The ‘Metric List’ page will show you all existing metrics in the system. Filters can be applied to search for specific metrics.
To import new metrics click the ‘Import’ drop down and choose ‘Import New Metric (CSV, XML or JSON)’ based on the format of your data. This guide will work with the CSV format, but the same applies to the other formats.
You can download a sample file of the desired format as a reference guide or view the details and available options for each field.
Firstly, let’s look at how to download a CSV example. The example download file provides all the possible metric fields with some examples filled in. A more complete list of possible field values can be found from the ‘Show Field Details’ link.
Secondly, let’s look at how to create the upload CSV. The CSV needs 25 columns(A-Y) in row 1, with column names. Not all these need to be filled in from rows 2 onwards, but some fields are required.
1. The required fields (in green) include:
- ID (dummy value)
- Name
- Description
- Frequency
- measureTypeID
- measureTypeName
- Decimals
- Characteristic (Cumulative or Noncumulative)
- And the Scope (either public or private)
2. There are also some dependent requirements (in blue):
- Algorithm if ‘calculated = 1’
- ResponsibleName if ResponsibleID
- And ContributorName if ContributorID
Now let’s look at how to upload the CSV. From ‘Import’ to ‘Import new metric (CSV)’ to ‘Browse…’ choose the location of the upload file. Click ‘Open’ then click ‘Process’
After some processing the page will update with the status. If everything went well the status will read: ‘“x” amount of measures were processed with no errors’
If there was an error the status will return:
- The number of KPIs it attempted to create
- The number it managed to create successfully
- The number of errors it encountered
- And details about the errors
For instance Row 2: no ID given, Row 3: no name given, Row 4: no description given and Row 5: invalid frequency parameter
If there are any errors, open the upload file and edit the rows that were causing errors, then try uploading it again. Any correctly created KPIs will be overwritten and not duplicated
Lastly, let’s look at the recommended naming conventions. Before creating new metrics, it makes sense to take some time and think about a naming convention. It is beneficial to work with unique metric names, as this will allow metrics to be referenced by name, instead of having to look up the ID of each one. It also allows users to distinguish between different metrics when working with the data.
This is easily achievable using prefixes based on location/role/responsibility etc. Take care not to use brackets for prefixes, as these are reserved for importing metric formulas. When working with the CSV format it is critical to avoid using commas and semicolons in the name of any metric.