How do I use dimensions in exMon DG?

Created by: Kristinn Magnusson

Dimensions are a great way to enrich your test results in exMon DG. In this short tutorial, you will learn how to create a Sales Person dimension that lists all sales staff in our company. Then you will create two tests that map to that dimension. Finally, you will learn how to view that data on the portal.

Creating Dimensions

Dimensions are created globally for all tests in exMon. To create a dimension:

  1. Right-click the Dimension folder in General
  2. Select New Dimension



    Dimensions consist of:

    • Query to a data source
    • Same data sources as supported by Tests in exMon. SQL Server, Oracle, Powershell, Excel etc.
    • Mapping that data to business keys, business value and any attributes.
    • Schedule to update that dimension regularly.
  3. Select the data provider and enter a query that returns the salesperson id, their name and any attributes we have on that person. In our case, we use in what country they are located.
  4. Execute the query with the F5 key.
  5. In the property grid map the id to Business Key, the name to Business Value and attributes to the person's country column.
  6. Select a schedule to update the dimension. Here we select every weekday morning.

Note: you can also update dimension in Command Prompt by: epcmd—uat <UAT>—update_dimension <DIMENSION_ID>

Mapping Tests to Dimensions

The next step is to map Tests to our dimension.

  1. Create a Query with a data source containing SalesPersonId in the results.
  2. Execute the query with F5



  3. Open up the Exception Manager Properties window and open the Mapping tab.
  4. At the bottom, there is a list of all available dimensions. Select SalesPersonId for the Sales Persondimension. Note that you can have tests in multiple dimensions. 
  5. Save and execute the query.

View Dimensions on the exMon Web Portal

Now you can view exceptions in the Exception Overview by Data Type or by Dimensions. Hover over the dimension selector to get a list of dimensions and select Sales Person.

                                          

 

There you get an overview of the sales staff and how many exceptions are mapped to each of them. The staff members are grouped by attributes. Here I have expanded into a few of them for you to see how many exceptions are for each salesperson.


 

When I click a salesperson you can see how those exceptions are divided into Tests. Here, the staff member Michael G Blythe has 7 open exceptions in two tests. You can expand the tests to see detail, filter and sort to get the best sense of the exceptions.


 

If you click the Test title (Sales tax out of normal range) you can view the detail of that specific test and view all data returned from the query.


 

And to quickly move between salespersons you can hover over Michael’s name to select another.

              

In this short tutorial, you have learned how to create a Sales Person dimension that lists all sales staff in our company. Then you have created two tests that map to that dimension. Finally, you learned how to view that data on the portal.

Kristinn is the author of this solution article.