This primer introduces the Snowflake terms you encounter when connecting to Unqork Datashare. It is intended for analytics and BI teams who are familiar with databases but new to Snowflake specifically.
Account
A Snowflake account is the primary access point for your organization's Snowflake environment. Each account has a unique identifier that you use to connect your BI tool, typically in the format orgname-accountname or as a URL like xyz12345.snowflakecomputing.com.
When Unqork provisions your Datashare connection, the account identifier is included in the credentials provided by Support.
Database
A database is a logical container that holds one or more schemas. In Datashare, Unqork creates a database that contains your module data. You do not create or manage this database—Unqork handles provisioning.
Schema
A schema organizes objects in a database, like a folder in a folder. Unqork's Datashare database includes a schema that contains your data tables. Your BI tool connection requires both the database name and the schema name, which Unqork Support provides.
Table
A table stores data in rows and columns, like a spreadsheet. Datashare provides one table for each record type—submissions, tracker, service log, and revisions. Each row in the submissions table represents one submission record from a module.
Warehouse
A Snowflake warehouse is a compute cluster that runs queries. Warehouses do not store data—they process it. When you run a report or refresh a dashboard in your BI tool, the warehouse executes the underlying query against the data.
For customers using a Unqork-Managed Reader Account, Unqork provisions and manages the warehouse. For customers using a Customer-Owned Snowflake account, you use a warehouse in your own account.
Role
A role controls what a user can see and do in Snowflake. Roles are assigned to users and grant access to specific databases, schemas, tables, and warehouses. When Unqork provisions your connection, Support creates a role with the permissions needed to query your Datashare tables.
Data Share
A Snowflake Data Share is the mechanism Unqork uses to give your account access to data. No data is copied—the share grants read-only access to Unqork's data through Snowflake's services layer. That way, Datashare data does not consume storage in your Snowflake account.
Reader Account
For Datashare, Unqork acts as the data provider and provisions Reader Accounts for customers who do not have their own Snowflake account. Reader Accounts can only access data shared by the provider that created them. They cannot connect to other Snowflake data sources or load data independently.
If you selected the Unqork-Managed Reader Account connection option, Unqork created a Reader Account for your organization.
View
A Snowflake view is a saved query that presents data from one or more tables as if it were a table itself. Reader accounts provisioned by Unqork have access to views in addition to the underlying data tables. Views can be used in your BI tool the same way tables are—select the view as your data source when building reports or dashboards.
See Also
Changelog
Date | Change |
|---|---|
2026-05-13 | Initial publication. |