Custom properties and dimension table properties
When you analyze business data, besides using properties that are reported or generated by model mapping directly, you may want to further process certain special properties, or transform them with the mapping data of a dimension table. You can do this with the Custom Property and Dimension table features.
1. Create custom properties
If you need to do the following, you can Create custom property on the User Properties or Event Properties page:
- Generate new properties by further calculating on properties or tags, such as numeric operations on multiple properties, concatenating multiple properties, or logical formulas;
- Convert the data type of properties or tags, such as splitting a string into a list or object, or converting a number into a string;
- For more scenarios, see Best practices for creating custom properties
Configure custom properties with SQL function templates
In AE 4.0, we launched the Functions templates to help you create custom properties more easily and quickly.
- Hover over a function name to see the function's name, a brief description of its usage, and an example.
- Click Insert to insert the example into the editor, where you can edit it further.
- You can copy in any other Event Properties, User Properties, or Tags and use them with functions to create custom properties more flexibly.
When you configure custom property rules (see the figure below):
- You can't use an existing custom property to create another custom property;
- You can't use dimension table properties generated by associating a custom property with a data table;
- You can't use user tags whose analysis entity is a custom property;
- You can't use functions that involve cross-row calculation, such as row_number() and lead()
- You can't use subqueries such as ( select xxx )
You can save the configured rule only after it passes debugging. During debugging, the system infers the property's data type from the rule's calculation result. If you need to force a different data type for the rule, you can adjust it manually, and then debug again.
You can customize the associations between custom event properties and events. If you choose automatic matching, the system infers the events that can be associated based on the custom property rule. You can also specify events to create associations.
2. Create dimension table properties
If you need to do the following, you can create dimension table properties on the User Properties or Event Properties page:
- Add a readable display name, such as the item name, to a reported key property (such as the item ID);
- Add more business information, such as the item category and item price, to a reported key property;
You can add an existing data table as a property's dimension table, or create a new data table as the property's dimension table. After the table is added as a dimension table, dimension table properties are generated automatically from the non-primary-key fields in the table. Dimension table properties can be used in analysis as event properties or user properties.
The following properties can't have a dimension table added to them:
- A custom property whose creation rule includes dimension table properties, and its child properties, can't have a dimension table added;
- An event custom property whose creation rule includes user properties or user tags can't have a dimension table added;
The dimension table requirements differ by property data type, as follows:
| Property data type | Dimension table notes |
|---|---|
| String, Number, Boolean | Supported. The table's primary key must have the same data type as the property. |
| Time | A dimension table can be added. The table's primary key must be a string, and a time format must be specified. |
| List | Supported. The table's primary key must be String. |
| Row, Array Row | Dimension table properties can't be added. Their child properties can have dimension tables. |
Usually, the system automatically creates dimension table properties for the fields in a dimension table (except the primary key). However, for the dimension table of a list property, dimension table properties are created only for the string fields in the table.
If the project has the value-added feature Model Mapping Assets Configuration enabled and a Model-Mapping Dimension Table is set, Dimension table editing on the page is shown as Model-Mapping Dimension Table, and updating, downloading, and deleting dimension tables are not available.