What is a Property in Pigment? A Property is a characteristic or an attribute of Pigment List Items. They can be referenced in formulas to help plan by different attributes. This article showcases the options you have when setting up Properties.
Why use a Property?
There are many reasons to set up a Property on a List. They can be referenced in formulas to filter out data, group data together in hierarchies, set attributes to define how calculations are run, or be used to help illustrate trends in charts, and much more. Because you are assigning the Property to the List and not within a Metric, you want to primarily use characteristics that are static. For example, if you have a product List with product prices that change over time, you would set that up as a Metric rather than a List Property.
List Properties can be any different data type, here are some examples for each type.
Text. Text can be used to define a unique characteristic of a List, or just provide information you’d like to display in a Block.
Boolean. Booleans are helpful as a property to define subsets of a List. For example, If you have a group of certain Items that need to be calculated differently, use a Boolean to identify them, then reference it in a formula. Boolean List Properties can be formatted as either checkboxes or buttons in the Properties section of the Configure data panel.
Number and Integer. Use these data types to add a numeric value to a List Item that is static.
Date. Use dates to showcase characteristics such as a start date or end date of a marketing campaign.
Dimension. Dimension is one of the most powerful List properties. By using a Dimension type, you are grouping together Lists. You can display data differently using these groupings, create hierarchies for aggregation and allocation, and reference them in formulas. Use the Dimension type on Countries to show Regions, Employees to show departments, or cost centers.
The following example shows a Dimension List called Country with three Properties:
Name (Text)Country code (Text)Region (Dimension)VAT (Number)
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The previous example also highlights that you can format a List and set a value as a percentage (under the VAT column).
Creating a new Property
To create a new Property, follow these steps:
In your Application, select the List you want a Property for from the left sidebar.
Select Properties in the top toolbar.
In the Configure data panel that opens, select the
+by Properties (see below).
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In the dialog that opens:
Type a Property name.
Select a Data type.
In Text display, manage rich text and set Locale Date Time. For more information, see Format date and time using Locale date time.
Define if the Items of this new Property should be Unique or not (see below).
When working with a Dimension List there must be at least one unique property. By default, when creating a Dimension List, the Name is set to being unique. If you have another Property that you want to be the unique identifier, you can toggle on Unique Item values. This ensures that every value in that Property is unique. Then you can turn off that option in Name to allow for duplicates. You can’t toggle this off in Name unless another Property has been assigned as unique.
For example, if you created an employee List, you might use employees’ names in the Name field, but create an Employee ID Property that is unique. This allows you to deselect this option under Name, in case you have two employees with the same name.
If you do not have another Property that is unique, you can use the Automatically generated unique ID feature within a Property set to Integer. This automatically assigns each Item a unique integer that increases with every new Item created.
ℹ️ Note
If a Property is updated to be identified as Unique, any Items that have a duplicate value for that Property are deleted.
For example, let's say you have a Property called Product SKU that isn’t initially set to Unique. If you were to update that Property to be unique, any items with duplicated SKUs would be deleted.
Configuring a List View
To have a more summarized View of your List, you can create Groups and Page selectors in the Configure data panel.
Group
Groups allow you to connect multiple Dimensions together. These have the Dimension data type and allow you to establish a relationship between different Lists. They are used to create hierarchies. For example, you might have a Country List with a Group Property formatted with a Region List. Once established, you can use this in Views to show an aggregated View. They can also be used with the BY modifier to align your Dimensions.
Page selectors
You can create Page selectors for your View, both for Transaction Lists and for Dimension Lists. Follow these steps:
In your Application, select the List you want a Page selector for from the left sidebar.
Select Properties in the top toolbar.
In the Configure data panel that opens, select the
+by Pages.In the Add Page dialog that opens, use Add and Remove to manage Page selectors as needed.
Manage Properties
Open Property settings to manage your Properties:
In your Application, select the List from the left sidebar.
Hover your pointer over the Property name.
Select the down arrow that appears.
Property settings opens in a drop-down. Here you can edit, change data type, format and hide your Properties. You can also create new Properties, by selecting Insert left... or Insert right….
Show Property Usage helps you identify all the areas in which the List Property is referenced in formulas.
⚠️ Important
The only Properties you can't edit or delete are protected Properties, which are built into the Calendar and Role Dimensions.
If you change the data type on a Property with data in it, the data is deleted. For example, if a Property is set to Text and you change it to Dimension, you lose all text values.
For more information about other options available in this drop-down, see: