Data Version Snapshots

Take a snapshot of a data version to preserve it and access it again later.

Note: Limited Availability This feature is in limited availability. If you are interested, please contact your Customer Success Manager.

Who can use this feature?

Users with this profile:

  • Data Engineer or Data: Read or Write (access level), Simple (view level)

To preview data versions, users must have full data access, such as Super Admin Permission. For more information, see Super Admin Permission.

Not sure if you have this feature or capability? Reach out to your administrator.

Overview

In Visier, a data version represents your organization's data across time, as it was generated at a specific point in time. If your subsequent data loads include data corrections or restatements to past data, the data in analyses and guidebooks that refer to historical time periods change to reflect the corrected data.

Example: If you send a file in May that has 50 Senior Software Engineers, your analyses will show 50 Senior Software Engineers in May. If you send a corrected file in June with 52 Senior Software Engineers for May, your analyses and guidebooks will show 52 Senior Software Engineers in May instead of 50.

For some audiences, historical metric values that change over time can undermine their confidence in the data. Visier provides the latest, most up-to-date data, but this isn't always desirable for executives or auditors.

To address questions from stakeholders about historical data that has changed since they saw it, you can take a snapshot of a data version, load that version, and create new visuals and analyses using historical values. With data version snapshots, you can answer follow-up questions about historical values without reconciling restated or corrected data.

Data version snapshots preserve your data and the production version at a particular point in time, such as the current metric formulas and available properties. If a metric definition changes, such as how it's calculated, the original calculation is preserved in the data version snapshot based on the production version.

Use data version snapshots to:

  • Explore a prior data version in detail.
  • Prevent a data version from being deleted.

Tip: If you're only interested in preserving original metric values and comparing them to current values, use our sample application to ensure consistency and avoid issues caused by data corrections at a specific point in time. For more information, see Snapshot Recorder Sample Application.

Take a data version snapshot

You can take a data version snapshot of the current data version and production version. If a new data version was recently generated and you know you want to keep it, take a snapshot as soon as possible.

You can take 3 snapshots per 30-day period. Data version snapshots capture primary data categories and do not capture supplementary data categories. For more information, see Data Categories.

Who can use this feature?

Users with this profile:

  • Data Engineer or Data:  Write (access level), Simple (view level)

Not sure if you have this feature or capability? Reach out to your administrator.

  1. On the global navigation bar, click Data > Data Version Snapshots.
  2. Click Take Snapshot Now.
  3. Type a display name for the snapshot; for example, Snapshot 10/18/2024.
  4. Type a description for the snapshot; for example, Data version 18111113 as of 10/18/2024.
  5. When finished, click Take Snapshot.

After you take a snapshot, you can explore the data in a project.

Explore an old data version

Who can use this feature?

Users with this profile:

  • Data Engineer or Data: Read (access level), Simple (view level)

Users must have full data access, such as Super Admin Permission. For more information, see Super Admin Permission.

Not sure if you have this feature or capability? Reach out to your administrator.

  1. Click Data > Data Snapshots.
  2. In the list of snapshots, click the data version snapshot you want to explore.
  3. Click View Snapshot.

    Result: The solution experience opens. You can use Explore and Guidebooks to investigate the data as it was at the time of the data version.

Note:  

While viewing a data version snapshot, you can: 

  • Create new visualizations in Explore.
  • Download new visualizations.
  • View details for the data.
  • View guidebooks to see the data as it was at that point in time.
  • Ask Vee questions about the data. For more information, see Vee for Enterprise.

While viewing a data version snapshot, you cannot:

  • Create a new analysis.
  • Create a guidebook.
  • Create a data export.
  • Capture a visualization.