Documentation Customer Journey Analytics Customer Journey Analytics Guide

Create or edit a data view

Last update: June 13, 2025

Topics:
Data Views

CREATED FOR:

Admin

Creating a data view involves either creating metrics and dimensions from schema elements or using standard components. Most schema elements can be either a dimension or a metric depending on your business’s requirements. Once you drag a schema element into a data view, options appear on the right where you can adjust how the dimension or metric operates in Customer Journey Analytics.

See Create or edit a data view for a demo video.

To create or edit a data view:

Log in to Customer Journey Analytics and select Data views, optionally from Data management, in the top menu.
To create a data view, select Create new data view. Alternatively, you can select an existing data view from the list of data views to edit it.

Configure

To configure a new or existing data view:

Standard

B2B Edition

Select the Configure tab (if not already active).
Specify Settings, Container, and Calendar details (see below).
Select Save and continue to continue configuring your new or existing data view. Select Save to save the configuration for your existing data view.

Settings

Provides overarching settings for the data view.

Setting

Description

Connection

This field links the data view to the connection that you established earlier, which contains one or more Adobe Experience Platform datasets.

Name

Required. The name of the data view. This value appears in the top-right drop-down menu in Analysis Workspace.

External ID

Required. The name of data view you can use in external sources, such as business intelligence tools. Default is unspecified. If you do not specify an external ID, the name will be generated from the Name of the data view, replacing spaces with underscores.

Description

Optional. Adobe recommends a detailed description so that users understand why the data view exists and who it is designed for.

Compatibility

Provides settings that are applicable when using Adobe Journey Optimizer in addition to Customer Journey Analytics.

This section is visible only for administrators who are provisioned with Journey Optimizer.

Setting

Description

Set as default data view in Adobe Journey Optimizer

This configuration option standardizes reporting across Journey Optimizer and Customer Journey Analytics. It also allows you to perform advanced analysis of your Adobe Journey Optimizer data in Customer Journey Analytics (by selecting Analyze in CJA while in Journey Optimizer).

To perform this type of analysis, Journey Optimizer needs access to a Customer Journey Analytics data view.

Enable this option to make this the default data view that is used in Journey Optimizer reporting for your sandbox.

This configuration option automatically:

Configures all the required Journey Optimizer datasets in the associated connection in Customer Journey Analytics for use with Journey Optimizer.
Creates a set of Journey Optimizer metrics and dimension in the data view (including derived fields and calculated metrics). Context labels are automatically set on all of these metrics and dimensions.

Consider the following when enabling this option:

You can change the default data view at a later time, but doing so could alter your Journey Optimizer reporting data. If you choose to disable this option after it is enabled, you will be prompted to select a new default data view.
If you already made manual customizations to the the datasets, dimensions, or metrics in the Customer Journey Analytics data view, your manual customizations remain intact when enabling this configuration option. This option makes additional customizations that further standardize reporting across Journey Optimizer and Customer Journey Analytics. You can also make manual customizations after enabling this option.
When this option is selected, the connection associated with the data view cannot be deleted.

See Integrate Adobe Journey Optimizer with Adobe Customer Journey Analytics for more information.

Containers

Designates the name of containers for the data view. Container names are frequently used in segments.

Setting

Description

B2B Edition
Global Account container name

Global Account (default). The Global Account container includes every session and event for globa accounts within the specified time frame. If your organization uses a different term, you can rename the container here.

B2B Edition
Account container name

Account (default). The Account container includes every session and event for accounts within the specified time frame. If your organization uses a different term, you can rename the container here.

B2B Edition
Opportunity container name

Opportunity (default). The Opportunity container includes every session and event for opportunities within the specified time frame. If your organization uses a different term, you can rename the container here.

B2B Edition
Buying group container name

Buying Group (default). The Buying group container includes every session and event for buying groups within the specified time frame. If your organization uses a different term, you can rename the container here.

Person container name

Person (default). The Person container includes every session and event for persons within the specified time frame. If your organization uses a different term (for example, “Visitor” or “User”), you can rename the container here.

Session container name

Session (default). The Session container lets you identify page interactions, campaigns, or conversions for a specific session. You can rename this container to ‘Visit’ or any other term your organization prefers.

Event container name

Event (default). The Event container defines individual events in a dataset. If your organization uses a different term (for example, “Hits” or “Page Views”), you can rename the container here.

Calendar

Indicates the calendar format that you want the data view to follow. You can have multiple data views based on the same Connection and give them different calendar types or time zones. These data views can allow teams that use different calendar types to accommodate their respective needs with the same underlying data.

Setting

Description

Time zone

Choose which time zone that you want your data to be presented in. If you choose a time zone that operates on Daylight Savings Time, data is automatically adjusted to reflect that. In the spring when clocks adjust one hour ahead, a one-hour gap is present. In the fall when clocks adjust one hour behind, one hour is repeated during the DST shift.

