To create a query you must add at least one metric and optional attributes.
Metrics are quantifiable values, such as the number of tickets, replies to tickets, and agent or customer wait times. Attributes are non-quantifiable values, such as ticket ID, ticket tags, and assignee names.
There are many metrics and attributes that you can use for each Zendesk product. To learn what's available, see Understanding Explore datasets.
Adding metrics
You add metrics in the Metrics panel of query builder. Explore automatically uses the most suitable aggregator for the metric. You can change how your metric is calculated by clicking the metric, then selecting a new aggregator, for example, an average or sum value. For details, see Changing metric aggregators.
You can also select whether the metric results are measured in different sizes or colors, on a separate axis, or as datatips.
To add a metric to your query click Add in the Metrics panel. Your metric results will automatically appear in your query.
This section contains the following topics:
Measuring results by color and size
You can measure a metric's results in a color gradient or with different display sizes.
In the image below, Agent replies has been added as a color-encoded metric. At the upper-right of the chart, you can see how results are distributed in the color gradient.
In the image below, Agent replies has been added as a size-encoded metric. At the upper-right of the chart you can see how results are distributed in the different sizes. Size-encoding options cannot be edited.
- In the Metrics panel, click the Color-encoding icon (
) or the Size-encoding icon (
).
- Select the metric you want to color-encode, or size-encode..
- Click the chart configuration icon (
).
- Click Colors.
- From the Color encoding drop-down list, choose a new color style.
Adding a metric as a secondary axis
On some chart types, you can add a metric as a dual axis, or secondary axis. This is an easy way to compare metrics with different scales and separate results that would be difficult to analyze.
In the image, the Unresolved unreplied tickets metric uses a much smaller scale than the Agent replies and Tickets metrics. As the image below shows, the results from this metric are difficult to view.
To make data easier to view, you can add Unresolved unreplied tickets as a dual axis. This displays the metric by its own scale and visualization as displayed below:
- In the Metrics panel, click the dual axis icon (
).
- Select the metric you want to use for the dual axis.
Displaying a metric's result as a trend line
Similar to a dual axis, you can add a metric as a trend line to separate results. You can also display the trend for each metric by adding trend lines in Chart configuration> Trend line.
- In the Metrics panel, click the trend line icon (
).
- Select the metric you want to add as a trend line.
You can edit trend line options, including hiding and displaying values in Chart configuration>Trend line.
Restricting metric results to datatips
If you do not want a particular metric to display on the query, but still want users to be able to see the data, you can add the metric as a datatip. Any results from the metric added as a datatip will appear when a user hovers over a data point. For more information on adding and customizing datatips, see Working with datatips.
In the image below, only the replies metric is visible on the report, but when a viewer hovers over a data point, they can see the corresponding number of tickets results.
To add a metric as a datatip
- In the Metrics panel, click the datatips icon (
).
- Select the metric you want to display as a datatip.
Using comparison lines to highlight metric results
Comparison lines can highlight multiple metric results for one value. When you add a comparison line, you can hover over any data point to view all results for the same X axis location. Comparison lines are useful when your attribute has several values, but your screen size cannot display each label.
- In the chart configuration menu (
), select Datatips.
- Select Comparison line from the Mode drop-down list.
Adding attributes
Attributes slice your data by non-quantifiable values. They can also be used to select or exclude results from your chart. You can choose values to display by clicking on the attribute after it is added.
Columns
Columns slice your results by the attribute's values in one chart. To add an attribute to the Columns panel, click Add, then select an attribute.

Below is an example with the attribute Ticket created - Month added as a column.
Rows
If you add an attribute to the Rows panel, you can see individual charts for each of your attribute's values without selecting or excluding results. You can view a value using the Row Selector to the left your chart.
Below is an example of a report with the Ticket status attribute added as a row. The value Closed is selected in the row selector.
Filters
Attributes added as filters enable you to select or exclude values to include in the query results. Results are filtered to the values you select, but the attribute names do not appear on your query. Instead, all your applied filters are listed underneath your report. This list includes any result manipulations you create.
For example, the results below are filtered by the Open ticket status, but the attribute name is not displayed on the report.
Explosions
Similar to rows, attributes added to the Explosions panel break your report into individual charts based on the attribute's values. Unlike rows, explosions show all charts side-by-side. This provides a simple way to compare results, but if your attribute has several values, you should consider selecting values to display or using rows.
You can display a maximum number of 30 charts using an Explosion. If the attribute you add to the Explosions panel returns more than 30 values, apply a filter to restrict the number of values returned.
28 Comments
What is the metrics panel that you reference? The only "metrics panel" I see is the one on the left to add metrics and there are no options for charge configuration. I have a column chart type in my query.
Hey Hillary!
Metrics panel refers to the highlighted panel in the below screenshot on the left side of the Query builder where you can add Metrics to your Query.
Chart Configuration is found on the right side of the Query builder and is highlighted in the below screenshot for you as well.
Let me ask in a different way, I do not see anything that looks like a dual axis icon in the Metrics panel. How can I select a metric to be on the dual access from the Metrics panel? I do not see a way to do what your instructions say.
