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:
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.
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.
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.
All applications can be installed directly from the Marketplace under the "Packages" section in settings.
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.
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“.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Plus, it empowers both Dawiso clients and implementation partners that can personalize applications effortlessly.
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.
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.
Packages in Dawiso manage three key aspects of an application:
This modular approach allows organizations to install only the necessary components, ensuring efficiency, scalability, and ease of management in their data governance environment.
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.
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