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Adding Criteria Blocks to Segments

Each criteria block denotes a set of criteria that are evaluated together. This means that any segment member that qualifies for the criteria block must meet the criteria displayed within the block.

For example, if a segment has the following criteria block:

Product purchased is a blue hat
AND
Purchase date is December 31, 2004

This segment finds the customers who purchased a blue hat on December 31, 2004. Because the criteria are in the same block, the criteria are applied to the lowest level dimension related to the criteria, which, in this case, is Purchases (record-level evaluation).

If your segment places criteria into separate criteria blocks, each criteria block finds segment members that satisfy each criteria block. After segment members have been identified, the segment designer determines how many segment members qualified for both criteria blocks.

NOTE:  If your administrator sets up a dashboard so you can display the contacts that qualify, you can display this dashboard by clicking the final segment count (at the bottom of the screen).

For example, you may have a segment with the two criteria blocks shown in the following list:

In this example, the relationship between the criteria are evaluated at the customer level, rather than the purchase level (record level). This segment would find the customers who purchased a blue hat at any time and customers who purchased any product on December 31, 2004. For example, the segment includes customers who purchased a blue hat in February and purchased a black coat on December 31, 2004.

To select a field to add as a criteria block

1. Click a subject area near the top of the selection pane and then expand the subfolders to display the available facts and dimensions.
2. Click the fact or dimension to use.
3. In the Create/Edit Filter dialog box, add the filter criteria, and click OK.

   For more information about using column filters, see Oracle Business Intelligence User Guide.

To set properties for a criteria block

1. In a criteria block, click Properties.
2. In the Properties dialog box, make changes to any of the following options:
   • In the Label field, enter a custom caption for your criteria.
   • Cache the block for future update counts requests.

     Select this option to temporarily cache the results for that criteria block. This option saves time when refreshing counts while designing a segment. When a block is cached, updating counts refreshes the cache when the cache is expired or does not exist. By default, the segment designer does not cache any blocks unless you explicitly check this box.

3. Click OK.

To add filters to a criteria block

1. In a criteria block, click the filter button.
2. In the Create/Edit Filter dialog box, add the filter criteria.

   For more information on using column filters, see Oracle Business Intelligence User Guide.

3. When you are finished adding filters for the criteria block, click OK.

To add a filter using an aggregate field

1. Create a new criteria block or click the filter button on an existing block.
2. Select the aggregate field such as Order Revenue from the selection pane.
3. To group by another field, in the Create/Edit filter dialog box, click Add Aggregate By.
4. While the Add Aggregate By dialog box is open, in the selection pane, click a field to group the results by.

To embed a nested segment in your segment design

1. Click the My Segments or Shared Segments folder at the bottom of the selection pane.
2. Click a segment to add as a nested segment.

To save a new segment

1. Click the save icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
2. Select a folder location where the segment is to be saved.
3. Enter a segment name, and click OK.

To save changes to a segment

1. Click the save icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and click OK.
2. In the Save dialog box, click Yes to confirm replacing the previous version.

To generate lists

1. Save the segment.
2. Click Generate List

To view the cumulative counts within a criteria block

1. Click the filter button on the criteria block.
2. In the Edit Criteria Block dialog box, click Get Counts.
3. The cumulative counts for each criterion in the criteria block appears.

   NOTE:  The starting count for the selected block is based on the cumulative count for the criteria block above your selected block.

4. When you are finished viewing the counts, click Back to Editing, and click OK.

To update counts in a segment

1. In the upper-right of the Edit Segment tab, click Update Counts.
2. In the Update Counts dialog box, select a refresh option.
3. If you are using the Cache option, you can also select Refresh Cache.

   Selecting Refresh Cache guarantees that you query against the most current data.

4. Click OK.

Adding Selection Rules

Selection Rules control the items related to the segment that are included in the campaign load and list export processes. For example, for a segment of accounts (companies), you can control which employee or employees at the company you want to target.

