A view is a logical collection of information that is derived from the records in a data source. Views are made up of attributes and of predefined metrics based on those attributes.
Views define a logical set of records. These view records have assignments from attributes. Studio, specifically the Chart component, issues queries using these views. These queries return records with assignments from metrics.
- A list of products
- A list of customers
Each of those could be a view.
The following diagram shows the relationship between base records and base attributes, view records and attributes, and query set records and metrics.
About view attributes
All views are made up of attributes. Some attributes may be attributes from the original data source, while others may be calculated from the existing data.
For example, for a list of products derived from a list of sales transactions, the product name would come directly from the data, while the total sales for that product would be calculated from the individual sales records.
Some attributes may be flagged as dimensions, meaning that they can be used to change the level of granularity for the results. For example, for a view consisting of a list of products, the product category may be a dimension. Values calculated from the view could then be grouped by the product category.
About predefined metrics
Predefined metrics are values calculated from attributes using EQL expressions.
For example, if one of the view attributes is the total sales amount, then predefined metrics for the view could include the top sales amount, the lowest sales amount, and the average sales.
A view is not required to have any predefined metrics.
