SiteCatalyst Update / Run button

[#1]

Hi Everyone,

This was brought to my attention by someone and I thought this was a very good idea that should be thought about:

I know for myself, I do feel like there is a lot of time wasted unnecessary when we are trying to run the actual report we want in Adobe Reports and Analytics (SiteCatalyst) when I need to make several updates at once (cross a report, add metrics, add a segment, and change date range).  For me to run this one report, I am making four actions and this means four times the page will refresh the page and pull the unnecessary reports until I get to my actual report.

This is very time consuming, and I would presume puts unnecessary strain on Adobe’s server to pull these reports.  If we have the ability to make all the changes we would like then click a button to run report – this would save significant amount of our time while Adobe refreshes the report.  This also could be mentioned for Discover as well.

As this was put to me:

I believe it should have a ‘Run Report’ button and stop refreshing/executing the report after every change in the Dimension, Metric, Period, Suit or segments.

Run Report will allow users to make all the changes they want in the next report and then execute it.

[#2]

Bring back the 'report builder' from V3.5

[#3]

A couple of things:

1. @arwith_grande : In your idea you mention allowing this functionality in Discover. It's already there. This is the purpose of the Table Builder. You can already add dimensions, metrics, segments in any arrangement, then click Update Table. 

2. We won't be bringing back the old report builder, but we will be doing something soon to address this request throughout Adobe Analytics. 

[#4]

HI Ben,

you are right, this is available in table builder, but I have yet to find a way to get Segments to work correctly in that way (one for the report level, workspace level, metric level)

If you can do that - I woudl love to see a video on how you can do that in Table Builder.

But I am glad to see that Adobe Analytics is being adressed in the future

[#5]

Audience Manager has an almost good implimentation. Except it isn't sticky. What they have allows you to pause updates to the report you are generating and you can make selections/changes etc and then allow the update to occur. However, it has to run the report first which can take a lot of time before the pause option happens.

Something like you have in RB would be good where you can get analytics to show placeholders until you allow the entire report to refresh.

[#6]

@warrensander: Have you seen the way this works in Ad Hoc Analysis (Discover)? How does that compare to what you are looking for?  

[#7]

I think the table builder idea is also good. I don't know about having in analytics without a LOT of redesign of the reporting interface. The 'pause' button that Audience Manager has (much like the 'replace table' button) is a good 'end point' I just don't see moving the Ad-hoc interface into analytics. It's probably too complicated for entry level users.

In Audience Manager you just 'pause' the report with a simple start/stop button with a refresh button to make the report run. Then you select things as you would normally.

so have a pause button on the analytics screen.I click that and it turns red showing that it's paused

I select view all reports -> site content -> pages

the screen then shows me 

pages                    page views

page 1                         -

page 2                         -

I then click 'add metrics' select several and the screen comes back

pages                    page views visitors

page 1                         -                     -

page 2                         -                     -

(like report builder does if you turn on off-line mode)

then I can do the date and again the new dates show up

I can add a data filter and again it's ready to go.

Now is where the table builder in ad-hoc comes in handy when I want to do a subrelation. since I don't know which line item I want to breakdown or if I want a '5x5'

then I hit the red stop button and the report runs and populates with data. I've saved at least 3 or 4 steps in getting the report done.

I can always add the 'compare to' segment or report suite values and trended/table and current data settings all without re-running the report every time.

For me the table builder is great but It's really confusing to those that havn't used it much

[#8]

@warrensander: Very good feedback. Thank you. It sounds like there are two use cases: 

1. Analyst use case, which is served well by Ad Hoc Analysis and the table builder in that tool.

2. Business user use case, where Table Builder is TOO free-form and flexible, and you're looking for something that allows them to "pause" report generation but still limited to the "guardrails" of a standard report. 

Is that accurate? 

[#9]

yes

[#10]

@warrensander: Awesome. Thanks. This is really, really helpful. You'll see more on this soon.