Create a Leveled Dimension

Learn how to create and configure a leveled dimension.

Overview

You might want to create a new dimension when you have new data to analyze in Visier. For example, if your organization started collecting employee data about hair color, you might want to create a new Hair Color dimension in Visier to analyze employee hair color.

To modify the structure of a leveled dimension, such as how many levels it contains or its data type, you can customize a dimension. Customization is done before configuration because it defines the levels in the dimension. After you define the dimension's levels, you can then configure how the levels are displayed, such as reordering the levels or changing their display names.

Create a leveled dimension

Note: For a tutorial that walks you through creating a new dimension, see Create New Employee Attributes and Metrics.

You can create a dimension in the Dimensions room or by selecting a specific analytic object on which to create the dimension.

Model > Dimensions steps

In this workflow, select the dimension type to create its associated analytic objects.

  1. In a project, on the navigation bar, click Model > Dimensions.
  2. Click Create Dimension.
  3. Select Leveled.
  4. Optional: To make the dimension shared, enable the Make dimension shared toggle.
  5. Type a display name and description.
  6. Select one or more analytic objects.
  7. Optional: To add tags to the dimension, click Add Tags. For more information about tags, see Create and Assign Tags to Content.
  8. Optional: To create additional dimensions, in the left panel, click Create. Repeat steps 4 to 6.
  9. When finished, click Done.

    Result: The dimension is created and can now be customized and configured.

Model > Analytic Object steps

In this workflow, select the dimension type to create. You can create many dimensions at once.

  1. In a project, on the navigation bar, click Model > Analytic Objects.
  2. Select an analytic object.
  3. In the Attributes tab, click Add Attribute > Dimension.
  4. Select Leveled.
  5. Optional: To make the dimension shared, enable the Make dimension shared toggle.
  6. Type a display name and description.
  7. Optional: If the dimension is shared, select additional analytic objects.
  8. Optional: To add tags to the dimension, click Add Tags. For more information about tags, see Create and Assign Tags to Content.
  9. Optional: To create additional dimensions, in the left panel, click Create. Repeat steps 4 to 6.
  10. When finished, click Done.

    Result: The dimension is created and can now be customized and configured.

Customize a leveled dimension

In the Customize tab, you can change the dimension's structure by adding additional levels to the dimension, changing the level display names, and changing the level data types.

Edit analytic objects

If the dimension is shared, you can optionally edit the list of analytic objects that the dimension is associated with,

  • To change the analytic objects for the dimension, in Analytic objects, click Edit.

Add dimension levels

Each leveled dimension has one level by default. That level starts with the same name as the dimension. You can add additional levels allow to indicate relationships within the data. Each additional level is a branch below the level above it. For example, the Location dimension has specific levels that follow the order they should appear in (region, country, state, city).

  1. In a project, on the navigation bar, click Model > Dimensions.

  2. Select a leveled dimension.
  3. In the Customize tab, click Add Level.

  4. Select a data type from the list.

  5. Type a display name and description.

  6. Click Add.
  7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 for all levels.
  8. Optional: Use Reorder to change the dimension level order.
  9. When finished adding new levels, run a job to generate a data version in the project. The new data version contains the new dimension levels, allowing you to preview your changes. For more information about running a job, see Run a Job.

Example: Let's say your organization now collects the postal code of employee locations and your CEO wants the data in Visier, but your Location dimension only has Region, Country, State, and City levels. In the Customize tab, you can add a new level called Postal Code to map your data to. When finished, run a job to generate a data version.

Change a level's display name

Each level has a display name to identify it. You can change the level display name in a project.

  1. In a project, on the navigation bar, click Model > Dimensions.

  2. Select a leveled dimension.

  3. In the Customize tab, in Levels, select a level.
  4. In the Info panel under Display name, type a new display name.

Example: Let's say your Location dimension has the levels Region, Country, State, City, but "State" isn't accurate for your company because you're based in Canada. In the Customize tab, you can change the State display name to Province.