Calendar Type

Determine how weeks of the month are grouped.
Gregorian: Standard calendar format. Quarters are grouped by month.
4-5-4 Retail: A standardized 4-5-4 retail calendar. The first and last months of the quarter contain 4 weeks, while the second month of the quarter consists of 5 weeks.
Custom (4-5-4): Similar to the 4-5-4 calendar except you can choose the first day of the year and which year that the “extra” week occurs.
Custom (4-4-5): The first and second months of each quarter contain 4 weeks, while the last week of each quarter consists of 5 weeks.
Custom (5-4-4): The first month of each quarter consists of 5 weeks, while the second and third month of each quarter consists of 4 weeks.

First month of the year and First day of week

Visible for the Gregorian calendar type. Specify what month that you want the calendar year to start on, and what day you want each week to start on.

First day of current year

Visible for custom calendar types. Specify what day of the year that you want the current year to start. The calendar automatically formats the first day of each week based on this value.

Year in which the “extra” week occurs

With most 364-day calendars (52 weeks of 7 days each), each year accumulates leftover days until they add up to an extra week. This extra week is then added to the last month of that year. Specify which year that you want the extra week added to.

Components

Next, you can set a data view’s components, which means you can create metrics and dimensions from schema elements. You can also use standard components.

IMPORTANT

Up to 5,000 metrics and 5,000 dimensions can be added to a single data view.

Select the Components tab.

You can see the Connection at the top left, which contains the datasets, and its Schema fields below. The components already included are standard components (system generated) required for all data views (like Events, People, Sessions metrics, and Minute, Quarter, Week dimensions). Adobe also applies the filter Contains data and is not deprecated by default, so that only Schema fields that contain data and which are not deprecated appear.
Search for a schema field using Search schema fields or find a field by moving into any of the dataset collections, like Event datasets.
Alternatively, you can create a derived field using Create derived field . See Derived fields for more information.
When you found your specific schema field or defined your derived field, drag that field, such as Page Name, from the left rail into the Metrics or Dimensions section underneath Included components.
You can drag the same schema field into the dimensions or metrics sections multiple times and configure the same dimension or metric in different ways. For example, from the pageName field, you can create a dimension titled Product Pages, and another one titled Error pages, by using different Component settings on the right.
If you drag a schema field folder from the left rail, the fields in the folder are automatically sorted into the appropriate section. String fields end up in the Dimensions section and numeric schema types end up in the Metrics section. You can also click Add all and all schema fields are added to their respective section.
Once you select a component, settings appear on the right.

Configure the component using Component settings. Available component settings depend on if the component is a dimension/metric and the schema data type. Settings include:
Select Save and continue to continue configuring your new or existing data view. Select Save to save the configuration for your existing data view.

Duplicate metrics or dimensions

Duplicating metrics or dimensions and then modifying specific settings is an easy way to create multiple metrics or dimensions from a single schema field. Select the Duplicate setting underneath the metric’s or dimensions’s name at the top right. Modify the new dimension or metric and save it under a more descriptive name.

Filter schema fields or datasets

You can filter schema fields in the left rail by data type, datasets, data governance, and other criteria (contains data, is identity, and is not deprecated):

Filter fields

TIP

If the components do not load properly in your data view and you see an error message instead, please refer to Lack of permissions for a resolution.

Included components

The Included components contains the list of Metrics and Dimensions you configure for the data view.

To search for components, use Search components.
To filter the listed included components, select .

In the Filter field by dialog, you can filter on the following categories:
- Data type - You can select one or more of the following data types: String, Integer, Short, Boolean, Double, Byte, Long, Date, or Date-time.
- Datasets - Select one or more datasets.
- Data governance: Select one or more labels from the Custom labels, Contract labels, Identity labels, Sensitivity labels, Partner ecosystem or Policies subcategories.
- Other - Select one or more of the options Contains data, Is identity, or Is not deprecated.
Select Apply to apply the filters.

Settings

Select the Settings tab.
Configure segments to apply to your entire data view. See Settings (segments) below.
Configure session timeout and metrics. See Session settings below.
Select Save and continue to continue configuring your new or existing data view. Select Save to save the configuration for your existing data view.

Settings (segments)

You can add segments that apply to an entire data view. This segment is applied to any report that you run in Workspace. Drag a segment from the components in the left rail to the Add segments field.

Session settings

Determine the time period of inactivity between events before a session expires and a new one is started. A time period is required. You can optionally also force a new session to start when an event contains a certain metric. See Session settings for more details.

Data preview

The data preview compares (for the various containers) the data of this data view with data of the connection. The preview percentage is based on the total number in the connection from the last 90 days.

If the preview is not loading, your connection could still be backfilling.

Once all desired settings are specified, click Save and finish.