Adapt Data Governance to Your Organization’s Needs: Customizing Dawiso with Marketplace, Packages and Patch Packages

Traditionally, making changes to enterprise applications is a long and costly process. It requires multiple stages of approvals, analysis, development, testing, and deployment. This complexity results in delays, high costs, and limited flexibility when adapting applications to evolving business needs.

In Dawiso you can find two types of applications: Standard Applications—which come as part of the core product—and Custom Applications, designed for more specific use cases. Both types are fully adaptable, allowing organizations to modify their data governance environment efficiently.

In this article, we’ll explore two key Dawiso features that make customization seamless:

  1. Dawiso Marketplace – A centralized hub where users can download and install pre-built applications with a single click.
  2. Packages – A low-code configuration file that enables users to modify and extend applications without complex development efforts.

By understanding these concepts, you’ll see how Dawiso empowers users to tailor their applications quickly, reduce dependency on IT teams, and maintain full control over their data governance setup.

What is Dawiso Marketplace?

The Dawiso Marketplace is a centralized, free store where users can download standardized applications to streamline their data governance workflows. If you're working with a new, empty environment, you can quickly download and set up standard applications. These applications include essential tools such as the Business Glossary, Documentation, Dashboards, Scanning Technology, and Diagrams, among others.  

Key Benefits of Dawiso Marketplace:

  • One-click installation – No IT involvement required.
  • Pre-built, ready-to-use applications – Fully standardized for immediate deployment.
  • Continuous updates – Ensures applications stay optimized and up to date.
  • Flexible customization – Modify applications using Patch Packages without losing changes during updates.

How Spaces and the Marketplace Work Together

  • Spaces in Dawiso act as organizational containers, helping teams manage and categorize business data, such as assets, business terms, tables, or reports (collectively known as objects in Dawiso).
  • You can structure Spaces by company, department, or division, ensuring the right applications are available where they are needed.
  • Some applications, like the Business Glossary, may be essential across all Spaces, while others—such as the Financial KPIs application—might be relevant only for specific teams like Finance.
  • By what apps you install from the Marketplace and what apps you can easily customize your environment.

There are two types of applications in Dawiso: business and technical. Which one you choose to install in your Space is up to you. Spaces act as environments within Dawiso, often organized by department or team.

The Marketplace is where you download these standard applications, whether they are more business-oriented or tailored to technical use cases. Depending on what applications are relevant to you.

Install standard applications in one click.

All applications can be installed directly from the Marketplace under the "Packages" section in settings.

Dawiso Marketplace can be found under the „Packages“ button in the settings.

Updated, standardized applications are always available in the Marketplace. Simply click „Install“.

You can download applications (in the form of packages) at the click of a button, depending on what you need! It's also great for non-technical users.

Each of these pre-built applications is designed to support key data governance workflows and can be installed in just one click, making the setup process fast and seamless.

However, standard applications in most platforms often come with a major limitation—they cannot be easily customized. Making modifications usually requires developer-heavy work, long approval processes, and high costs.

Dawiso solves this with Patch Packages, allowing users to customize even standard applications without affecting future updates.

Marketplace and Patch Packages: The Solution to Customizing Standard Applications

You may have heard the common belief:

"Standard applications are not customizable."

This is only partially true. In Dawiso, even standard applications can be customized—thanks to something we call „Patch Packages“.

Introducing Patch Packages: A Customization Layer Over Standard Applications

Patch Packages act as a customization layer over standard applications, allowing users to modify key components while keeping their custom changes intact during updates. This provides an easy way to adapt standardized applications to fit your organization’s specific needs without breaking functionality or requiring IT-heavy development.

Works as a layer above the standard application configuration.

A unique feature of Dawiso is the ability to modify standard applications through Patch Packages. Unlike traditional systems, where updates overwrite custom changes, Dawiso allows users to tailor applications while keeping their modifications intact.

How Does It Work?

  • A Patch Package functions as an additional layer on top of a standard application.
  • Users can define which components they want to modify or extend.
  • When the application receives an update, only the core standard product changes, while user-defined customizations remain unaffected.

Why Dawiso’s Approach Stands Out

  • Low-code customization – No need for advanced development skills.
  • Quick installation – Patch Packages work seamlessly within the Marketplace.
  • Flexible modifications – Customize applications without breaking updates.
  • Scalability – Supports business growth and evolving governance needs.

Patch Packages are essentially specialized Packages designed specifically for standard applications. But to fully understand them, we need to take one more step into the customization journey—learning how Packages work in Dawiso.

What Are Packages in Dawiso?

So far, we have explored how standard applications can be customized using Patch Packages. But what about custom applications?

In Dawiso, Packages are the core configuration files that define and shape the entire Dawiso environment. Every visible component—applications, icons, dashboards, and workflows—is created and configured through Packages.

While Dawiso provides a basic set of pre-configured Packages available through the App Marketplace, any admin-level user can create and customize new Packages to better suit their organization's specific needs.

How Packages Work

Instead of relying on lengthy development cycles, Dawiso Packages provide a flexible, low-code way to adapt applications quickly. Users can modify configurations without requiring deep technical expertise.

With Dawiso Packages, organizations can:

  • Adapt applications quickly without lengthy development cycles.
  • Enable non-developers to manage and customize applications.
  • Implement modifications within an hour, reducing operational bottlenecks.

Plus, it empowers both Dawiso clients and implementation partners that can personalize applications effortlessly.

Format and Customization: How Packages Are Structured

Dawiso Packages are formatted using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)—a widely adopted standard for structuring data. To ensure smooth integration, all Packages must follow a specific schema developed for Dawiso. This schema dictates how configurations are structured, guiding users in correctly formatting their customization files.

Creating and Editing Packages

  • Built-in Editor – Admin users can create or modify Packages using Dawiso’s intuitive package editor, which simplifies the process.
  • External IDE Support – For those preferring a more advanced development environment, Packages can also be edited using any integrated development environment (IDE) of choice.

Empowering Your Organization with Packages

By leveraging Packages, organizations gain full control over their Dawiso environment, ensuring it aligns with business objectives. Whether adjusting the user interface, modifying data structures, or integrating new functionalities, Packages provide the flexibility to shape Dawiso into a tailored solution.

What Do Packages Define?

Packages in Dawiso manage three key aspects of an application:

  • Data structures – Define how information is stored and organized.
  • Workflows – Control how users interact with data and processes.
  • User interfaces – Customize the way information is displayed and accessed.

This modular approach allows organizations to install only the necessary components, ensuring efficiency, scalability, and ease of management in their data governance environment.

Comprehensive guides to packages

On Dawiso help you can find new comprehensive developer documentation, where you will find all information required for building, maintaining and deleting packages in your Dawiso environment.

What is a package?: Understand the basics of packages.

Working with packages: Learn how to install, modify, or delete a package.

Structure of a package: Dive deeper into the configuration options available within packages.

Troubleshooting: Get help with common issues encountered while working with packages.

 

With Dawiso’s Marketplace, Packages, and Patch Packages, organizations can configure their data governance environment efficiently while maintaining the flexibility needed to adapt to evolving business needs.

Martin Nevický
Data Governance Consultant

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