Can you add a dual axis where one side is a count (total tickets) and the other side is a percent (% satisfaction score)? I am trying to slice the data by ticket reason. I can get one metric or the other to display the way I want, but I cannot get both onto the same query displaying in a way that makes sense. It keeps stacking the % satisfaction scores in one column for all ticket reasons instead of matching up with the column that represents the ticket count for that reason.
@Hilary, you should be able to select a dual axis when two metrics are selected. You can select dual axis either from the icon in the metrics panel, or within the metric itself. Check out the screenshot below which should help.
@Laura you can definitely use dual axis when the metrics are not measuring the same attribute like your example of count vs percentage. I recommend that you check out the Explore recipe Reporting on CSAT and one-touch tickets which will help with changing the axis so that the percentage value displays correctly. It's very similar to your use case.
Let me know how you go!
Hi - is there a way to sort the explosion attribute?
I want to explode by ticket priority and its showing Normal, High then Urgent. Is it possible to invert that sort order? I tried a few times using the result manipulation functions but that only seems to work on metrics not on the explosion...
Thoughts?
Hi Ayal!
Adding attributes into the Explosions panel will break your report out into individual charts. You can then use the result manipulation functionality to sort the results in each chart, but not the order of each individual chart.
If you're looking to order the ticket priority results in a particular way, you could consider creating a new query for each priority and ordering them how you wish on a dashboard.
I'm wondering if there is a way to "save" a list of assignee's that I can apply across queries. Right now our dataset includes numerous assignees but I only need reporting for six people. Each time I create a query where I want the results broken down by assignee, I have to search for each name and manually select it. Is there a way to save that selection of assignees so that it can be applied more easily?
Hi Sara, one way you could do this would be to set up a standard calculated attribute that tests for the assignee names you want. This would look something like this (add a new "ELIF" line for each assignee):
Then, use this attribute instead of the standard "Assignee name" attribute. Hope this helps!
Thank you, Rob!
Hi - is there a way to limit the rows on a chart?
Alonso, can you be more specific?
Sure thing!
When creating a query to see the number of tickets created by issue categories over a period of time, I would ideally just want to see the top 20-25 issue categories but I am unable to limit the rows - a total of 77 show on this query.
Any thoughts?
Thanks Alonso. Have you tried playing with the Result Manipulation > Top/Bottom feature? You can limit the number of rows this way (just be sure to select "on rows" for the "Strategy". It will show you the top 20 for the result set and not per day, FYI.
You can read up more about it here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022184274-Creating-a-top-bottom-filter
That worked great - thanks, Hillary.
I'm trying to add the a Change attribute widget to my Dashboard, but the Change attribute list is empty. How can I get something to select there? I have charts in my Dashbord that have attributes..
Hi Nelli
When you were adding the widget, did you select the dataset? More info here:
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022185254-Adding-interactive-dashboard-widgets
Brandon
Hi Brandon,
Thanks for the comment. Before I didn't have any opportunity to select any dataset. When I selected "Add change attribute" it just gave me that empty dialog. But now when I had to make another custom dataset due to another problem, I was able to select a dataset here and create the Change attribute field.
Hi,
I am trying to create a graph that has this years ticket volumes as bars / areas. With this years vs last years one touch ticket percentages. Is there anyway to limit metrics so that only some show this year and last year?
Chris, I do not know of a way to apply filters to metrics independently. You could add year as an attribute to the columns to spit out the data to show by year for the same week.
Thanks @... but I dont want it to apply for all metrics - I found a way forward using custom metrics - thanks for your help!
This may be the wrong article to post this question on but I have an Explosion added to a query, for tickets created - Per Year, and I want to sort the years descending. Is there any way to reorder the charts generated in an "Explosion"?
Thanks!
Hello Nicole,
I believe the easiest way to do this is to create an ordered set to sort the years in descending order, and use that set in your explosions. The only limitation to this is that you'll need to edit this ordered set once a year to add the new year in the correct order. Here's the article on ordered sets:
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022184334-Organizing-values-by-groups-and-sets#topic_ssy_cnw_fv
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Where can we go for accurate definitions of the different metrics? They aren't labeled clearly so it is difficult to know if I'm pulling accurate data.
I am trying to understand the total amount of ticket interactions across all channels per agent per day as a performance metric, but ticket solved and ticket updated seem to have some overlap and I don't see a "total tickets actioned" option?
Hi Ben Lebeau thanks for the question. You'll find the descriptions of the different metrics and attributes in these articles. If you feel any descriptions are lacking, please let us know and I'd be happy to add further details!
Hi there. I created an exploded chart that shows the activity per hour of a certain number of assignees. It was exactly how I wanted it so I was happy to add it to my dashboard. However, once on the dashboard, when I try to increase the size of my query (to avoid having the scroll down arrow), every time I drag the query down it continues to only show the top chart of my explosion. I got to a point where I have an entire dashboard with a single huge columns chart. How can I adjust it so that I can expand the size of the whole query, not just the top chart?
I zoomed out of my browser to be able to take this screenshot, to give you a better idea of my issue:
Hello Diego,
In order to help you, I'd like to get some more details about this query you've made. I'm going to pull this issue into a ticket so I can get those details. You should see an email shortly with the details of the ticket.
Hannah
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