How to Set Attributes

Attributes are extra layers of detail stored at your row-level dimensions in a spreadsheet. Allowing you to add additional detail or an extra layer of granularity to a range you’ve built.

Attributes aren’t data to slice and dice across (those are top-level dimensions) but helpful information to retain on each publish that can be viewed at the detail level. 

For example, if you’d like to publish specific layers of detail such as Employee ID, Annual Salary, and Location to one expense line item (Salary Expense) you can do so by utilizing attributes. 

How to Set Attributes

Please note: All the values in the column you desire to mark as attributes must be different than the Cube dimensions (e.g. you cannot have "Location" as an attribute column in your range if "Location" exists as a dimension in your Cube). 

1. Insert new columns in your range to store your attributes.

In our example, we have added four new columns - Employee ID, Annual Salary, Location, and Title - between the top-level dimensions (Account, Department, Scenario, Time): 

2. Reselect your range to ensure it's updated.

4. Navigate to the Publish section of the Add-On and select Set attributes

5. Use your cursor in the spreadsheet to highlight the column headers of your desired attributes.

In our example, we've selected the column headers C to F. 

5. Under Publish, select Set Attributes, double check your column headers are highlighted, and then select Mark for attributes

You'll receive a green confirmation message that your attributes have been set. You've successfully set attributes and are ready to publish the range.

Having trouble? Here's what might be going wrong.

6. Select the Publish Data button to finalize your changes.

7. Finally, select a value in your spreadsheet and use Drilldown under Analyze to confirm your attributes are showing. 

Attributes have correctly been captured if you see them listed in the drilldown tab in your spreadsheet. See example below:

Here's what the entire sequence of steps looks like:

Have ideas on how to make Attributes work even better for you? Tell our Product team!