Managing the Account > Business Analytics > Counters

Overview

Counters can ONLY be added (and edited) at account level. However, they can be viewed and used by the account's sites.

When adding a counter to the account, consider the counter aliases (and the names of the included metrics) created in the MCL application(s) - they MUST match in terms of counter and metric name to ensure that the messages with metric values are fed to the MCL-Mobility Platform and available to the account's intended counter.

For instance, if the MCL application includes the counter alias "ItemsPicked" with the metrics "Requested", "Picked" and "Short", you must create a counter named "ItemsPicked" to have access to its metrics. You can choose to retrieve all the associated metrics (ex: "Requested", "Picked" and "Short") or just the ones you need, as long as you use the same metric name in the account's counter. Furthermore, you can also filter the selected metrics by time period or key (primary and/or secondary key).

Add a Counter

Step-by-step

1. Access the "Counter Management page" (Admin Dashboard > Control Panel > Business Analytics module > Counters sub-module > Counter Management page).

Counters_Main Page_AD

2. Click and fill in the editable fields in the resulting page which opens in edit mode.

New Counter_Page

Add the necessary entries (each entry represents one metric) to feed the counter using the button. Fill in the associated metric options.
Name* column	Define the name of the metric to be added.
Alias column	Define the alias for the new metric. The metric's alias MUST match the alias of the corresponding metric defined for the MCL application during development (defined in MCL-Designer, in the corresponding counter profile). Refer to the MCL-Designer User Guide for more detailed information.
Description column	Enter relevant information about the corresponding metric.
Follow Naming Best Practices when defining the name/alias of a metric to prevent future issues: •Use alphanumeric characters (a-z; A-Z; 0-9); •Avoid special characters - the underscore and dash characters are allowed; •Avoid spaces; •Start a name/alias with an alphabetic character. Use the and buttons associated to the selected metric to respectively copy and delete that metric. To perform a bulk Copy or Deletion, select the intended metrics and use the corresponding buttons that are activated above the table's header.

Name	Define the new counter's name.
Alias	Define the new counter's alias. The counter's alias MUST match the alias of the corresponding counter profile defined for the MCL application during development (in MCL-Designer). Refer to the MCL-Designer User Guide for more detailed information.
Follow Naming Best Practices when defining the name/alias of a counter to avoid future issues: •Use alphanumeric characters (a-z; A-Z; 0-9); •Avoid special characters - the underscore and dash characters are allowed; •Avoid spaces; •Start a name/alias with an alphabetic character.
Aggregate by Period
Max. Resolution	Define a specific time frame to work as the maximum time period filter for the metrics you want the counter to aggregate.
Aggregate by Key
Metric data that is collected/sent by the MCL application can be further aggregated according to a counter’s primary and/or secondary key. These keys can be used by a dashboard’s widgets to filter the displayed counter data. For instance, in a Data Table widget that uses a counter as a data source, if that counter has a defined primary and/or a secondary key, you can assign a specific value to the key so that the information displayed by that Data Table is filtered accordingly.
Primary Key	If required, define a primary key for data aggregation/filtering.
Secondary Key	If required, define a secondary key for data aggregation/filtering.
The counter profile defined for the MCL application during development with MCL-Designer, can contain primary/secondary keys. If so, you MUST match the name of those keys with the keys you define here. Refer to the MCL-Designer User Guide for more details. You are not required to have a primary key to use a secondary key UNLESS the MCL application sending the metric data includes a primary key.
Description
<description>	If required, add relevant information about the counter.