N.B. The functionality described in this doc will be available with Release 2021.022
Overview
With Vanilla’s updated Analytics experience you can:
- run out-of-the-box reports to measure the health and activity of your Vanilla communities and
- build custom Analytics dashboards to create your own reporting and visualize the data that matters most to you.
Enabling the Analytics Experience Update
Our updated Analytics Experience is available to all cloud customers who have Advanced Analytics as part of their subscription. While this is in Beta you can enable and disable the updated experience from your Vanilla Labs page.
To enable the updated Analytics Experience:
- Navigate to the Dashboard.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Go to the Vanilla Labs page.
- Slide the Analytics BETA toggle to enable the updated experience.
NOTE: If you are not using our Advanced Editor but are interested in seeing a demo or adding Analytics to your subscription, reach out to your CSM.
Out-of-the-Box Dashboards
Our updated Analytics Experience includes the following out-of-the-box (OOTB) Dashboards so that you can immediately dive in and see what’s happening in your communities.
- Posting Dashboard
- Traffic Dashboard
- Engagement Dashboard
- Q&A Dashboard
- Knowledge Dashboard
- Ideation Dashboard
Posting
Our Posting Dashboards helps you understand your community’s posting trends. Use it to see:
- How many discussions and comments have been added
- How your posting volume has evolved over time
- How many contributors you have
- Which users, roles, categories, subcommunities, and discussions are the most active
Traffic
The Traffic Dashboards tells you how busy your communities are. Its charts display:
- How many pageviews and visits you’re getting, and whether these are coming from active members, guests, admins, or community managers
- Which subcommunities, pages, and/or posts are getting the most views
Engagement
Our Engagement Dashboards show you how users are engaging in your community. You can see:
- How many new and/or active members there are
- How many users are logging in vs how many are posting
- How long it takes for users to start commenting on new discussions
- Which users have the highest reputation score
- Which discussions have the highest score
- How users are reacting to your content, and which reactions are being used
Q&A
The Q&A Dashboard is designed to help you understand how your community is contributing to your support strategy. Use it to see:
- How many questions were asked, answered, and solved
- How many answers were provided and accepted
- Which users provided answers
- How long it takes to get answers and resolve questions
Knowledge
Our Knowledge Dashboard will inform you of:
- How many articles have been added and edited
- Which articles are getting the most views
- How many articles are rated as helpful and unhelpful
Ideation
We’ve added an Ideation Dashboard to give you a high-level view of your ideation strategy, including:
- How many new ideas and insights were added, and who is contributing them
- Which ideas have received the most votes, activity, and views
Building Custom Charts & Dashboards
In addition to the out-of-the-box Dashboards, you can create your own custom Analytics charts and Dashboards in the updated Analytics Experience.
To create your own Dashboards:
- Click the Add Dashboard option in the side-panel to launch our Dashboard Editor.
- Give your new Dashboard a unique name and click Chart to start adding charts.
In order to view data in your chart you will have to use our Chart editor to build your Analytics query. Your Analytics query is made up of:
- A Data Source that determines which analytics events to pull from
- A Metric Function that determines how data is calculated. The options are:
- Count: the total number of events for a data stream, such as count of pageviews
- Count Unique: the number of unique values for a given property. This will require you to select metric field; e.g., Count the unique views by userID to get the number of visits to your community.
- Average: the average of all numeric values, such as average number of posts, average time to answer a question.
- Minimum: the minimum numeric value in a collection
- Maximum: the maximum numeric value in a collection
- Median: the median numeric value in a collection
You can also configure grouping and filtering options for your chart.
- The Group By setting (in the Data section) is available for pie graphs, line graphs, bar graphs, and tables. With them, you can break down data, for example, by subcommunity, category, country, and more.
- Filters can be added to your query to drill into or exclude specific types of events. For example, exclude guests from traffic data or focus your chart on traffic seen in a specific category.
We've put together an Analytics Data Reference Doc to give you information on what all of this means, which data sources are available, and which filters and grouping options you can use.
Chart Types
For each chart you create you can configure how you would like to the data to display. The various options are described in this section.
Scorecards show the total result of an analytics query, such as total number of discussions added, users joining, or average time to first comment.
Line Graphs and Bar Graphs show analytics results (such as number of pageviews, posts, or new users per day) over a period of time. With these, you can break down analytics events in various ways using the Group By option. For example:
- Group Pageview data by category name to see posting trends per category over time
- Group Point data by Point Source to understand how many points were awarded within a time frame and how they were earned (by answering and solving questions, through badges, or by receiving positive reactions to posts)
Pie Graphs allow you to group and compare data such as reactions added by type, posts added by subcommunity or category, and user participation rate.
Tables allow you to create leaderboards, or see the results of an analytics query in table format.
- Tables require you to set a Group By option. For example, group Pageview Data by Article Name to see a list of your articles and their associated pageview count.
- To create a Leaderboard, configure the Order by option on Tables to Result; this will order your table entries by the results of your data analysis.
For example, when I configure my chart to use:
- Data Source: Pageviews
- Ordered by: Result
- Grouped by : Article Name
I get a list of all my articles (pages), ranked by the number of views:
- You can easily take action on the data shown in a table. For example, when viewing a table of your most viewed articles, click an Article Name to visit that article and take action as needed.
- Tables are paginated so you can see more than just the top results.
- Table columns are sortable in view mode so you can sort results data alphabetically or in ascending or descending order.
Editing Your Dashboard Layout
After you've added charts to your custom dashboard, you can modify your Dashboard's layout with our drag-and-drop UI.
FAQ
What will happen to my historic data when I enable the Analytics Experience update?
Nothing! This is a front-end update. We are using the same Analytics provider and backend, so all your historic data you've collected is preserved and available to you in our updated interface, our out-of-the-box dashboards, and our Chart editor.
Where can I ask questions and submit feedback?
We've added an Analytics Beta category to our Product Discussions area for you to submit your feedback or ask for help. We will continue working on our Analytics Experience offering, so we're here, happy to help, and eager to get your feedback.
Can I export (e.g., in CSV files) my Analytics data?
It isn't yet possible to export the data in your charts & Dashboards. However, we are working towards bringing you this capability very soon!
Who can view and who can edit my Analytics Dashboards?
- In order to view Analytics out-of-the-box Dashboards and custom Dashboards, you must have the Analytics.Data.View permission.
- In order to create and/or edit custom Dashboards, you must have the Analytics.Data.Manage permission.
Currently, all Dashboards are shared across teams. So:
- All users with the Analytics.Data.Manage permission can create new Dashboards and edit existing Dashboards.
- All users with the Analytics.Data.View permission can see all out-of-the-box Dashboards, and all custom Dashboards created by themselves or other team members.
Currently, out-of-the-box Dashboards are not editable. We will soon give you the ability to copy them so that you can customize them for your unique use.
