Workspace: Month Field with a Segment - Technical Problem (I THINK) | Community
Skip to main content
jeff_bloomer
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
jeff_bloomerCommunity Advisor and Adobe Champion
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
October 29, 2020
Solved

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

  • October 29, 2020
  • 7 replies
  • 3730 views

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.

 

This post is no longer active and is closed to new replies. Need help? Start a new post to ask your question.
Best answer by jeff_bloomer

@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!

7 replies

Brian_Johnson_
Brian_Johnson_
Level 8
October 29, 2020

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
    Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
    jeff_bloomerCommunity Advisor and Adobe ChampionAuthor
    Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
    October 30, 2020

    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.  🙂

    P
    Pier-OlivierDu
    New Member
    October 30, 2020

    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
      Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
      jeff_bloomerCommunity Advisor and Adobe ChampionAuthor
      Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
      November 2, 2020
      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.
      yuhuisg
      Community Advisor
      yuhuisgCommunity Advisor
      Community Advisor
      October 31, 2020
      Can you show a screenshot of your "Year is 2019" segment's definition?
      jeff_bloomer
      Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
      jeff_bloomerCommunity Advisor and Adobe ChampionAuthor
      Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
      November 2, 2020

      @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
      Community Advisor
      yuhuisgCommunity Advisor
      Community Advisor
      November 3, 2020

      @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-olivierdu'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
        Adobe Employee
        jantzen_bAdobe Employee
        Adobe Employee
        December 3, 2020
        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
        Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
        jeff_bloomerCommunity Advisor and Adobe ChampionAuthorAccepted solution
        Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
        December 8, 2020

        @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
        Adobe Employee
        jantzen_bAdobe Employee
        Adobe Employee
        December 9, 2020
        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.
        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement

        Loading footer...