Working with datasets

In Explore, datasets give you access to your Zendesk product data. Each dataset contains metrics and attributes that can be used to query your data. Before you create a query, you'll need to choose the dataset that gives access to the information you want. Typically, you select the default dataset that contains data for your product, for example, Support or Talk. However, you can also create copies of these datasets for testing (for example, if you want to test custom metrics or need to apply specific security permissions).

This article contains the following sections:

• Available datasets
• Choosing a dataset
• Creating a new dataset
• More dataset operations
• Next steps

Available datasets

The following datasets are currently available in Explore:

Tip: To learn about new and upcoming datasets, see our announcements section.

Zendesk Support datasets

The following datasets can be used to produce reports based on your tickets, and support data:

• Tickets: Report key ticket metrics like number of tickets, ticket activity, and ticket type.
• SLAs: Report about your Service Level Agreement (SLA) performance.
• Backlog history: Report about your unsolved tickets at the end of a given date.
• Ticket updates: Report all updates made to tickets during their lifetime.

Zendesk Talk datasets

The following datasets can be used to produce reports based on your usage of Zendesk Talk:

• Calls: Report about your call center and agent activity.

Zendesk Guide datasets

The following datasets can be used to produce reports based on your usage of Zendesk Guide:

• Answer Bot: Reports about the effectiveness of your Answer Bot use.
• Knowledge Capture: Reports to help you understand the efficiency of selecting articles to deflect support tickets.

Zendesk Chat datasets

The following datasets can be used to produce reports based on your usage of Zendesk Chat:

• Chat Engagement: Reports about your customer engagement using Chat.

Choosing a dataset

To access you business information, you must choose a dataset. To help you understand the information you can report about from each dataset, see Understanding Explore datasets. You can choose the dataset you want to use before you create queries, or while you create a query.

Choosing a dataset before you create a query

To choose a dataset from the datasets library

1. In Explore, click the Datasets icon ().
2. On the Datasets library page, select the product dataset you want to use. The pre-built, original dataset names display the status Default, and should be used whenever possible.

   If a dataset displays the status Out of date, it is no longer being updated by Zendesk. Unless you are maintaining queries that use this dataset, consider deleting it.

   
3. The page for the dataset you chose opens. From here, you can select an existing query or create a new query.

Choosing a dataset when you create a query

To choose a dataset while you create a query

1. In Explore, click the Queries icon ().
2. In the Queries library, click New query.
3. On the Choose a dataset page, choose the Zendesk product you want to produce reports for.

   

4. Next, choose the dataset type. For example, Zendesk Support contains four datasets for tickets, SLAs, updates, and backlog history.
5. Finally, from the list of datasets, choose the dataset you want to connect to, then click New query.
6. Query builder opens using the dataset you chose. You can now begin to create your query.

Creating a new dataset

In some circumstances, you might want to create your own dataset, for example, if you want to experiment with the data structure, or practice working with custom formulas. If you create your own dataset, formulas and queries from the original dataset will not be available. For most purposes, choose from one of the built-in datasets.

To create and connect to a new dataset

1. Click the Datasets icon ().
2. In the Datasets library, click New dataset.
3. On the Select a source page, choose the product you want to create reports for.
4. On the Choose a dataset page, enter a name for your new dataset, and then choose the source data that you want to query, for example, Tickets.
5. Click Done.
6. Query builder opens using the dataset you chose. You can now begin to create your query.

More dataset operations

Explore offers further options for managing your datasets. The available options might differ depending on the level of permission you have to the dataset. For example, you can't delete the pre-built datasets.

To access the dataset operations

1. Click the Datasets icon ().
2. In the Datasets library, choose a dataset and then click the options menu next to it.

   

3. From the options menu, choose one of the following:
   • New query from this: Opens a new query using the selected dataset.
   • Edit: Opens the dataset configuration page where you can change the name of the dataset and review the product it is using.
   • Rename: Enables you to change the name of the dataset.
   • Clone: Creates a copy of the selected dataset.
   • Delete: Deletes the selected dataset.

Next steps

• Creating a new query
• Adding a new dashboard