FAQs: Metrics
This page offers comprehensive details on metrics, application activity, and user engagement, including user and portal user activities.
Metrics
What is the Metrics feature in Zoho Creator, and what does it offer?
The Metrics feature in Zoho Creator is a built-in analytic and monitoring tool designed to provide a comprehensive view of usage statistics across applications and their users. It offers insights through key performance indicators (KPIs), charts, heat maps, and more. This feature is especially valuable for administrators and super admins to gain insights into application engagement and user activity.
Is the Metrics Dashboard available in all versions of Zoho Creator?
No, Metrics Dashboard is available only in the Creator 6 version of Zoho Creator.
Where is the Metrics Dashboard located within Zoho Creator?
You can access the Metrics Dashboard under the Manage section in the left navigation pane of your Zoho Creator account. It is designed to be a centralized tool for analytics and monitoring.
Whose activities are captured by the Metrics Dashboard?
The Metrics Dashboard captures the activities of three types of users: Users (including developers), Portal users, and Public users.
What type of insights does the Metrics dashboard provide?
The Metrics Dashboard is divided into three main dashboards:
- Application activity: This tab provides statistics of all applications based on user access and hits in live mode. It also offers filtering options for all users, users, and portal users.
- User activity: It captures usage statistics of users and public users who access the live mode of the application.
- Portal user activity: This tab specifically captures usage statistics of portal users accessing the portal of the application.
What are some common terminologies featured in the Metrics Dashboard?
- Access count/Accessed: This refers to the number of users who enter the live mode of an application.
- Hit count: This includes all user actions within the live mode of an application, such as submitting forms, editing records, triggering workflow actions, and more.
- Public users: These are users who access published components of the application.
- Stickiness average: This refers to the percentage of average users accessed among total users
What benefits does the Metrics Dashboard offer to Zoho Creator users?
The Metrics Dashboard provides unparalleled access to in-depth insights on user activity across applications. It allows users to measure application engagement using various metrics and identify trends, ensuring efficient app usage.
Can you provide a real-world business scenario where the Metrics Dashboard would be beneficial?
Imagine an organization that uses Zoho Creator for various applications and portals.
When the board members seek information about application usage and user activities, the admin often faces challenges gathering statistics from different sections of Creator.
The Metrics Dashboard comes to the rescue by consolidating all statistics in one view. This saves time, facilitates informed decision-making, and optimizes resource utilization.
How can the Metrics Dashboard help organizations save time and make more informed decisions?
The Metrics Dashboard streamlines data collection, offering a holistic view of application and user statistics. This consolidated view allows administrators to make informed decisions quickly, saving productive time that can be redirected towards revenue-generating activities.
How can I initialize and start using the Metrics Dashboard?
To start using the Metrics Dashboard, you must give your consent and click the Enable Metrics button in the Metrics tab of Zoho Creator. Your usage metrics will be visualized from the day you enable Metrics. Learn more about how to use the metrics dashboard.
How does the data filter work in the Metrics Dashboard?
The date filter allows you to precisely filter Metrics data based on the selected date range. It provides options for various time intervals, such as today, yesterday, current week, previous week, last 30 days, current month, previous month, past 3 months, and more. The availability of data depends on the selected filter.
How can I disable Metrics if needed, and what should I be aware of when doing so?
To disable Metrics, you should contact support@zohocreator.com. Remember that any usage metrics collected during the timeframe when Metrics was disabled will not be available in the dashboard.
What are the important points to remember when working with the Metrics Dashboard?
Several important points to remember include:
- Metrics availability: This feature is available for customers in the US, India, and Europe data centers.
- Data retention: Only the last 120 days of data will be available at any given time.
- Data purging: Data from time series databases can only be purged during their respective timelines and cannot be manually deleted.
- Time zones: The dashboard follows different time zones based on the account's location (PST for US, CEST for EU, IST for IN).
- Backup exclusion: Metrics data is not included in application backups.
- Data migration: Metrics data is not migrated when an account is moved between data centers.
- Partner responsibilities: Super admins are responsible for informing partners about the legal use of Metrics when granting them Admin access.
- Application and user deletion: Deleted applications and users will be listed, but with changed icons and limited information.
- Portal deletion: When a portal is deleted, it won't appear in the Application activity by portal users filter.
Application Activity
What does the Application Activity Dashboard in Zoho Creator allow me to do?
The Application Activity Dashboard helps you analyze and monitor usage statistics across applications, providing insights into how your apps are performing over different time periods. Learn more about application activity dashboard.
What types of statistics are captured by the Application Activity Dashboard?
The Application Activity Dashboard captures statistics related to the access and hits of applications in the live mode. This includes data about applications accessed, idle applications, application hit count, daily average hits per application, application access trends, and more.
How can I filter and view statistics in the Application Activity Dashboard based on user types?
You can filter and view statistics in the Application Activity Dashboard based on the following user types:
- All users (Users, portal users, and public users)
- Users (Users and public users)
- Portal users (Only Portal users)
What are some key performance indicators (KPIs) that the dashboard tracks for application activity?
The dashboard tracks several KPIs for application activity, including:
- Applications accessed
- Idle applications
- Application hit count
- Daily average hits per application
- Application access trend
- Usage by hit count
- Application trend by hit count
How does the Application Activity Dashboard display percentage differences in its metrics?
