Managing a Site > Business Analytics > Counters

Overview

Counters are entities that aggregate metric information provided by MCL applications/devices paired with your MCL-Mobility Platform account.

Each counter can contain up to 20 metric values (= statistic results) which can be filtered/aggregated by time period and by key(s) - a primary and/or secondary key.

Counters can ONLY be created, edited or deleted at account level.

A site user (with the appropriate access rights) can access a counter's settings in the corresponding "Counter Details" page and use it to create dashboards/widgets, meaning, he can define a counter to be a data source for a dashboard's widget based on that information. See Dashboards.

Use the Business Analytics Button button (in the Site Dashboard's "Control Panel") to access the "Counters" sub-module.

Control Panel_Counters_SD

Click .

Counter Management_Page_List View_SD

In the resulting "Counter Management" page, click the name of the intended counter (displayed in light blue) to view the corresponding details page.

Speech Balloon_Button_Option

This page includes 2 tabs and a left panel. By default, the "Counter Details" page is open in the "Properties" tab.

"Properties" tab

This tab displays the following information:

Name	The name of the counter.
Alias	The counter's alias.
Description	Relevant information about the counter that was added at account level.
Aggregate by Period
Max. Resolution	The maximum time frame for the metric data to be aggregated by the counter,meaning, it refers the time resolution that was defined for the counter to group the data it receives.
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 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 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	The counter's primary key for data aggregation/filtering.
Secondary Key	The counter's secondary key for data aggregation/filtering.

"Metrics" tab

Counter Details_Page Metrics tab_SD

The "Metrics" tab displays the metrics that were defined for the selected counter, at account level. It provides the following information on the defined metrics:

Ref. column	The internal reference for a metric. This reference is, automatically, attributed by the system.
Name * column	The name of the metric.
Alias column	The metric's alias.
Description column	Information on the corresponding metric.

Left Panel

The left side of the page also displays information:

	(displayed in blue)	The counter's name.
	Reference	The MCL-Mobility Platform's internal reference for the counter.
	Alias	The counter's alias.
	Status	The counter's current status ("Enabled or "Disabled").
	Last Update Date	When the counter was updated last.
	Last Updater	The name of the user that updated the counter last.
	Creation	When the counter was created.

Available Operations

Counters are NOT managed at this level. They can ONLY be created, edited or deleted at account level.

To check the aggregated metric data received by the current counter, click the button access the corresponding pop-up window.

Counter Details_Page Inspect Data window

•The "Inspect Data - <counter name>" pop-up window is accessed by clicking in a counter's details page. It allows you to check the current counter's aggregated metric data, specifically, the statistic results for each metric ("Sample Count"; "Sum"; "Average"; "Min" and "Max").

•This window only displays the metric information that was communicated to the current site.

•It is possible to filter the display according to the defined time frame (when the metrics were received).

Use the following options to filter the displayed information:

At site level, it is NOT possible to check metric information from other sites so the drop-down only lists the current site.

Select the type of time frame from the drop-down, meaning, define if you want to view the metric information aggregated into "15 minutes", "Hour", "Day", "Week", "Month", "Year" or "Unlimited"(selecting this last period removes the "Date" filter)

This filter adapts itself to the previously selected period type.

See the examples below:

Use the horizontal side arrows to increase/decrease the displayed period.

If the selected period is in minutes, the side arrows will ONLY increment/decrement the time, NOT the date.

Use the to open a drop-down calendar:

Inspect Data_Calendar window

▪Select the intended period by clicking the corresponding button. Ex: If you have selected "Month" as the intended period, you will be provided with a button per month to choose from.

▪Use the available horizontal/vertical arrows to affect the associated element. Ex: If the element to the arrows' left is a year, clicking the arrows increases/decreases the selected year.

The opens a drop-down with a list of times that is incremented according to the previously selected period. For instance, selecting "15 minutes" means the drop-down will list "_:00"; "_:15"; "_:30"; "_:45".

•If required, use a primary/secondary key to aggregate the displayed metric data further. For instance, if the counter is meant to receive a metric with operator information (ex: "Key 1: Operator ID"), you can enter an operator's ID code in one of the keys and the site/period filtered data will also be aggregated by operator.

•If required, you can use the to purge the aggregated metric data in the defined time frame, meaning, the currently displayed data.

•Click to refresh the displayed data.

•Close the "Inspect Data - <counter name>" pop-up window by clicking OR the "X" on the window's upper right corner.

To refresh the page's view, use the button.