Counters

The counter concept

The counter concept is designed to count frequent events of different types. It is a lightweight structure that can be used to count a large number of events and relate these numbers to time periods for reporting purposes. The structure is based on aggregation of a suitable number of events of the same type into one row in the database. The resolution may also be one row per event, but then on the expense of reporting performance and storage cost.

Counter definition

A counter definition is the definition of a specific counter in the system. Everything that is to be counted must belong to a counter definition. A counter definition may be linked to a process unit, and in this way count events related to a specific process unit and the counter definition defines the resolution of the counter. The counter definition also defines the counter category of the counter.

Counter category

The counter category concept describes what type of events the counter actually counts. The different counter categories has different sets of events that can be counted. The set of event to be counted is called the counter enumeration entry set, and the counter categories define where to find information of the specific enumeration entries that are counted.

There are 3 predefined counter categories in the system:

• Undefined. The counter enumeration entry set is specific/user defined.
• MaterialQuality. The counter enumeration entries that are counted are MaterialQualityIDs.
• Article. The counter enumeration entries that are counted are ArticleIDs.

Counter class

Counter Definitions are classified by counter classes. The counter class concept is used to gather similar counter definitions i.e. for reporting purposes. A counter class can contain several counter definitions and a counter definition can be member for several counter classes.