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).

Step-by-step

1. To access the "Metrics" page, click the module Business Analytics Button and select the Counters Sub Module Button sub-module in the resulting row.

Counter Management_Page_Empty

2. Click Add Header Button to open the"New Counter" page. The page opens in the "Properties" tab and it is, already, set to edit mode.

New Counter_Page_Properties Tab Empty

3. Define the new counter's properties by filling in the available fields (fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory):

Name *	Enter a name for the new counter. Define a name related to the metrics you are aggregating to make it easy to identify the counter. Be sure of the name you define - although you can edit a counter's name, you risk losing the aggregated data.
Alias *	Enter the counter's alias. Match this alias to the corresponding counter alias defined in the MCL application during development (in MCL-Designer). Refer to the MCL-Designer User Guide for more detailed information. The alias can ONLY contain alphanumeric/underscore characters ( = no spaces).
Description	If required, enter information on the new counter.
Aggregate by Period
If required, define a specific time frame to work as a filter for the metrics you want the counter to aggregate.
Max Resolution	Select one of the time frames available in the drop-down.
Aggregate by Key
The metric data that is collected/sent by the MCL application can be further aggregated according to a counter’s primary and/or a 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. The counter profile defined for the MCL application during development with MCL-Designer, can contain keys (they are defined with the "Metric/Post Message Background" process as "Key 1" and "Key 2"). 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 detailed.
Primary Key	If required, enter a primary key for the counter to aggregate the received data.
Secondary Key	If required, enter a secondary key for the counter to aggregate the received data. It is NOT necessary to have a primary key to define a secondary key UNLESS the MCL application has a defined primary key.

4. Open the "Metrics" tab. There is a metric entry ready to be filled in. If you want to add more metrics, click to add another entry (this option adds one metric entry, at a time).

New Counter_Page_Metrics Tab Empty

5. Fill in each metric entry's editable fields (fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory):

Selection Box	There is a selection box for each metric entry. If required, check the box to select the corresponding entry. To select all the metrics, at once, check the box in the title row. Unchecking it, deselects all the currently checked metrics, at once. You can bulk copy or delete metric entries by checking the selection box in the title row - this activates the (Duplicate) or (Delete) options. •Clicking to duplicate a metric entry creates a new entry with the same name as the original metric plus "copy>incremented number>". It also has the same alias and description. We recommend renaming the duplicate. Make sure the metric's alias matches one of the selected counter's metrics defined for the corresponding counter in the MCL application during development (in MCL-Designer). Refer to the MCL-Designer User Guide for more detailed information. •If you use to bulk delete, confirm the operation by clicking the "Delete" option in the resulting message .
Ref.	NOT editable. The internal reference for each metric is attributed automatically by the system.
Name *	Enter the name of the metric you want to add.
Alias	Enter an alias for the metric. The system suggests an alias based on the defined metric name. This alias MUST match one of the selected counter's metric aliases defined for the corresponding counter in the MCL application during development (in MCL-Designer). Refer to the MCL-Designer User Guide for more detailed information.
Description	Enter a description of the metric you defined.
Actions	These "Actions" buttons are only visible/available if the page is set to "edit" mode. This button duplicates the corresponding metric. The duplicate will have the same name plus "_copy<incremented number>". This button deletes the corresponding metric. Click it and confirm the operation by clicking the resulting .

6. Click to conclude.

Created Counter Result_Counter Management_Page

The newly added counter is listed in the "Counter Management" page.