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

  1. Go to the Period page.
    1. Log on to the DataWorks console.
    2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Workspaces.
    3. 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.
    4. On the DataStudio page, click the More icon in the upper-left corner and choose All Products > Data Modeling > Data Metric. The Derived Metric page appears.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Period to go to the Period page.
  3. Create a period.
    1. On the Period page, click the Create 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.
    2. Configure basic information for the period.
      Add 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.
  4. Click Save in the upper part of the configuration tab to save the configurations.
  5. 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.

  1. On the Period page, move the pointer over the Import icon and click Import from Excel.
    You can refer to the steps described in the preceding section to go to the Period page.
  2. 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.