š NOTE: It is assumed you know how to create custom Dashboards and Charts, and have an understanding of chart Types, Presets, and Metrics. If not,Ā read this articleĀ before proceeding.
When building your own Dashboard Charts, you can pull data from variousĀ data sourcesĀ to view different types of analytics events.
- In this article, we're going to focus on theĀ Tags data source, which tracks a variety of tag usage metrics across your Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla)Ā community.
ā ļøļ»æĀ IMPORTANT: Vanilla Analytics began collecting tag data starting December, 2023. Data prior to this date is not available.
Overview
An event is logged in Analytics for each tag used, and for each event you can see:
- Information about the Category and discussion it's used in
- Information about the user who applied the tag
- Information about the tags themselves
We'll explore these three main metric categories in more detail below.
Filter Chart data
Controlling what data is shown in a Chart is accomplished via theĀ Group ByĀ andĀ FilterĀ options.
- TheĀ Group ByĀ options (available for pie graphs, line graphs, bar graphs, and tables) enable you to define the "broad strokes" of what data to view,
- while FiltersĀ let you drill intoĀ orĀ excludeĀ specific types of data to fine-tune it.
āļøĀ TIP: You can add one or multiple Group By and Filter options to dissect the data how you see fit. Generally speaking, you'll select Group By options to view a specific slice of data, and, if needed, use Filters to dig deeper. In the example below, we've filtered the data to only show which discussions a specific user has added tags to.
Let's learn about each of the available Group By and Filter options.
šĀ NOTE: These options can be used both to group and filter data.
Category & discussion data
You can group and/or filter tag data based on the following event parameters:
- Category ID:Ā The Category's ID.
- Category Name:Ā The Category's name.
- Category Slug: The Category's slug. This is the URL used in the Category settings (e.g., in https://success.vanillaforums.com/categories/managing-communities, the slug is managing-communities). The slug is more concise than the full URL.
- Category URL: The Category's URL.
- Discussion ID:Ā The discussion's ID.
- Discussion Name:Ā The discussion's name.
- Discussion URL: The discussion's URL.
- Record Type: Provides the type of post (e.g., discussion or idea).
- Record ID: Refer to the NOTE below.
- Record Name: Refer to the NOTE below.
šĀ NOTE: Currently, the Record ID and Record Name options provide the same data as Discussion ID and Discussion Name. These options will provide more meaningful data when we extend tags to events, articles, and more in the future.
User data
You can group and/or filter user data based on the following event parameters:
- Tagging User Name:Ā The name of the user who applied the tag.
- Tagging User Rank: The Rank assigned to the user who applied the tag.
- Tagging User Role Type: The Role Type assigned to the user who applied the tag.
- Tagging User Role Names: The name of the Role assigned to the user who applied the tag.
- Tagging User Role IDs: The Role IDs (if the user has multiple) of the user who applied the tag.
- Tagging User Session ID: The Session ID refers to a user's individual session (i.e., the time between logging in and out). This data is useful for answering questions like "how many tags did a particular user add this visit"?
- Tagging User ID:Ā The User ID of the user who applied the tag. Contrary to Tagging User Name, the Tagging User ID will never change, which may prove useful in identifying a user who has changed their user name.
- Tagging User URL: The URL to the profile of the user who applied the tag.
- Tagging User UUID: The User UUID of the user who applied the tag, which is typically used to identify unique users. This data is useful to answer questions like "how many unique users added a tag."
- Insert User ID: This refers to the author of the post, which may or may not be the same person who added the tag (e.g., a user creates the post but an admin later adds the tags).
Tag data
You can group and/or filter tag data based on the following event parameters:
- Tag ID:Ā The tag's ID.
- Tag Name: The tag's actual name.
- Tag Type: The tag's type.
- Parent Tag ID: Refer to the NOTE below.
šĀ NOTE: Currently, Parent Tag ID is not used, but will become relevant in a future tag update.