Change a level's data type

Each level has a data type to define the data it can use. You can change the data type of any level if the dimension doesn't have data loaded already.

  1. In a project, on the navigation bar, click Model > Dimensions.

  2. Select a leveled dimension.

  3. In the Customize tab, select a level.
  4. In the Info panel under Settings, select a different data type.

Example: Let's say that when you originally created a leveled dimension, the levels defaulted to the String data type, but your data is ordinal. You haven't loaded any data for the dimension yet, so in the Customize tab, you can change the String data type to Ordinal.

Use mapping display name

Map each level's object name and display name using different source columns. If disabled, the same column is used to map both the object name and display name.

Note: This requires columns in the source for the unique key and the display name. To find the required column names, select a dimension level and then, in the Info panel under Settings, find Mapping - Object name and Mapping - Object display name.

A leveled dimension is based on a single source column, so you can decide whether you want to create a dimension using the unique key (typically a number) or the display name. Using the unique key requires you to change the display name when configuring the dimension. Enabling Use mapping display name is more efficient if you can map an additional column per level in the hierarchy to a column that is supplied in the data.

Example: Let's say your data has two columns to provide information about Business Type. One column is an ID for the business type and the other column is a display name for the business type. In the Customize tab, you can turn on Use mapping display name to use the ID column as a unique key (object name) and the display name column as the level's display name.

Turn on large dimension search

If your leveled dimension has more than 300,000 members, such as in the location hierarchy, Visier's default doesn't allow searching for specific members to help with performance. You can bypass the default if your hierarchy has fewer than 20 million members by turning on Large dimension search.

Configure a leveled dimension

This configuration includes changing the display names for the members at each level and mapping unknown values from the data to the dimension's Unknown Value setting.

Note:  

  • Value configuration is only available if data is loaded.
  • If you change the display name of a leveled dimension in the Basic Information tab, check the Customize tab to update the level display names if needed. If you don't have access to the Customize tab, contact Visier Technical Support to update the level display names.

  1. In a project, on the navigation bar, click Model > Dimensions.

  2. Select a leveled dimension.
  3. In the Configure tab, do any of the following:
    • To set an unknown value, beside Map unknown value, click Edit and select a value from the list. You can Save this selection or Clear it and choose another.
    • To change the display name of a level member, click the row in the Custom Name column and type a new display name.
    • To reorder the level members, click Reorder and move the members to a different order. Note that members can only be reordered within the same parent.

Change a local dimension to a shared dimension

Convert a dimension so it is shared among multiple analytic objects.

Tip: If a dimension is shared, it has the Shared icon , as shown next.

Because the object name for the dimension may change, any dependencies for the local dimension will update automatically and appear in the project's changelist. For more information about changelists, see Manage and Commit Project Changes.

Content such as analyses and charts will update to reflect the new object name for your converted shared dimension.

  1. On the navigation bar, click Model.
  2. Navigate to a dimension, either through Analytic Objects or Dimensions.

    Note: You can convert leveled dimensions or parent-child dimensions to shared.

  3. In the upper-right corner, click the More actions button > Make shared.
  4. Select the analytic objects you want this dimension to be shared with.
  5. When finished, click Make Shared.

    Caution: You cannot revert the dimension back to local after conversion.

Troubleshoot "Data is not available"

You may see a "Data is not available" note in the Customize tab. To investigate data availability, check:

  • The Data Transfers room in the global workspace. There must be a data file that contains data for the object.

  • The Sources room in the global workspace. The data file containing your object data must be connected to a source. For more information, see Sources.
  • The Mappings room in a project. The source that contains your object data must be mapped to the associated property. For more information, see Mappings.
  • The data version. After mapping your source data to a property in Visier, you must generate a new data version. For more information, see Data Categories and Run a Job.

Publish your changes

When finished configuring and customizing the dimension, publish the project to production. For more information, see Publish Project Changes.

To see your changes, run a data version in production or wait until your next scheduled data load to make the data available to users. For more information, see Data Versions.