Exploring Data Basics

There are two ways to start exploring your data, or in other words, creating new queries to answer questions about your business that are not answered in our standard dashboards.

1. Explore from an existing dashboard tile.
2. Start a brand new blank explore from scratch

Explore From an Existing Dashboard

This is highly recommended because you will see how various dashboard tiles were constructed. It is a friendly way to familiarize yourself with the reporting functionality. It is also likely that part of your query may be complete and you will just need to modify it. 

To explore from a dashboard:

Step 1: Hover your mouse anywhere in the tile you would like to explore

Step 2: Find the ellipsis (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner of the tile

Step 3: Left click the ellipsis, this will reveal the menu options available to you

Step 4: Click Explore from Here

This opens up the underlying explore query that is producing the tile you were just on. Each explore has four main sections:

1. Field Picker
2. Filters
3. Visualization
4. Data Output

Main Explore Sections

Field Picker

The left side contains all the available fields (dimensions & measures) that you can use to build a query. Dimensions & measures are separated into Views, which represent the tables that they are in. In the image above there is a View for Calendar (the darker gray bar) and another for Shopping Stage.

Filters

Filters allow you to reduce the data set down to specific things you'd like to view. For example, instead of looking at data for all time, you may choose a date filter to only look at the past week or month.

Visualization Area

This is the area that your data is visualized into a graph or chart. The chart that appears in this area is being driven from the data in the data output below.

Data Output

This area shows you the results of the query that you created using dimensions & measures from the left side and filters.

Creating or Modifying Explores

When you are in this view, you can make any changes you'd like and it will not effect what is displayed in your dashboard. You can modify to get a different answer, or you could save that output as your own Report.

Update the Query

It is easy to see where the fields are that are used in the query already, the number of fields used is shown in a dark gray oval for each view.

Expand the View you'd like to modify by clicking on it.

You will see the available dimensions. Dimensions that have a light gray highlight will be listed in the data output as a column. In this example, only the Shopping Stage dimension will be listed out.

To deselect Shopping Stage from appearing in the output, single click anywhere in the light gray bar.

Often times you will want to filter a data set down, but not want to see the individual breakdown of those filters in the output. See the Device Type dimension above, it is not highlighted with the light gray bar, therefore it will not be listed in the data output, however, it is being used to limit the data set by being used as a filter. 

To un-filter, single click the purple filter button in the Device Type row.

Example

To add User Type to this data set, single click on the dimension User Type.

Clicking it will highlight it in light gray and also add it to the data output table. The actual data will remain blank until the query is run.

To refresh the query, click the purple Run button in the top right corner.

Data is now populated with the dimension fields and also the sessions (right hand column) has been redistributed.

You may find that you just want to limit the results to New Visitors. There are two ways to do this:

1. Click the Filter button in the light-gray highlighted row for User Type
2. Click on the gear that appears in the column header for User Type in the Data Table, then choose Filter

This will add User Type as a new filter to the Filters section. It will automatically default to "is equal to"; when this is an option, you may click in the entry box next to it and it will return the options available to you. You may select from the list or type in the options available.

Always click Run in the upper right corner after modifying your query to see the results.

If you'd like to save the result of your query to refer back to, click the Save as New button in the top right

Give your report a Title and a Description if you'd like, click Save as New. This will now be available under the Reports section of your Daasity account

Start From a Blank Query

You don't have to explore from a dashboard in order to create a new report or query. You can start by clicking Explore from your Daasity account

This leads you to the Explores page where you can select which explore is the best to deliver the results you would like. To follow the example above, start by looking at the Google Analytics explores.

There are three Google Analytics explores to choose from. Since this query was about shopping funnel stages, click GA Shopping Stage.

This will open the same window shown above, however no dimensions or measures will be selected.

You may select the dimensions and measures you would like to use and build your query.

Tips for using Explores

• Use the search field to find dimensions or measures, especially in large explores that have many views
• Start by limiting your results by date, if that is applicable. That will help your query run faster
• Once you've added your query elements, click the Totals box to get column totals in your output
• 
• If your output will have more than 500 rows, you can update the row limit to a max of 5000
• Download your output to excel or csv by clicking the gear in the upper right corner, near the Run button
• If the Run button is purple, it means you have made a change that will affect your result, it is a reminder to Run a refresh of your data
• All dimensions & measures have definition denoted by the lowercase I in a circle next to the field name, hover over it to see the definition of that field.