Setting Attributes

What is an attribute?

Attributes are extra layers of detail stored at your row-level dimensions in a spreadsheet. Attributes are utilized to add additional detail or an extra layer of granularity to a range you’ve built. Attributes aren’t data we'll be slicing and dicing 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. We walk through an example below.  

How do I use 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). 

Step 1: Insert new columns in your range. Add in extra columns between the first two columns of your range, this is where we’ll store the attributes you create. In our example, we have added 4 new columns - Employee ID, Annual Salary, Location, and Title - between the top-level dimensions (Account, Department, Scenario, Time). TLDs are in grey and attributes are in purple. 

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

Step 3: Set attributes. Navigate to the Publish section of the Add-On and select “Set attributes”.     

Step 4: Highlight column headers of your attributes. 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. 

Step 5: Mark for attributes. Select the MARK FOR ATTRIBUTES button in the Add-On. You'll now see the columns with your attributes specified.                             

Step 6: Publish your data. You've successfully set attributes and now you're ready to publish the range. Navigate to the Publish area of the add-on and select Publish Data. For more information on how to Publish, see the article here.                                                     

Step 7: Drilldown to see your attributes detail. Navigate to the top-level dimension cross-sections and drilldown to see your attributes retained in the detail! In our example, we drilldown on Salary Expense, All Departments, 1/31/22, Budget and can see our attributes stored at that data cross-section. The drilldown detail will open in a new tab in your spreadsheet. For more information on how to Drilldown see the article here.       

Video below walking through all the steps.