[CT-2285] [CT-2284] [Feature] Searchable metadata on dbt documentation UI

[vmjulio]

Is this your first time submitting a feature request?

• I have read the expectations for open source contributors
• I have searched the existing issues, and I could not find an existing issue for this feature
• I am requesting a straightforward extension of existing dbt functionality, rather than a Big Idea better suited to a discussion

Describe the feature

An interesting extension of the documentation capability is for users to be able to search for models based on custom metadata.

As of now, the documentation search on the UI can be done by:

• Name
• Description
• Column
• SQL
• Tags

If metadata is embedded directly in the config of a model, on the actual sql file, we can find the results as the search is a text search on the entire sql file content. But, if the meta information is being added on the schema.yml files we are not able to search models that contains them.
As metadata becomes more important for the data assets that are created using dbt, having a way to search them directly on the documentation UI would be a great addition.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Who will this benefit?

No response

Are you interested in contributing this feature?

No response

Anything else?

No response

[dbeatty10]

Thanks for opening @vmjulio !

Is your goal to add content to the meta config similar to the following and then be able to search for it?

version: 2

models:
  - name: users
    meta:
      owner: "@alice"
      model_maturity: in dev

[vmjulio]

Hey @dbeatty10!
Yes, that's the goal. Especially considering custom metadata that we might have (like country, dataset_type, clearance and others), apart from the most common and obvious ones.

[dbeatty10]

We wouldn't be able to prioritize this feature ourselves, but we'd review a PR from a motivated community member.

For prior art, here is the PR that added searching by column descriptions:

• Searchable column descriptions #371

In particular, this piece shows all the major pieces: d7f5220

One thing to note is that the code within fuzzySearchObj is a bit of a mish mash of different approaches right now, and it could use some re-factoring.

[vmjulio]

I've added this capability through this PR.

[github-actions]

This issue has been marked as Stale because it has been open for 180 days with no activity. If you would like the issue to remain open, please comment on the issue or else it will be closed in 7 days.

[github-actions]

Although we are closing this issue as stale, it's not gone forever. Issues can be reopened if there is renewed community interest. Just add a comment to notify the maintainers.