The percentage difference is shown for several cards in the dashboard, such as Applications accessed, Idle applications, Application hit count, and Daily average hits per app. It compares the current time period (selected in the date filter) with the previous time period. For example, if you're in April 2023 and select the past 3 months filter, the metrics will compare January to March 2023 with October to December 2022.
Can I drill down further into the statistics for a specific time period?
Yes, based on your choice of time period in the date filter, you can change the view of your charts according to the time period you want to drill down into the statistics further.
How can I access the list of applications accessed by users in the Application Activity Dashboard?
You can access the list of applications accessed by clicking on the Applications accessed card in the dashboard. It provides details on the applications accessed, the number of users who accessed them, and total hits captured for each application.
What can I do with the list of idle applications in the Application Activity Dashboard?
The list of idle applications can be accessed by clicking on the Idle applications card. You can notify the users of these idle applications by clicking the Notify button next to the application's name, sending them an email notification about their idleness.
How does the Usage by device chart represent user access to applications?
The Usage by device chart is a donut chart that represents the medium through which users access applications. It shows the split based on total hits captured across devices and displays their percentage contributions.
User Activity
What is the User Activity Dashboard in Zoho Creator?
It's a tool designed to analyze and monitor usage statistics across users within Zoho Creator applications.
What kind of usage statistics does the User Activity Dashboard capture?
It captures statistics such as Users Accessed, Idle Users, Stickiness Average, Daily Average Hits per User, User Access Trend, User Activity by Cohort, Usage by Device, and Usage by Platform.
How can administrators manage idle users using this dashboard?
Administrators can view a list of idle users and notify them through email directly from the dashboard.
What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPI)to track user activity?
- Users accessed - Number of users who have accessed at least one application during the selected time frame.
- Idle users - Number of users who have not accessed any applications during the selected time frame.
Click on the view list button to view the list of idle users and notify them on their idleness. - Stickiness avg - Denotes how well your users are actively using the applications.
For eg: If it is 100% then all your users using the applications and if it is 0% then none are using.
Note: The metric shown here could be hourly, daily, weekly or monthly based on the selected time frame. - Daily average hits per user - Daily average of total hits across applications per user.
- Users access trend - Line chart highlighting the trend of users accessed over time.
This chart helps to view changes(like spikes or anomalies) in the usage by the users. - User activity by cohort - Breakdown and analyze user behavior and detect their usage patterns over time.
You can view this card in normal view and heat map. The darker the color of the block in the heat map, the more percentage of users accessed during that interval of time. - Usage by device - Donut chart denoting through which medium the users are accessing the applications. The split is based on total hits captured across devices.
You get to see their percentage contribution as well. - Usage by platform - A list denoting through which platform the users are accessing the applications. The split is based on total hits captured through OS/Browser.
Use the drop-down to switch between Browser and OS usage lists.
What is the use of Idle Users card?
This page can be accessed by clicking on the View List button in the Idle users card. It will provide a list of users who have not accessed any application in the selected time frame.
How can I Notify the idle users?
- Click View list next to Idle Users in the Metrics Module.
- Click the Notify button beside the user name to send a mail notification to the user about their idleness across applications.
- The notification can be sent to multiple users at the same time by selecting them. You also have an option to bulk notify the users on each page.
Portal User Activity
What is the Portal User Activity Dashboard in Zoho Creator?
It's a tool designed to analyze and monitor usage statistics specifically for portal users accessing applications via portals enabled in Zoho Creator.
What kind of usage statistics does the Portal User Activity Dashboard capture?
It captures statistics such as Users Accessed, Idle Users, Stickiness Average, Daily Average Hits per User, User Access Trend, User Activity by Cohort, Usage by Device, Usage by Platform, and Application Trend by Hit Count.
How can administrators manage idle portal users using this dashboard?
Administrators can view a list of idle portal users and take action to notify them through the dashboard.
Can I track specific applications enabled for portals?
Yes, upon selecting an application, you can view detailed usage statistics specific to that application's portal users.
What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to track portal user activity?
- Users accessed - Number of portal users who have accessed at least one application during the selected time frame.
- Idle users - Number of portal users who have not accessed any applications during the selected time frame.
Click on to view list button to view the list of idle users. - Stickiness average - Denotes how well your portal users are actively using the applications.
For eg: If it is 100% then all your users using the applications and if it is 0% then none are using.
Note: The metric shown here could be hourly, daily, weekly or monthly based on the selected time frame. - Daily average hits per user - Daily average of total hits across applications per portal user.
- Users access trend - Line chart highlighting the trend of portal users accessed over time.
This chart helps to view changes(like spikes or anomalies) in the usage by the portal users. - User activity by cohort - Breakdown and analyze user behaviour and detect their usage patterns over time.
You can view this card in normal view and heat map. The darker the color of the block in the heat map, the more percentage of users accessed during that interval of time. - Usage by device - Donut chart denoting through which medium the users are accessing the applications. The split is based on total hits captured across devices.
You get to see their percentage contribution as well. - Usage by platform - A list denoting through which platform the users are accessing the applications. The split is based on total hits captured through OS/Browser.
Use the drop-down to switch between Browser and OS usage lists. - Application trend by hit count - Bar chart that gives a trend of portal users hit count over time.