Workspace: Month Field with a Segment - Technical Problem (I THINK)

[jeff_bloomer]

Try this on your own and tell me it isn't frustrating.  I'm trying to use the Month field between to Freemform Tables.  I want 2018 under a segment in one and 2019 in another.  However, Workspace doesn't work this way.  For instance, if you create a Panel that spans 2018 thru 2019, then create your two segments, one for 2018 and one for 2019, you will get a Charlie Foxtrot as a result.  Instead of the months of Jan - Dec of 2018 underneath one and their respective months for 2019 in the other, it gives me 15 months for both, starting with January 2018.  CRAZINESS!

In order to get what I want, I have to create two separate panels, set the year for each and then go after the data.  The problem with this is that I cannot compare and contrast the data next to each other in graphs or otherwise.  SUPER FRUSTRATING.

[Brian_Johnson_]

Hey, @jeff_bloomer ! 

Have you tried using a custom date range to specify your months? You might also be able to right-click on the metric and try the "compare time periods" option.

This obviously puts everything in a single table/panel, but it will let you get a side-by-side view of any two date ranges you need to compare. Is this close to what you're after?

[jeff_bloomer]

Hi @Brian_Johnson_,

That was actually the first approach I used, and unfortunately, doing the comparison doesn't give me all 12 months for both years to pull.  I was trying to get everything so I could easily pull it into a workbook for consolidation.  One would also think swapping out a custom date range in a duplicated freeform table would swap out the months, but that was not my experience even after I refreshed the project.  As you can see in the screenshot below, I have a date range for just 2019, but the months appear to be driven by the top-most date range in the upper right-hand corner.  Highly counter-intuitive to what I would expect, as I would consider the Month as a breakdown of the time period.  I even tried to use YEAR, and that didn't work, either.  This is unfortunately an Adobe problem, I think.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.  

[Brian_Johnson_]

Ok, one more thought, @jeff_bloomer... What about using two different panels with their own date ranges?

[jeff_bloomer]

@Brian_Johnson_, That's what I ended up doing, which was counter to my goal of putting everything within one panel in order to keep graphs together. Unfortunately, they will have to scroll between them, because putting them side by side is not practical with 12 months displaying under each. It would be helpful if @adobe could fix this one.

[pier-olivierd92]

Hi Jeff,

I would recommend defing your year just as you did (or using the year dimension), but instead of dragging the month dimension in, try using month of year. This way, you should be able to get rid of the months outside of the defined year date range.

Let me know if this works,

Pier-Olivier

[jeff_bloomer]

Will def take a look. I honestly didn't even know that was a "thing," and I've been at this more than long enough. Very counter-intuitive.

[jeff_bloomer]

So I did take a look at this, and unfortunately, this doesn't work either. It only brings in five total months from the year, and doesn't even put them in Month order. As usual, the documentation is absolutely useless (https://docs.adobe.com/help/en/analytics/components/dimensions/month-of-year.html). It doesn't explain the behavior, how to use it, or what to expect. I really appreciate the suggestion, though. It never hurts to try.

[pier-olivierd92]

Hi @jeff_bloomer,

Instead of simply drag'n'dropping the dimension Month of year (which will by default select 5 values), you can try clicking on the chevron to all possible values. Then you can select the 12 months all at once (either using the CTRL-key, one by one, and they will appear in the order you selected OR if they are all in the right order, using SHIFT to select the first one and the last one). Drag those in and you'll get exactly what you ask for.

Try it out and keep me posted,

Pier-Olivier

[yuhuisg]

Can you show a screenshot of your "Year is 2019" segment's definition?

[jeff_bloomer]

@yuhuisg,

Sure thing!

Also, I tried using a Date range for the year before I used the segment and even just put the value of 2019 from the Year dimension in its place, and the behavior was exactly the same in each scenario.  Adobe just needs to shore up the functionality of Workspace so the appropriate data displays when you apply a segment.  I shouldn't have to use a separate panel just to display the appropriate months.

[yuhuisg]

@jeff_bloomer , I think I've been able to replicate your tables.

As indicated in my screenshot's annotations, the "Month" is based on the panel's date range. For example, if I changed my date range to start from 1 Aug 2019, then I'd get this:

But it's worth noting that the data is still correct. Notice that only the 2019 months have non-zero numbers (which I've grayed out).

I think @pier-olivierd92's suggestion is the best option for you. But as you've noted, and as I've indicated in my first screenshot's annotation, "Month of Year" is treated as a string, and its values are added (seemingly) randomly. So if I were you, I'd do the following:

1. Click the "Month of Year" in the left rail to show all of the month names.
2. Drag the missing months into the table as columns.
3. Rearrange the months to be in chronological order.

It's also worth noting that you can right-click in a metric and choose "Compare time periods" or "Add time period column" that can maybe ease your work, as @Brian_Johnson_ suggested.

[jantzen_b]

Do any of the answers below answer your initial question? If so, can you select one of them as the correct answer? If none of the answers already provided answer your question, can you provide additional information to better help the community solve your question?

[jeff_bloomer · Accepted solution]

@jantzen_b,

Unfortunately, there is no satisfying "correct" reply that can be applied to this one, because this is a problem that cannot be fixed in the current way that Adobe Analytics currently behaves.  I played with this for more than an afternoon using all of the suggestions and was unable to produce output the way I would have preferred for it to display in the first place.  I used a workaround and moved forward.  Thanks to everyone for their efforts!

[jantzen_b]

Thanks for the detailed information. It sounds like the current answer to this question is that it isn't possible with the product currently. Since this is a question, I'll mark your response as the correct answer so we can close this out for now. Since what you are looking for seems to require a change to the product, I'd suggest submitting an idea in the ideas section of this community.