A selection rule consists of several parts:

• Inclusion and Exclusion criteria - Apply one or more criteria to indicate what items are to be included in and excluded from the segment.
• Ranking rule - If there are multiple items related to each segment member, use the ranking rule to indicate how the items must be ranked. For example, if there are multiple employees for an account, indicate what field you want to use to rank the employees before selecting a subset.
• Record count selector - Indicate whether you want to select one or more items for each segment member (the Target Level). For example, you can indicate how many employees from a single company are targeted.

You can apply selection rules for more than one qualified item if desired. For example, you may have a segment targeted at households that own a variety of financial assets (bank account, insurance policy, or mortgage). You could use a selection rule for individuals to control which member of the household to which to communicate and a second selection rule on assets that controls which assets to mention in the text of a personalized letter.

NOTE:  Selection rules for any nested segments within another segment definition are ignored. Only selection rules for the top-level segment are applied.

To create a selection rule

1. Click on Add Selection Rule.
2. Select the type of Qualified Item to constrain or select.
3. In the Create/Edit Filter dialog box, add the filter criteria.

   For more information on using column filters, see Oracle Business Intelligence User Guide. Alternatively, you can filter the item with a previously saved segment by clicking the segment from the left panel.

4. Click OK.
5. In the criteria block, select Include/Exclude to include or exclude these types of items from the results.
6. For additional constraints, repeat Step 5.
7. In the bottom section of the rule, use the option buttons to select whether all items qualify or only specific items.

   For more information on selecting specific items, see To add a ranking rule to a selection rule.

To add constraints to a selection rule

1. Click on Add Another Constraint.
2. In the Create/Edit Filter dialog box, add the filter criteria.
3. For more information on using column filters, see Oracle Business Intelligence User Guide.
4. Click OK.
5. In the criteria block, select the Include/Exclude link to include or exclude these types of items from the results.

To add a ranking rule to a selection rule

1. In the area beneath the constraint criteria boxes, select the option button for a limited number of items (for example, 1 Contact only).

   The Add Ranking Field link appears.

2. Select the link.
3. In the dialog box, select a field from the left selection pane to use for the ranking, and then click OK.
4. In the drop-down list choose either Maximum or Minimum for selecting items in the ranking field.

   NOTE:  Date fields treat older dates as Minimum and newer dates as Maximum.

5. To modify the formula for the ranking field or add a Case statement, click the Edit Formula icon.

   For more information, see To modify the formula for the Ranking Field.

   NOTE:  Ranking fields are available from any subject area that relates to both the Qualified Item and the main segment's primary Qualified Item (the Target Level).

To modify the formula for the Ranking Field

1. In the Ranking line for the Selection Rule, click the Edit Formula icon.
2. In the dialog box, click the Column Formula tab.
3. To display a glossary of available expressions, click the help link.
4. To convert the values for a field using a Case statement, click the Bins tab.
5. To create a bin for a condition, click Add Bin.

   NOTE:  By default, bin values are treated alphabetically. In the Bins tab, you may need to treat the resulting values as numeric values (to use numeric sorting). For example, if you used Bins to convert the Net Worth field to Values 1,2,3...10, you would want to rank numerically to make sure that '10' was after '9'. To enable numeric ranking, click the check box for 'Treat result as a numeric value or expression'.

6. When done editing, click OK.

As a shortcut, you can add a criteria block from the Edit Segment view directly as a Selection Rule constraint. You can only reuse criteria blocks from the top level of the segment criteria and blocks that use Keep and Exclude operators.

To reuse criteria from the Edit Segment view as a selection rule constraint

1. Click the Edit Segment tab.
2. Locate the criteria block to which to add selection rules and click its view icon.

   The Properties dialog box appears.

3. Check the box for the Qualified Item to constrain.
4. Click OK.
5. Click the Selection Rules tab.

   The constraint has been added to the selection rule for the item you checked.