Gaining Data Cloud Observability with the Power of Reports and Dashboards

Did you know that Data Cloud Reports and Data Cloud Dashboards can provide enhanced visibility into your Data Cloud configuration and daily processes? With Data Cloud Reports, you can:

• Easily detect anomalies and errors proactively
• View key metrics
• Analyze patterns to plan for future use cases
• And much more!

Additionally, Data Cloud Dashboards allow you to organize all your reports onto a single page for a comprehensive view.

Overview of Data Cloud Reports and Dashboards

In this blog post, I will explore how you can effectively leverage Data Cloud Reports and Dashboards to address items requiring immediate attention, monitor completed and upcoming run times, and plan for future use cases. I will provide a list of valuable reports you can create and guide you through the steps to build them. Before we begin, let’s review how Data Cloud Reports and Dashboards work together.

Data Cloud Reports – You can create standard reports on single or multiple related data model objects (DMOs) or Calculated Insights to determine which areas of your business to focus on. Or, build a custom report type on DMOs to get information on the most pertinent fields and records from Data Cloud. You can group, filter, and summarize records in the report, run it for near real-time information and share it with others.

Data Cloud Dashboards – You can create Dashboards to group and organize your reports all in one location.

Note: For more information check out the blog Introducing reports and dashboards for Data Cloud.

Creating the Data Cloud Observability Reports and Dashboard

For the Data Cloud Observability Reports and Dashboard, I have organized the dashboard into three sections.

1. Items That May Need Immediate Action
2. Scheduled for Today, Completed Today and Yesterday
3. Overview

The screenshot below provides a visual of our dashboard.

Items That May Need Immediate Action

Items that fall into this section are items that you will want to immediately confirm, validate or potentially update. Some of these may require troubleshooting. Including the following links in a text block can help with immediate remediation.

• Troubleshoot Segment Errors
• Troubleshoot Data Ingestion Errors and Failures
• Troubleshoot Activation Errors.

Here are some topics you can utilize to build reports for the Items That May Need Immediate Action section:

• Segments Inactive or Error Status
• Segment Recent and Upcoming Expiration
• 0 Population Published Last 7 Days
• Activation Target Inactive, Error or Null
• Data Stream Not Active

Scheduled for Today, Completed Today and Yesterday

These tables can be easily referenced to track Segments that have been published, Segments that have yet to be published, as well as daily Data Stream refreshes.

Below are some topics you can utilize to build reports for the Scheduled for Today, Completed Today and Yesterday section:

• Segment Scheduled Today – Not Published
• Segments Published Count Today
• Segment Published Count Yesterday
• Data Streams Refreshed Today

Overview

These graphs and tables provide an easily readable visual presentation for you to review configurations and plan for future use cases.

Here are some topics you can utilize to build reports for the Overview section:

• Publish Scheduled by Hour
• Segment Publish Schedule
• Data Stream Refresh Records
• Activation Platforms
• Identity Resolution Summary

Building Reports

Most of the report themes listed above are very simple involving standard fields and no formula fields.

You can leverage either a table or a chart to display your data depending on what works best for your data, use case, and your audience.

Below are step-by-step guides for three reports. The first two leverage standard fields. The third report, leverages standard fields, groupings, and a formula field.

Data Stream Not Active

Report description: Provides details for Data Streams that are in an inactive status.

Steps to Build

1. Go to ‘Reports’ menu item from the top navigation menu.
2. Select ‘New Report’ from the Reports page.
3. Select ‘Data Streams’ for the ‘Report Type Name’. (If you do not see ‘Data Streams’ as an option for Report Type please follow the Create a Custom Report Type Help Documentation to add Data Streams as a Custom Report Type.)
4. Click ‘Start Report’ from the top right column in the ‘Create Report’ pop-up window.
5. In the top left side of the screen click the pencil icon to enable editing and name your report.
6. From the left navigation select you desired Columns. For this example, I am not grouping rows. Suggested columns to use are Data Stream Name, Data Stream Status, Refresh Mode, Last Run Status and Last Refreshed.
7. From the left navigation pane click on the ‘Filter’ tab, select your ‘Show Me’ value and select your ‘Created Date’ timeframe.
8. Go to the ‘Add filter’ search box and select ‘Data Stream Status’. Select equals as your ‘Operator’ and then select ‘Error’, ‘Need Activation’ and (No Selection) from the list. Click the ‘Apply’ button.
9. Preview your report and click ‘Save and Run’.
10. Click ‘Close’.

