Configure Compose

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Core Connector Core connectors are included with all Alation platform tiers (subject to each tier’s connector limits) and are fully supported by Alation.

On the Compose tab, an admin can enable the use of the Compose tool for this data source.

  1. Before you enable Compose, provide the JDBC URI (See Configure Connection to Data Source) in the Default Connection field which Compose uses as the default connection and Save.

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  2. Enable the Enabled in Compose toggle to enable Compose for this data source. Select Compose Connection Sharing option based on the description in the table below:

    Compose Connection Option

    Description

    Shared connections across tabs

    This option lets users use the same connection across multiple Compose tabs.

    Separate connection per tab

    Users can use different connections for each Compose tab, which enables them to run multiple queries at the same time.

  3. Select a Data Uploader option based on the description below:

    Data Uploader

    Description

    Use Global Setting (True)

    or

    Use Global Setting (False)

    Use the global setting option that is set in alation_conf using alation.data_uploader.enabled flag.

    Users can upload data if the flag is set to true or if the flag is set to false, users cannot upload the data for any data source.

    Enable for this data source

    Use this option to enable the data upload for this data source and override the global setting if the global setting in alation_conf if it is set to false.

    Disable for this data source

    Use this option to disable the data upload for this data source and override the global setting in alation_conf if it is set to true.

Configure OAuth Authentication for Compose Queries

Available from version 2026.7.0.0 with SQL Server OCF connector version 1.10.0 or later.

Important

You need the Server Admin role in Alation to perform the steps in this section.

Enable per-user OAuth authentication for Compose queries so that each Composer authenticates to SQL Server with their own Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) identity instead of a shared service-account credential. The connector forwards the user’s access token to the database through the JDBC accessToken parameter.

Prerequisites

Before you configure OAuth authentication for Compose:

  1. Register an application in Microsoft Entra ID and grant it the required permissions to access your SQL Server instance. The application must support the authorization code flow with Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE). For step-by-step instructions, see the Microsoft documentation: Quickstart: Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform.

  2. Create an OAuth configuration on the Admin Settings > Authentication page under Authentication Configuration Methods for External Systems. For step-by-step instructions, see Authentication Configuration Methods for External Systems.

Attach an OAuth Configuration to the Data Source

After creating the OAuth configuration, attach it to your SQL Server data source:

  1. Open your SQL Server data source.

  2. Go to the Compose Settings tab on the Settings page of your SQL Server data source.

  3. In the External Auth Configuration section, select the OAuth configuration you created in Admin Settings.

  4. Click Save.

Composer Sign-in Experience

When a user switches to the Compose tab on this data source, Alation prompts them to sign in with their Microsoft Entra ID credentials. After they consent, Alation obtains an access token and uses it to run queries on their behalf. The access token is refreshed automatically before it expires.

Note

To remove the OAuth configuration from this data source, return to External Auth Configuration in Compose Settings, select None, and click Save. Existing Compose sessions remain active until users sign out or refresh their browser tab.