Creating a variant from the reports page

You can create a variant against a column of report data to customize report data and enable joins to a custom data.

Before you begin

Before you create a variant, you need to identify the report data that you want to customize to enable joins with a custom data.

About this task

Creation of a variant enables you to join report data with custom data, allowing a consolidated aggregation of external data of various types with report data. Variants also help you to enhance report readability through the custom joins of report data with custom data.

Procedure

  1. In the Reports page, click the report against which you want to create a variant.
    The report details page opens.
  2. Click the Customize columns icon .
    The Edit columns dialog box opens.
  3. In the Columns list, click the hamburger menu beside the column name against which you want to create the variant, and then click Create variant.
    The Define variant actions tab of the Create variant column dialog box opens.
  4. Enter the value of the Variant column name.
    In the Original column section you can see the report table and column against which you are creating the variant.
  5. Optional: By default, the Test value reflects the first data of the report column against which you are creating the variant. However, you can enter a different value if you want.
  6. In the Actions section of the Define variant actions tab, do the following to set a rule for the variant:
    1. Select the If value, that is, the condition to apply the variant rule.
    2. Enter the string value of the condition.
    3. Select either To uppercase, To lowercase, or Split and extract as the value for Then (that is, the rule of the variant to transform or customize the values of the report column).
      If you select Split and extract, then you need to provide the values for Split on and Extract value from index. You can specify a delimiter in the Split on field and a number in the Extract value from index field. For example, if you split the string CORP\EXAMPLE\ONE with Split on value as "\" and the Extract value from index value as 1, then the extracted value is EXAMPLE.
      You can see the value of the variant (transformed or customized value of the report column) in the Test value after action: field.
  7. Optional: Click Chain results to an additional icon + to add more than one rule for the variant.
  8. Click Create.
    You can see that the newly created variant added under the Variants list in the Edit columns dialog box.
  9. Navigate to the Variant administration page, select the newly created variant, and then click Run update job to populate the variant's data.

Results

You have successfully created a variant.

What to do next

You can use the variant to join custom data with report data.