Segment Scheduled Today – Not Published

Report description: Provides details for Segments that have not yet been published today.

Steps to Build

1. Go to ‘Reports’ menu item from the top navigation menu.
2. Select ‘New Report’ from the Reports page.
3. Select ‘Segment’ for the ‘Report Type Name’. (If you do not see ‘Segments’ as an option for Report Type please follow the Create a Custom Report Type Help Documentation to add Segments as a Custom Report Type.)
4. Click ‘Start Report’ from the top right column in the ‘Create Report’ pop-up window.
5. In the top left side of the screen click the pencil icon to enable editing and name your report.
6. From the left navigation select you desired Columns. For this example, I am not grouping rows. Suggested columns to use are Segment Name, Segment Status, Publish Schedule, Population, and Next Publish Data Time.
7. From the left navigation pane click on the ‘Filter’ tab and select your ‘Show Me’ value.
8. For your ‘Created Date’ timeframe, select ‘Next Publish Date Time’ for the Date and ‘Today’ for the Range.
9. Preview your report and click ‘Save and Run’.
10. Click ‘Close’.

Publish Scheduled by Hour

Report description: Provides a breakdown of the number of segments that are scheduled to publish by the hour.

Steps to Build

1. Go to ‘Reports’ menu item from the top navigation menu.
2. Select ‘New Report’ from the Reports page.
3. Select ‘Segment’ for the ‘Report Type Name’. (If you do not see ‘Segments’ as an option for Report Type please follow the Create a Custom Report Type Help Documentation to add Segments as a Custom Report Type.)
4. Click ‘Start Report’ from the top right column in the ‘Create Report’ pop-up window.
5. In the top left side of the screen click the pencil icon to enable editing and name your report.
6. From the left navigation pane click the drop-down arrow next to ‘Columns’ and select ‘Add Row-Level Formula’.
7. Type in ‘Hour’ as the name for your ‘Column Name’. Type in a ‘Description’ (optional). Select ‘Text’ as the ‘Formula Output Type’. For the formula, copy and paste the following:
   1. IF(RIGHT(TEXT(MarketSegment.NextPublishDateTime),9)="Z","Do Not Refresh",LEFT(RIGHT(TEXT(MarketSegment.NextPublishDateTime),9),5))
8. Click on the ‘Validate’ button to validate the formula. Click the ‘Apply’ button and then close the pop-up window.
9. Select ‘Next Publish Date Time’ and your new ‘Hour’ columns for your ‘Group Rows’.
10. Select ‘Segment Name’ for your ‘Columns’.
11. Preview your report and click ‘Save and Run’.
12. Click ‘Close’.

Note: The chart for this report that is shown below was applied once it was added as a Dashboard.

Creating the Dashboard

Dashboards are very easy to create. Follow the steps below to create the Dashboard:

1. Go to ‘Dashboards’ menu item from the top navigation menu
2. Select ‘New Dashboard’ from the Dashboards page
3. Type in your Dashboard Name, type in a Description (optional) and select the folder location for your new Dashboard. Click ‘Create’.
4. Click the ‘+Widget’ button, and select the desired widget from the list. Select ‘Chart or Table’ to select any one of your reports. (You can use ’Text’ to shared notes or instructions for you Dashboard.)
5. Repeat Step 4 to add all the desired Reports to your Dashboard. After all desired items are added to your Dashboard, you can drag and drop each item to the desired location on you Dashboard.
6. Save your Dashboard.
7. Click ‘Done’.

When adding reports to the Dashboard you can apply the Reports to the Dashboard as either a table or a chart.

Conclusion

As you can see Data Cloud Reports and Dashboards can easily provide you the visibility and observability into your Data Cloud Instance. What I have shared is just one example of how you can take advantage of Data Cloud Reports and Dashboards. Take the time and explore and create what works best for you and your business needs.

If you are just getting started with Reports and Dashboards, please check out Ankita Dutta’s Introducing Reports & Dashboards for Data Cloud blog.

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