When you double-click the Meter processor function, the Meter dialog opens. This dialog consists of three different parts;
The Configuration tab, where you configure the processor
The Inspect tab where you can see details about the meters associated with the Meter processor along with their current values, see Meter Inspector
A Preview section which shows what the input and output data looks like and can be used for testing the solution.
When meter processor is added to a stream a unique Meter key is created and is displayed in Configuration tab in a Meter key field. This key is unique per Meter processor, and is one of the parameters used when creating meters using the APIs, see Managing Meters with the API , and next to the field is a Copy button that you can use to copy the key when creating meters.
Note!
If you import a stream with a Meter processor which is a duplicate of an existing stream, a new Meter key will be generated to ensure they are unique. The meters attached to Meter processors are not imported when importing a stream.
The Configuration tab contains the following settings:
Guiding Rules
The Meter Processor must have at least one guiding rule configured. You can add additional guiding rules by clicking the button at the bottom of the configuration screen. The maximum number of guiding rules is 10. Since guiding rule are executed based on the order they are defined, it is possible to re-order guiding rules by dragging them up and down.
Each guiding rule contains the following settings.
Setting | Description |
---|---|
Guiding rule | |
Name | Enter an intuitive name for the guiding rule in this field. |
Condition setting | Select if you want to define customized conditions for the rule or not by selecting either No condition or Custom condition. If you select No condition, nothing more is required, but if you select Custom condition, a new section called Condition n will appear that you can expand and enter any conditions you want to be met for the usage to be metered: Each condition is configured with three settings:
For example: Field: download status The field matching is case-sensitive. The name of the condition will now be converted to show your configuration which will make it easier to see the configured condition even after collapsing it. You can configure additional conditions by clicking on the button at the bottom of this section. If you have more than one condition, you can select to have either AND as a separator or OR, but not a combination of the two. If the usage data record does not match the condition and is filtered out then it will be evaluated against the next guiding rule, if configured. |
Category to match | Select which category you want to aggregate usage for in this drop-down. The Meter Processor is referring to categories instead of individual Meter Types which provides you with the possibility to add, remove, or update Meter Types without having to update the configuration of the Meter Processor. All existing categories configured in Meter Types will be displayed, see Creating Meter Types. If the usage data record does not find the meter available in this category then it will be evaluated against the next guiding rule, if configured. |
Group by | |
Group by n | To get the breakdown of the metered usage based on a specific field, for example download type in streaming service (movie, show or season), click on the Group by n drop-down. In this drop-down-list you can select the field(s) you want to group the usage by. If the desired field is not visible in drop-down, you can use Add Field field in drop down and click on the + button. The maximum number of fields you can add for each Group by n section is 5. You can enter several Group by n sections by clicking on the Add group by button. The maximum number of Group by n sections is 5. For output of “group by” configuration, see Flushing of Metered Record |
Other operations | |
If you want to send additional information together with your metered record to downstream system then you can click on the Add operation button to display a section for defining operations that you want to be made: It is allowed to have maximum 10 other operations in a guiding rule. For output of “other operations” configuration, see Flushing of Metered Record | |
Operation | Select which type of operation you want to perform:
|
Field | Select the field you want to perform the Carry first or Carry last operation on. If the desired field is not visible in drop-down, you can use Add Field field in drop down and click on the + button. |
To view all guiding rule together in table format, click on the View all button on top right of guiding rules.
Flush By
The Flush by setting determines when flush happens, that is when the aggregated output data records are sent to downstream systems. You have two options;
Period end - This option is used when you want to aggregate over period of time, usually in sync with billing cycle. If you select this option, the meters will be flushed and reset when the current period of meter has ended. The period end of meter is determined by the Reset schedule defined for respective meter type.
Stream execution - This option is usually used when testing the usage metering solution with integration and you want to output the metered record from meter processor immediately. If you select this option, all meters will be flushed and reset at the end of stream execution, see Execution of Usage Metering Streams for further information about stream execution considerations. This option is not available for real-time streams.
This setting impacts the when flush is performed and calculation of next metering period. For more information see, Meter Reset in Flushing of Metered Record and Real-time and batch execution inExecution of Usage Metering Streams.
Preview
Click on the to see a preview of the Input and Output data in the left part of the Meter dialog.
You can select to view the data in the following formats:
Input data: Table, tree
Output data: Table, tree
The preview is generated using a fresh state of meters ie, it does not matter what is value of the meter in system, it always take meter’s initial state.
Preview functionality works best with limited set of meters and meter types. If there are more than 200 meters or meter types then preview is generated by selecting random 200 meters and meter types and only 10 last updated meters are displayed in the output.
The log tab on output data helps with debugging of issues which may occur due to incorrect fields or guiding rules. The log tab shows the number of records that will be sent to data correction because they have not matched any meter or missing mandatory input fields.