale. Because you don't see a pencil icon next under the ACTION column for either dataset, you know you don't have the ability to filter either dataset before hydrating.
To hydrate the data for the asset with the orange dot, you click on the checkbox next to the asset and then click the 'Hydrate datasets' button at the bottom.
