Time period properties

Name

Dynamically identifies the time period by showing parts of the actual time period in the label. The name can be a combination of literal text and variables, where the variables represent a portion of the actual (calculated) time period. In this way, the name can update automatically to indicate what period it represents. For example, the name Year to Date $(EYEAR) includes the year of the End date, which appears as Year to Date 17 for the year 2017.

Variables have the form $(<name>), where <name> is one of these upper-case labels:

• START — Starting date in US format
• END — Ending date in US format
• MONTH — Starting month
• EMONTH — Ending month
• QUARTER — Start quarter (1-4)
• EQUARTER — End quarter (1-4)
• HALFYEAR — Start half-year (1-2)
• EHALFYEAR — End half-year (1-2)
• YEAR — Starting year (2 digits)
• EYEAR — Ending year (2 digits)
• FULLYEAR — Starting year (4 digits)
• EFULLYEAR — Ending year (4 digits)

Restriction:

the Name field only supports variables for non-custom time periods.

Description

Optionally, enter notes about the time period.

NameToday

Shows how the Name will appear in the Timeperiod dropdown, based on today’s date. For example:

ReportHeader

Defines how the time period appears in report headers, where you might want them to show more detail (such as Year to Date 2016 ending 12/31/16 instead of Year to Date 2016). You can use the same variables available for the Name parameter. For example, the following image shows how a ReportHeader appears in the Satisfaction Table report:

ReportHeaderToday

Shows how the ReportHeader will appear, based on today’s date.

ColumnHeaderToday

Shows how the Name appears in report column headings, such as in a Total column as shown in the following image:

Kind

Specifies how the time period is used, or where it appears to users. If you need the same span of time for multiple dropdowns (such as Timeperiod and Benchmark), create multiple time periods with Kind being the lone exception. You can select from the following kinds:

• Normal — Appears in the Timeperiod dropdown
• Benchmark — Appears in the Benchmark drop-down
• Unused — The time period is not currently being used
• Grouping — Do not use this kind, which has been deprecated
• Custom — Created automatically by the Custom Timeperiod feature, and should not be selected manually
• Advanced analytics — Appears in custom reports
• Invitation management — Available in Invitation Management
• Survey export — Used for defining a time period in survey exports
• Goals and thresholds — Used when defining Goals and Thresholds
• Static report — Do not use this kind, which has been deprecated

Start Pattern

Defines the start date for the time period. The value can be literal or a pattern that define how to calculate the date. For details, see Date patterns below.

EndPattern

Defines the end date for the time period. The value can be literal or a pattern that define how to calculate the date. For details, see Date patterns below.

TimeGrouping

Specifies how the time period is presented as columns in reports. The default is Month. For details, see Time grouping below.

Priority

Determines the order of the time period in the list of time periods and in dropdowns, lesser numbers above greater numbers.

Round

Extends a time period to the start or end of a calendar unit, such as month, year, or quarter. For details and examples, see Rounding below.

RoundStart

When checked, extends the end date backward in time by the increment specified by the Round parameter. For more information, see Rounding below.

RoundEnd

When checked, extends the end date forward in time (usually closer to today) by the increment specified by the Round parameter. For more information, see Rounding below.

RollWindow

Enables you to include results from previous date units (selected in the TimeGrouping parameter) in calculations. Use this property for data smoothing, or to increase the sample size when results are infrequent or nonexistent. The RollWindow value is the number of previous date units to include. For example, the following image shows how RollWindow might affect the monthly results:

• Actual shows a count of events for each month in a year.
• Roll 1 sums the previous month into the calculation. Such as in July when June is added to the July result to get a value of 8.
• Roll 2 sums the previous two months, such as in May when March and April are included in the result.

GroupingTimeperiod

Note: Do not use this parameter, which has been deprecated.

MakeAllUsersAvailableForMemberRoles

When on, you can click an Edit button below the MemberRoles property to grant access to the time period to individual users. The Edit button appears after you save the time period.

MemberRoles

Roles moved to the right-side box have permission to use the time period. Medallia recommends against creating role-specific time period options due to difficulty in maintenance. When needed, users can create Custom Time Periods in the Timeperiod dropdown.

Magic

This property was added to support a specific customer's fiscal calendar. Create a K-field to adjust a given date field to fit the customer's fiscal calendar, enable that field on the System > Settings > System Settings screen, and then set the Magic property to FISCAL.

TranslationExplanation

If you are using translation, enter text to help translators understand the context for the time period. The text you enter appears on translation screens.

