In Harmoni, you can create new items or customized constructions to suit your analysis and reporting requirements. New variables can be created using items that already exist in the project, and they can also be constructed from items you have created.
In this article
- Create a Construction from a Construction
- Updating Constructions
- Delete a Constructed Item
- Overwrite or Remove a Source
1. Create a Construction from a Construction
You can create a construction from:
- A constructed element
- A combined net element
- A constructed measure
- A constructed weight
In this example, a new axis is constructed using a previously constructed axis and a combined element net:
- Select the position in the project tree
- Click new axis in the design menu
- Name the new axis and first element
- Create the definition by dragging and dropping the constructed item into the expression editor, or by typing the name into the expression editor
- Select the position in the project tree and click new axis
- Name your axis and the first element
- Define your item in the expression editor
Circular Reference
When defining a construction from a construction keep an eye on any possible circular references.
For example, if you have used the constructed axis A, (Life Stage), to define axis B, (Life Stage-Satisfaction), you can't then amend definitions in axis A to reference axis B.
Young Females in the Life Stage axis is a constructed element used to construct Young Females in the Life Stage-Satisfaction axis. In the example below, Young Females in Life Stage has the definition changed to reference the Young Females element in Life Stage-Satisfaction. This is a circular reference.
2. Updating Constructions
Changes in the original construction item definitions will flow to all other items that refer to the original construction.
3. Delete a Constructed Item
There may be occasions where you need to delete a construction from your project. Before deleting a constructed item, Harmoni will let you know if has been used in other constructions. It's important to consider who else is using these constructions and what deleting the original construction will impact. Deleting constructions that are used in Stories will break the story view.
4. Overwrite or Remove a Source
As a project owner when overwriting or removing a data source, Harmoni displays a warning message when existing project items are not present in the new data source before you load your project. Learn more.
The warning message gives you information about items that will be removed from your project as well as any constructions that will become invalid as a result.
Where to from here?
Learn more about constructions: