A period is used to determine the time range or time window of the statistical data
that is collected by a derived metric for a business activity, such as last one day
or last calendar week. A period defines the time range of statistical data when you
use a derived metric to collect statistical data on your business. This topic describes
how to create a period.
Background information
An atomic metric, a period, and one or more modifiers constitute a derived metric
that can reflect the status of a business activity of an enterprise. For more information
about derived metrics, see Derived metric.
Create a period
- Go to the Period page.
- Log on to the DataWorks console.
- In the left-side navigation pane, click Workspaces.
- In the top navigation bar, select the region where your workspace resides. On the
Workspaces page, find the workspace and click DataStudio in the Actions column.
- On the DataStudio page, click the
icon in the upper-left corner and choose . The Derived Metric page appears.
- In the left-side navigation pane, click Period to go to the Period page.
- Create a period.
- On the Period page, click the
icon to create a period. By default, DataWorks provides nine period granularities such as Day, Week, and Month. You can create finer-grained periods, such as last one day and last three weeks,
based on the period granularity you selected and your business requirements. This
way, you can use these finer-grained periods to quickly perform statistical analysis.
- Configure basic information for the period.

Parameter |
Description |
Period Granularity |
The granularity to which the period belongs. |
Abbreviation |
The abbreviation for the name of the period. The abbreviation is the unique identifier
of the period and cannot be modified after you create the period.
|
Name |
The name of the period. |
Display Name |
The display name of the period. |
Description |
The description of the period. |
- Click Save in the upper part of the configuration tab to save the configurations.
- Click Submit in the upper part of the configuration tab to submit the period.
After the period is submitted, you can reference the period when you create a derived
metric. If you want to delete a period that is referenced by a derived metric, you
must remove the reference relationship between the period and derived metric before
you delete the period.
Import periods
If you want to create multiple periods at a time, you can import the periods that
you need to use. DataWorks provides a template for you to import periods. You can
configure the required information about periods in the template file and import the
file.
- On the Period page, move the pointer over the
icon and click Import from Excel. You can refer to the steps described in the preceding section to go to the Period
page.
- Create an import task.
You can perform the operations described in
Import to create an import task. When you create the import task, select
Time Period in the Import Type section of the Create Import Task page, download the related template
file, configure information about periods in the template file, and then import the
file.
What to do next
You can reference the created period, an atomic metric, and one or more modifiers
when you create a derived metric. The derived metric can be used to collect statistical
data on the values of an atomic metric within the period based on specific dimensions
and business conditions. For more information about how to reference a period when
you create a derived metric, see Derived metric.