Project entities
Purpose of entities
An entity identifies unique users along different dimensions, such as device ID, account ID, character ID, and platform ID, for analysis. AE user ID is the preset entity. You can also create custom entities from existing event properties or user properties, and then use them in Retention Analysis, Funnel Analysis, Distribution Analysis, Interval Analysis, or tags and cohorts.
Permissions for managing entities
Select Project Settings in the top right corner of the page, and go to the Settings > Entity menu
- The preset entity (AE user ID) is configured by default. It cannot be deleted, but you can rename it
- You need to configure custom entities yourself. If you configured Unique User Identification in version 3.3 or earlier, you can find it in the custom entity list
| Root | Admin | Analyst | Member | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Configure entities | ● | ● | ○ | ○ |
| Use entities | ● | ● | ● | ○ |
Permission notes:
● The role always has this permission
▲ The role has this permission by default, but it can be removed
△ The role doesn't have this permission by default, but it can be granted
○ The role never has this permission
Configuration steps
Configure entities in Project Settings
Go to Project Settings > Settings > Entity, click Create an Entity, and enter the entity name and source
Adjust the display order of entities
By default, entities are sorted as follows: the AE preset user ID first, followed by custom entities, which are sorted by creation time from earliest to latest. This order is the same as the order used in models. To adjust the display order and put frequently used entities first, click Adjust Sequence. In the dialog, drag the entities into the order you want, or click the Pinned arrow to make an entity the first one.
After you finish the setting, entities are displayed in the new order when you create a report:
Note that when calculating Uniques, the system filters out entities unrelated to the current metric, and the remaining entities are still displayed in the relative order you set.
Use in analysis models
Currently, four analysis models support switching entities: Retention Analysis, Funnel Analysis, Distribution Analysis, and Interval Analysis. Click to switch the entity. The preset entity is used by default
Use in cohorts/tags
When you create a cohort or tag, you need to select one of the configured entities. The cohort/tag is calculated based on the selected entity and its definition. For more about creating cohorts/tags for custom entities, see the user cohort and user tag documentation.
Best practices
Use custom entities in models
The calculation logic of the retention, funnel, distribution, and interval models relies on the entity's source property for association. For example, when you use the Distribution Analysis model to view the distribution of user login days, the results by character and by account are different: if an account has multiple characters, the day is counted as long as any one of the characters logs in on that day.
Analyze by users' organizational structure
In some cases, users belong to organizational structures, such as guilds in games, stores in e-commerce, or instructors in training apps. To analyze these dimensions, you can also use these properties as sources of custom entities and switch to that entity during analysis. For example, in Distribution Analysis, when you analyze payment amount and switch the entity to Guild, the result becomes the distribution of the total payment amount of all characters in each guild.