Creating or editing a dimension

You can create or edit dimensions through the Dimensions tab.

• To create a dimension, click New Dimension.
• To edit an existing dimension, right-click it in the Dimensions list and select Edit Dimension....

• To save a draft of your new dimension, click Save Draft.
  Note: If you enabled automatic creation of Top Movers, a Top Mover is immediately created and enabled to track changes in values for your new dimension after your changes are committed to the server. Depending on the type of dimension, you may want to disable this Top Mover.

  • The new Top Mover is created after the new dimension is committed to the server. No record of a changed or new Top Mover is displayed in the Top Movers tab.
  • See Manage Events - Top Movers Tab.
  • For more information about auto-creation of Top Movers, see Data management for Top Movers.
  Note: Saving a draft saves the item to the session cache on the server. Changes must be committed before they are applied to the incoming session data. See Discover Event Manager.
• To cancel your new dimension, click Cancel.

The following properties are available.

• To see more options, expand Advanced Options.
• For dimensions provided by Discover, you may edit the following properties: Values to Record Allow Empty Values

Property

Description

Name

The user-friendly name of the dimension

Description

The description of the dimension

Fixed WhiteList

Select this checkbox to limit the whitelist to a fixed set of values.

Populated By

Select the event, hit attribute, or session attribute whose value populates this dimension:

Note: Dimension values can be up to 450 characters in length. Values that are longer than this limit are truncated, which may impact dimensions populated by hit attributes that match long character strings in the session data.

• Events - The No Dimension Report Group fact for the event is used to populate the dimension. See Manage Events - Events tab.
• Hit Attributes - Discover and user-defined hit attributes are available.
  Note: Hit attributes that match on fixed text strings, such as those created in BBR, cannot be used as the source for a dimension, since they can only return the fixed text string. These hit attributes are filtered from the available selections.
  • See Manage Events - Hit Attributes tab.
  • You may also use step attributes as the source of your dimensions. See "Step-Based Eventing" in the Unica Discover Event Manager Manual.
• Session Attributes - Discover and user-defined session attributes are available. See Manage Events - Session Attributes tab.

Populated With

Select the value to populate in the dimension:

• First Value - First value on the hit (hit attribute source) or session (event or session attribute source)
• Last Value - Last value on the hit (hit attribute source) or session (event or session attribute source)
• Current Count in Session - (event source only) Current count of the event occurrence in the session
• See Dimension value limits and constants.

Values to Record

Select the scope of values that can be recorded for the dimension. See Dimension values to record.

Default Value

• If Values to Record is set to Whitelist + Observed Values and the observed value is on the blacklist, the observed value is not recorded and is instead added to count of instances of the default value.
• If Values to Record is set to Whitelist Only or configured to use a Group List and the observed value is not covered by the settings, the observed value is not recorded and is instead added to count of instances of the default value. For more information about default values, see Dimension default values.

Max Values Per Hour

If desired, you can specify a maximum number of values per Canister to capture and report for this dimension for each hour. See Maximum number of dimension values.

• Whitelisted and blacklisted values do not count against this limit. See Whitelists and blacklists.
• Depending on the type of dimension, this value may be applied in different ways. See Value limits for list dimensions.

Allow Empty Values

When this checkbox is selected, empty dimension values are permitted.

• If the source value is a null value and this checkbox is selected, the defined [Empty] value is assigned. Otherwise, null values result in [Null] value assignments. See Dimension constants.

Set Value Display Order

When selected, values in the whiteslist or groups lists are displayed in the order specified in the Report Builder. You may re-order the displayed whitelist using the up and down arrow keys in the Whitelist or Group List editors.

• The display order is not applied if Value to Record is set to Whitelist + Observed.

Evaluated At

By default, all dimensions are evaluated immediately. When the event is triggered, the current value for the dimension is immediately recorded. For Unica Discover Usability, you can optionally configure a dimension to be evaluated at the end of the session, at which time previous occurrences of the dimension are backfilled with the last recorded dimension value for the session.

• Dimensions populated by hit attributes cannot be configured to be published at the end of the session.
  Note: If you choose the End of Session option, the dimension must be populated by an event or a session attribute. You cannot populate the dimension from a hit attribute.
  Note: After you have saved your event definition, you cannot change this setting. In almost all cases, set this value to Immediate. See "Goal Based Dimensions" in the Unica Discover Event Manager Manual.

  This setting is available only if you have licensed Unica Discover Usability.

Edit Whitelist...

When one of the whitelist options is selected as the Values to Record, you may specify the set of values that are permitted to be reported in this dimension. See Whitelists and blacklists.

Edit Blacklist...

When one of the whitelist options is selected as the Values to Record, you may specify the set of values that are not permitted to be reported in this dimension. See Whitelists and blacklists.

Edit Group List...

When one of the group list options is selected as the Values to Record, you may specify the set of values in the group and the values to which they map. See Group lists.

Turn On/Off Logging

Enable or disable logging of values for this dimension. Logged values can be used as a source of data for the dimension. See Logging of dimensional values.

Reset Trim Flag

To prevent runaway growth of observed values for a dimension, Discover imposes an upper limit on the number of values that can be stored in the database. When this limit is reached, the Data Collector automatically trims values, and the Portal inserts a warning message that the dimension values have been trimmed when the dimension is used in a report. See Data Management for Dimensions.

• If your dimension values have been trimmed, you should review the reporting results. You can reset this trim flag, which removes the message from display in the Report Builder.