Table definitions

On this page you can choose the how the data you have imported should be represented within Orbit.

Any definitions you have already defined are listed here.

To begin setting up a table:

  1. Click + New Table.

  2. Enter a Name for the table, then click Create.

  3. Select a Data Source.

  4. You are now shown a list of variables, together with a preview of the data. You can use the preview to inform your choice of how to best represent each variable.

For each column, choose a suitable Variable Type representation from:

  • Selector

  • Date/Date time

  • Numeric

  • Text

  • Reference

  • Currency

Tip: When selecting a variable type, the corresponding column in your data preview is highlighted for ease of reference.

To access further variable options, click the Options button on each variable row. There are options to rename, delete, or configure settings appropriate for each variable type.

  1. When you are happy with your table definition, click Create Table.

    A confirmation message appears when your table definition is successful.

  2. You can now choose to add another table definition by clicking + New Table Definition, or build a new system by clicking + New System Build.

Variable specific settings

There are further configuration options available, dependent on the variable type chosen. These are shown below.

  • Selector type: The default for this variable type is to find values automatically from the input data. This behaviour can be overridden to use decodes from a data source (see the worked example following this section).

  • Geographic format: Choosing one of the available values allows you to use this variable on maps. The choices are Latitude, Longitude, Zip, Postcode, Address and County.

  • Input format: Choose a format that matches that of the input data.

  • Your options are:

    • yyyymmdd

    • yyyy.mm.dd

    • dd.mm.yyyy

    • mm.dd.yyyy

    • dd.mmm.yyyy

    • mm.dd.yyyy

    • yyyy.ddd

  • Descriptive format: The format used when you view or export this data.

    • dd-MM-yyyy (default)

    • MM-dd-yyyy

  • Input format: Choose a format that matches that of the input data.

  • Your options are:

    • yyyymmdd hh:mm:ss

    • yyyy.mm.dd hh:mm:ss

    • dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm:ss

    • dd.mm.yy hh:mm:ss

    • mm.dd.yyyy hh:mm:ss

    • mm.dd.yy hh:mm:ss

    • dd.mmm.yyyy hh:mm:ss

    • dd.mmm.yy hh:mm:ss

    • mmm.dd.yyyy hh:mm:ss

    • mmm.dd.yy hh:mm:ss

  • Descriptive format: The format used when you view or export this data.

    • dd-MM-yyyy (default)

    • MM-dd-yyyy

  • Numeric type: Whether the data should be represented as an integer or a decimal.

  • Precision: If you have chosen a decimal representation this option allows the number of decimal places to be chosen from a range of 1-5.

  • Geographic format: Choosing one of the available values allows you to use this variable on maps. The choices are; Latitude, Longitude, Zip, Postcode, Address and County

  • Reference type: Choose whether a text or integer representation should be used.

    Note: You can only apply this variable type once per data source and is therefore not available if there is another column already set as a reference type.

  • Currency symbol: Choose from £, $, or €.

  • Currency precision: Choose the number of decimal places to use.

  • Selector variables present a pick list of distinct values that users can choose from.

The default action is to find these values automatically from the input data. You can override this behaviour and use a data source to decode the values found and provide meaningful descriptions to the input data. So instead of choosing from a list of codes you can pick from a list of longer descriptions.

For example, rather than choosing from 01, 02, 03 you can choose a longer description like bronze, silver, gold.

Using data sources to decode selector variable types

To decode selector variables:

  1. Click the Options button.

  2. Select Data Source for the Selector Type (rather than Automatic).

  3. Select a data source, then the fields from that data source to be used as Code and Description. In the following, StockCodes is the data source, StockCode is the Code and Description is the description.

  4. Click Apply to save these changes.

Add a variable

Sometimes having multiple and different representations of the same input data can be useful.

For example, you may wish to store a date as well as date time representation of the input data.

To add a variable:

  1. Click + Add Variable.

  2. Tick the Variables you wish to create further representations of, then click Add.

  3. You are now taken back to the main table definition page, via which you can rename the item you have just added and choose how it is represented.

  4. After renaming, the original name of the variable is displayed.

Repeat the above steps for all the data sources that you want to include.