Explore recipe: Help center category views

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<p><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-large"></span></p>
<p><span>In this Explore recipe, you’ll learn how to report on the total number of views a category in your knowledge base has received, across all articles in that category.</span></p>
<p><span>While Explore doesn't include a default attribute for help center category, you can create a group attribute that groups articles by the categories they belong to.</span></p>
<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> You can use this report to mirror the exact <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408845897370" target="_self">categories of your help center</a>, or you can create "categories" that group together whichever articles you choose (like articles about a specific topic, or directed at a specific audience).</div>
<p><span>This article contains the following topics:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h_01GMBDA5SKXKRSEZD8V7W1JDBV" target="_self"><span>What you'll need</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#h_01GMBEPX46T1DT55M5T54XFQKG" target="_self"><span>Creating the group attribute</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#h_01GMBEQ2DH7SXKG4J4XPNC278K" target="_self"><span>Creating the report</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#h_01GMBFR7CY6N06TCZSDAR3M071" target="_self">Enhancing the report</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="h_01GMBDA5SKXKRSEZD8V7W1JDBV">What you'll need</h2>
<p><strong>Skill level</strong>: Intermediate</p>
<p><strong>Time required</strong>: 10 minutes</p>
<ul>
<li>Zendesk Explore Professional or Enterprise</li>
<li>Editor or Admin permissions (see<span></span> <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836002970" target="_self">Giving users access to Explore</a>)</li>
<li>Article data in Zendesk Guide</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="h_01GMBEPX46T1DT55M5T54XFQKG">Creating the group attribute</h2>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_epc_gw1_fv__ol_uf4_hqw_fv">
<li>
<span>In Explore, click the reports (</span><img src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_query_icon.png"><span>) icon.</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>In the Reports library, click </span><strong>New report</strong><span>.</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>On the </span><strong>Select a dataset </strong><span>page, click </span><strong>Guide </strong><span>&gt; <strong>Guide - </strong></span><strong>Knowledge Base</strong><span>, then click <strong>Start report</strong></span><span>. The report builder opens.</span>
</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong>Calculations</strong> menu (<img class="image" id="topic_epc_gw1_fv__image_upd_hng_3fb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_calculations.png">), select <span></span><strong class="ph b">Group</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong>Attribute name</strong> field, name your calculated attribute <strong>Articles by category</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">In the <span></span><strong class="ph b">Computed from</strong> field, select <strong>Article title.</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">In the left column under the <strong>Search</strong> box, select an article and click the plus (<strong>+</strong>) icon to create your first category. Add more articles to that same category by selecting their titles in the left column and clicking the right arrow (<strong>→</strong>) icon.</li>
<li class="li">Rename your category by clicking the line in the right column that starts with "Group [title of the first article you added to the category]" and entering your desired category name.<br><img alt="grouped_attribute.png" class="img-screenshot" height="335" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_category_recipe_1.png" width="429">
</li>
<li class="li">Repeat the previous two steps to create more categories. For help, see <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836227866-Organizing-values-by-groups-and-sets#topic_epc_gw1_fv" target="_self">Creating groups</a>.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong>Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="h_01GMBEQ2DH7SXKG4J4XPNC278K">Creating the report</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<span>In the <strong>Metrics </strong>panel, c</span><span>lick </span><strong>Add </strong>&gt; <strong>Knowledge base engagement</strong> &gt; <strong>Article views</strong>.</li>
<li>Click <strong>Apply</strong>.</li>
<li>
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846897178-Choosing-metric-aggregators#topic_ycz_vxv_ngb" target="_self">Change the metric aggregator</a> to <strong>SUM</strong>.</li>
<li>In the <strong>Rows</strong> panel, click <strong>Add </strong>&gt; <strong>Calculated attributes </strong>&gt; <strong>Articles by category</strong>.</li>
<li>Click<strong> Apply</strong>.</li>
</ol>
<p>The resulting report is a table that lists the categories in your help center and how many views each category has.</p>
<p><img class="img-screenshot" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_category_recipe_2.png"></p>
<h2 id="h_01GMBFR7CY6N06TCZSDAR3M071">Enhancing the report</h2>
<p>If you want, you can take a few extra steps to list the specific articles that belong to each category, with a subtotal row that still shows the total number of views for each category. </p>
<ol>
<li>In the <strong>Rows</strong> panel, click <strong>Add</strong> &gt; <strong>Articles</strong> &gt; <strong>Article title</strong>.</li>
<li>(Optional) Filter out the <strong>NULL</strong> value by clicking the <strong>Article title</strong> attribute you just added, selecting the <strong>Excluded</strong> tab, and selecting <strong>NULL</strong> &gt; <strong>Apply</strong>. (The NULL value comes from articles that previously had views but have since been deleted.)  </li>
<li>In the <strong>Result manipulation</strong> (<img src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_result_manipulation.png">) menu, click <strong>Totals</strong>, select <strong>Subtotals on</strong> <strong>Rows</strong>, and click <strong>Apply</strong>.</li>
</ol>
<p>Your report now shows which articles are included in each category, with a <strong>Sum</strong> line that still shows the total views for that category. </p>
<p><img class="img-screenshot" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_category_recipe_3.png" width="850"></p>
<p>Additionally, you might have noticed that the total number of views for the <strong>Testing</strong> category in the screenshot above is different than in the previous section's screenshot. This is because we filtered out the NULL value.</p><script id="docs-schema-markup" type="application/ld+json">{
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