Business Glossary Hierarchy and Nested Terms

Business glossary terms are not organizing into hierarchies correctly, or nested terms are not displaying properly. Understanding how to structure glossary nodes and term relationships is key for effective glossaries.

You Might Be Asking:

• How do I create glossary term hierarchies?
• What's the difference between glossary nodes and terms?
• Can I move terms between glossary nodes?

1. Create glossary node (category):

mutation createGlossaryNode {
  createGlossaryNode(
    input: {
      id: "finance_metrics"
      name: "Finance Metrics"
      description: "Financial and accounting related metrics"
    }
  ) {
    urn
  }
}

2. Create nested glossary structure:

# Create parent node
mutation createParent {
  createGlossaryNode(
    input: {
      id: "business_metrics"
      name: "Business Metrics"
      description: "All business metrics"
    }
  ) { urn }
}

# Create child node under parent
mutation createChild {
  createGlossaryNode(
    input: {
      id: "finance_metrics"
      name: "Finance Metrics"
      description: "Finance-specific metrics"
      parentNode: "urn:li:glossaryNode:business_metrics"
    }
  ) { urn }
}

3. Create glossary term within a node:

mutation createTermInNode {
  createGlossaryTerm(
    input: {
      id: "annual_recurring_revenue"
      name: "Annual Recurring Revenue"
      description: "Total recurring revenue normalized to one year"
      # Place term in glossary node
      glossaryTerms: ["urn:li:glossaryNode:finance_metrics"]

      # Optional: Related terms
      relatedTerms: [
        {
          urn: "urn:li:glossaryTerm:mrr"
          relationshipType: "RELATED_TO"
        }
      ]
    }
  ) {
    urn
  }
}

4. Build complete glossary hierarchy:

# Structure example
Root
├── Business Metrics
│   ├── Finance Metrics
│   │   ├── ARR (term)
│   │   ├── MRR (term)
│   │   └── Churn Rate (term)
│   └── Marketing Metrics
│       ├── CAC (term)
│       └── LTV (term)
└── Data Quality Metrics
    ├── Completeness (term)
    └── Accuracy (term)

5. Query glossary hierarchy:

query getGlossaryHierarchy {
  glossaryNode(urn: "urn:li:glossaryNode:business_metrics") {
    name
    description

    # Child nodes
    children {
      nodes {
        urn
        name
        description
      }
    }

    # Terms in this node
    terms {
      terms {
        urn
        name
        description
      }
    }
  }
}

6. Move term to different node:

mutation moveGlossaryTerm {
  updateGlossaryTerm(
    urn: "urn:li:glossaryTerm:annual_recurring_revenue"
    input: {
      glossaryTerms: ["urn:li:glossaryNode:new_parent_node"]
    }
  )
}

Glossary Nodes are categories/containers, while Glossary Terms are the actual business definitions. Terms can exist in multiple nodes. Use term relationships (RELATEDTO, ISA, HAS_A) to build semantic connections.

• Business Glossary
• Glossary API