Work with enumerations enumerations
An enumeration (also called an itemized list) is a predefined list of values you can use to fill in certain fields. Enumerations help standardize field values, making data entry more consistent and simplifying queries.
When defined, values are displayed in a drop-down list. A value can be selected directly or entered using predictive input, which suggests and completes matching entries. Some fields include predefined enumerations, and additional enumerations can be created if required.
Types of enumerations types-of-enum
Enumerations are stored in the Administration > Platform > Enumerations folder of the explorer.
An enumeration can be: Open, System, Emoticon or Closed.
- An Open enumeration allows users to add new values directly in the fields based on this enumeration.
- A Closed enumeration has a fixed list of values which can only be modified from the Administration > Platform > Enumerations folder of the explorer.
- An Emoticon enumeration is used to update the emoticon list. Learn more
- A System enumeration is associated to system fields and is coming with an Internal name.
For Open and Closed enumerations, specific options are available:
- Simple enumeration is the default standard type.
- Alias cleansing enumeration is used to harmonize the enumeration values stored in the database. Learn more
- Reserved for binning is an option which allows you to link cube values to this enumeration. Learn more
Alias cleansing alias-cleansing
In enumeration fields, a value can be selected from the drop-down list or entered manually if not available in the list. Custom values can be added to the enumeration when the Open option is enabled. These values can later be standardized through alias cleansing, which automatically replaces variations with the correct term (for example, converting Adob to Adobe).
Enable the Alias cleansing option to use data cleansing capabilities for an enumeration. When this option is selected, the Alias tab is displayed at the bottom of the window.
When a user enters a value which does not exist in an Alias cleansing enumeration, it is added to the Values list. You can create aliases from these values, or create new aliases from scratch.
Create an alias create-alias
To create an alias, follow these steps:
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Click Add button of the Alias tab.
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Enter the alias you want to convert and select the value to be applied in the drop-down list.
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Click Ok and confirm.
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Save your changes. The replacement of values is performed by the Alias cleansing workflow which is executed every night. Refer to Run data cleansing.
For all fields based on this enumeration, when a user enters the value Adob in a “company” field (in the Adobe Campaign Client Console, in a web form), it will automatically be replaced by the value Adobe.
Convert a wrong value to an alias convert-to-alias
You can also convert an existing enumeration value into an alias. To perform this:
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In the list of values of an enumeration, right-click and browse to Actions… > Convert values into aliases….
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Select the values to be converted in aliases and click Next.
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Click Start to run the conversion.
Once execution is complete, aliases are added to the list, in the Alias tab. You can associate a correct value to replace wrong entries. To perform this:
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Select a value to clean.
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Click the Detail… button.
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Select the new value in the drop-down list.
Run data cleansing running-data-cleansing
Data cleansing is performed by the Alias cleansing technical workflow. By default, it is executed on a daily basis.
Cleansing can also be triggered via the Cleanse values… link.
The Advanced parameters… link lets you set the date starting from which collected values are taken into account.
Click the Start button to run data cleansing.
Monitor occurrences calculate-entry-occurrences
The Alias sub-tab of an enumeration can display the number of occurrences of an alias among all the values entered. This information is an estimate and will be displayed in the Hits column.
You can run hit calculation manually via the Cleanse values… link. To do this, click the Advanced parameters… link and select option(s).
- Update the number of alias hits: this lets you update hits which have already been calculated, based on the entered date.
- Recalculate the number of alias hits from the start: lets you run calculation on the entire Adobe Campaign platform.
You can also create a dedicated workflow in order for the calculation to run automatically for a given period, once a week for example.
To do this, create a copy of the Alias cleansing workflow, change the scheduler and use the following settings in the Enumeration value cleansing activity:
- -updateHits to update the number of alias hits,
- -updateHits:full to recalculate all alias hits.