Label

The name for this time period in custom report references. The label must contain valid XML characters. It cannot contain ampersand (&), less-than (<), greater-than (>), quote (“), or apostrophe (‘) characters. For more information about custom reports, see Custom reports.

RollWindowOverrideUDF

Identifies a unit data field to use when calculating a rolling window for a specific unit, overriding the default value specified in the RollWindow property. To use this property in reports, the following conditions must be met:

• The unit specification must have a field that is a Date/Time type.
• You must select that field in the RollWindowOverrideUDF property.
• When the user filters a report using this time period, the default RollWindow is used. When a unit is selected, that unit’s override (if specified) is used. When multiple units are selected, the one closest to the top of the list takes precedence.

For more information about unit data fields, see Unit data fields.

QuarterStartOffset

By default, quarters start in January, April, July, and October. If you need a different starting month you can enter a number to push out the quarter start to a different month. For example, if the fiscal year begins in February, enter a QuarterStartOffset of 1. For a fiscal year that begins in August, enter a QuarterStartOffset of 7.

BenchmarkTimeperiod

In custom reports you might want to display a benchmark column next to the column for time period. For example, when looking at Current Year data you might want a benchmark column for Previous Year. To display the selected benchmark time period in custom reports, when defining a timerperiod-split or timerperiod-dropdown-split element, set the benchmark-timerperiod attribute to true.

MemberAdditionalKinds

If you want the time period to be used for multiple kinds (in addition to the primary set in the Kind property), choose those kinds by moving them to the right-side box.

HideTotal

When checked, the Total column for this time period is hidden in reports.

ShortName

A short name for the time period, used in displays where there is very little space available for text.

Date patterns

Every time period has a start and stop date defined by a date pattern. Date patterns have the form YYYY/MM/DD (such as 2015/03/05 for 5 March, 2015), and can contain literal values and offset values that define how to determine the date.

• Date literals are integers that identify specific parts of a date, such as 03 for the month of March. Using 31 for the day of the month always specifies the last day of the month, regardless of the actual number of days in the month.
• Date offsets are integers preceded by a plus (+) or minus (-) sign indicating a backward or forward direction in time. You can use an offset for any or all parts of the date. Use +0 for the current date.

When using a pattern, the actual computed date is affected by the Round parameter. For details, see Rounding below.

The following table lists example date patterns when no rounding is in effect:

The following table lists actual start and end dates for various date ranges when the current date is 25 February 2016, and there is no rounding in effect:

Rounding

Rounding extends a time period to the start or end of a calendar unit, such as month, year, or quarter. To use rounding, chose the calendar unit type, and identify the start date, end date, or both dates to extend with the following properties:

• Round — Identifies the calendar unit to use
• RoundStart — Extends the start date backward in time
• RoundEnd — Extends the end date forward in time (usually closer to today)

The following table list actual start and end dates for various rounding scenarios when the current date is 25 February 2016:

Time grouping

Time grouping specifies how time periods are presented as columns in reports. For example, when the TimeGrouping property is Month, and the time period spans 1 year, reports have 12 time columns. When the TimeGrouping is Quarter, reports have 4 time columns. The following image shows the same time period grouped by month, quarter, and week:

You can select the following TimeGrouping values:

• Month — Groups by month
• Quarter — Quarterly groups start in January unless the QuarterStartOffset property forces a different starting month
• Week — Groups by week, with Sunday as the first day of the week.
• Day — Groups by day
• Year — Groups by year
• Hour — Groups by hour
• None — Produces a single column (total) with all samples, but does not work is several time periods are used in the same report (such as in some custom reports)
• All — Works as None, but in custom reports produces a column for each time period
• Week with time of year split — Do not use this obsolete option
• Week starting Monday — Works as Week, but with the first day of the week as Monday instead of Sunday
• Half year — Groups by half years, where the first half is January through June and the second half is July through December

Tips and best practices

• You can choose a default time period for any user on the Company > Users > Users > Preferences screen. For more information, see Users Preferences.
• For clarity, when naming a time period avoid U.S. date formats when there are non-U.S. operations. For example, in Europe 12/10/2008 can be interpreted as Dec 10th or October 12th.
• Include $(END) or $(EMONTH) in the report header to avoid confusion. This is especially important when rounding is in effect.
• When using the TimeGrouping parameter, avoid having too many columns that require the user to scroll the report horizontally to see results. Also, remember that reports will not show more than 50 columns. When a report has more than 50 columns Experience Cloud displays an error message.