Introducing Faster Transforms

Over the last several months we have been upgrading the Grow platform to improve data handling. One of the biggest updates is the Faster Transform architecture. This upgrade significantly improves data processing within Grow, especially for larger sets of data.

We have already upgraded the datasets and metrics on the majority of accounts to this improved architecture. 

How to identify which metrics are on the old architecture

Metrics Tab in Account Settings

From the Metrics tab in Account Settings, you can see a comprehensive view of all metrics. You will see the yellow lightning icon next to each metric using the faster transform architecture, and the grey icon next to each metric using the slower transform architecture.

Dataset and Metric Builders

If you have the faster transform architecture enabled for a specific metric or dataset, you will see the yellow lightning icon at the top of the Metric and Dataset Builders, next to the blue "beta features" button.

Differences between the Slower and Faster Transform Architecture

Below are some of the differences you will notice when you switch a metric or dataset from the slower transform architecture to the faster transform architecture. 

Show the Column Data Type

Grow will try to recognize what kind of data each column contains: Numeric, Text, Date, or Date with a Timestamp. However, if Grow is wrong you can manually change the chart type by clicking on the data type icon in the column header.

(Note that you can only change this when looking at the data settings, and this feature is unavailable for databases since the data comes in as a specific type.)

Date Grouping Shows the First Day of the Range

Previously, when you grouped data by month or by quarter, it would return the data in a specific format (YYYY-MM or Q1, Q2, etc.). This could make it harder to join data with other reports or use them as chart labels. Now when you group by any date range, it will give the YYYY-MM-DD format for the first day of that range.

If you'd like, you can change the date format with the Calculated Columns transform after grouping the data.

The SQL Transform and Master SQL Reports Now Use PostgreSQL

Grow now processes your data using PostgreSQL instead of SQLite. PostgreSQL provides more robust and consistent functions for organizing your data. Don't worry if you currently have metrics using SQLite—they have not changed!

Check out this article that covers a few of the most common SQL queries that you might not be able to do through Grow's transforms. You will also find some links to other PostgreSQL resources.

All new metrics since May 10, 2019 are built using the new "faster transforms" architecture. To see if a specific metric is using the new pipeline, open it in the metric builder and look to see if there is a small data type icon in the column header.

Some other small changes to some transforms and other features have also been released, like with the Filter, Tag, and Sort transforms.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our Grow Support team via web widget in the app, or by emailing support@grow.com.