Creating Product Meters

This topic explains how to create a Meter for collecting the data which you will use to set up usage-based pricing for specific Products your end customers will consume:

• Any Aggregations that target a Product Meter also become specific to the same Product and can only be used to price Plans for that Product.
• Product Meters can also be used to collect Product-specific user data you require to serve other business purposes.

Tip: Meters that are not Product-specific? You can also create Global Meters, which allow you to collect usage data which you can use to set up pricing across multiple Products. Any Aggregations that target a Global Meter also become Global and can then be used to price Plans belonging to any Product. See Creating Global Meters.

Understanding Meter Options! We strongly recommend that you review the options available for configuring Meters before you attempt to create them. See Reviewing Meter Options.

To create a Product Meter:

1. Select Metering. The Meters page opens and lists Meters by Product for All products together with any Global Meters.
2. Use the drop-down at top-right to select the Product you want to create the new Meter for. The Meters page adjusts and shows:

• Any existing Meters created for the selected Product at the top of the page.
• Any Global Meters.

Tip: Global Meter? You can create a Global Meter, which is not tied to a specific Product. For more details, see Creating Global Meters.

3. Select Create meter for the Product. The Create page opens:

• The Product is pre-selected.
• Alternatively, you can skip Step 2 above to filter for the Product and select Create meter immediately at top-right. If you do this you will then have to select the Product on the Create page when it opens.

4. Enter the Meter details:

• Name. Descriptive name for the Meter.
• Code. Unique identifier for the Meter in the m3ter system. You will need this Code as a unique id when submitting API calls, such as a call to update a Meter.
  • Notes:
    • When you’ve entered a Name and clicked in the Code field, a Code is automatically entered based on the Name. You can then edit the auto-generated Code as required.
    • The Code string has a maximum length of 80 characters and must not contain non-printable or whitespace characters (except space), and cannot start/end with whitespace.

5. Add the Data fields you need to collect usage data. For example, a field to collect data on the volume of files stored on your service:

• Name. Descriptive name for the field.
• Code. Unique Identifier for field. You will need this Code as a unique id when submitting API calls, such as a call to submit measurements for this field.
  • Notes:
    • When you’ve entered a Name and clicked in the Code field, a Code is automatically entered based on the Name. You can then edit the auto-generated Code as required.
    • The Code string has a maximum length of 80 characters and can only contain letters, numbers, underscore, and the dollar character, and must not start with a number. The same applies to the Code used for any Derived Fields you add to a Meter - see Step 6 below.
• Category. Defines what type of usage data you want to collect using this field.
• Unit. Defines the unit of measure.

Important: Units of Measure? We recommend that the units you use for your Data Fields conform to The Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM), which is designed to facilitate the communication between electronic systems of quantities with their units. In the above example, we therefore use GiBy as the unit for the Gigabyte Store Data Field. For more details, see Units for Meter Fields - Examples.

6. Add any required Derived fields to the Meter:

• For more on Derived Fields, see the following topic in this section.

7. Add any required Custom fields to the Meter:

• For more on Custom Fields, see Adding and Editing Custom Fields. We strongly recommend reviewing Working with Custom Fields before you create and use Custom Fields.

8. Select Create meter. The Meter details page opens:

9. If you want to create an Aggregation that targets one of the Meter’s Data Fields or Derived Fields, then select Create aggregation for that field:

• You are taken directly to the Aggregations>Create page where the Product is pre-selected and the Meter and Target field under Meter settings are also pre-selected.
• When you complete the Aggregations>Create workflow, you are returned to the Meter details page.
• For more details, see Creating Product Aggregations.

10. If you want to edit a Meter’s details, select the Edit button, make your changes, and click Update meter.
11. If you want to remove a Meter, return to the Meters page and select the Delete button for the Meter:

A confirmation popup opens.

12. Select Yes to confirm the delete action.

Tip: Working in Meter Details? The Meter details page is designed to help you perform common Meter management and operational tasks, including submitting usage data measurements for your Meters. See Working in Meter Details.