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Shared Sample Stores

In ado, Entities and measurement results are stored in a database called a Sample Store. For more on how Sample Stores are configured and managed see their dedicated page.

Two principles underpin data reuse in ado:

  • A Sample Store can be shared across multiple Discovery Spaces. This allows any Discovery Space to access Entities and measurements recorded by operations on other Discovery Spaces that use the same store.
  • Each Entity has exactly one record in a Sample Store. If two Discovery Spaces both include the same Entity, they reference the same record — there is no duplication.

Note

To maximise the chance of data reuse, similar Discovery Spaces should use the same Sample Store. However, any Discovery Spaces can share a store regardless of how similar they are.

How ado matches shared data

Entities

Each Entity has a unique identifier derived from its constitutive property values. For example, an Entity with properties X=4 and Y=10 gets the id X.4-Y.10. ado uses these identifiers to look up Entities in the Sample Store, regardless of which Discovery Space originally recorded them.

Measurements

Each Experiment also has a unique identifier (its name plus any explicitly set optional inputs). When an Entity is retrieved from the Sample Store, it carries the results of all Experiments that have been applied to it. ado checks whether any of those result identifiers match an Experiment in the current Measurement Space — if so, the result can be reused.

Data retrieval modes

When retrieving data from a Discovery Space (e.g. via ado show entities), there are two modes that control whether shared data is included:

Mode What is returned
measured Only Entities and measurements recorded by operations run directly on this Discovery Space. Compatible data from other spaces is excluded.
matching All Entities and measurements in the Sample Store that are compatible with this Discovery Space, regardless of which space produced them.

Use measured when you want to see only the results your operations have produced. Use matching when you want the full picture including any compatible data from other spaces.

Memoization

Important

Each explore operator should provide a way to turn memoization on and off. Check the operator documentation.

Memoization is the name for data reuse that happens automatically during an explore operation. It's recommended you also check the documentation on operations and explore operators.

When an operation samples an Entity it proceeds as follows:

  • The Entity is sampled from the Entity Space
  • The Entity's record is retrieved from the Sample Store if present (via its unique identifier)
  • If memoization is on
    • for each Experiment in the Measurement Space, ado checks if a result for it already exists (via the Experiment's unique identifier)
      • if it does, the result is reused. If there is more than one result, they are all reused
  • If memoization is off
    • existing results are ignored. Each Experiment in the Measurement Space is applied again to the Entity. The new results are added to any existing.