[SL-3394] [Feature] Allow specifying an alias for each group-by and metric in the saved query

[siljamardla]

Is this your first time submitting a feature request?

• I have read the expectations for open source contributors
• I have searched the existing issues, and I could not find an existing issue for this feature
• I am requesting a straightforward extension of existing metricflow functionality, rather than a Big Idea better suited to a discussion

Describe the feature

If you have a saved query like this (from here):

saved_queries:
  - name: order_metrics
    description: Relevant order metrics
    query_params:
      metrics:
        - orders
        - large_order
        - food_orders
        - order_total
      group_by:
        - Entity('order_id')
        - TimeDimension('metric_time', 'day')
        - Dimension('customer__customer_name')
        - ... # Additional group_by
      where:
        - "{{TimeDimension('metric_time')}} > current_timestamp - interval '1 week'"
         - ... # Additional where clauses
    exports:
      - name: order_metrics
        config:
          export_as: table # Options available: table, view
          schema: YOUR_SCHEMA # Optional - defaults to deployment schema
          alias: SOME_TABLE_NAME # Optional - defaults to Export name

then your export table will have MetricFlow-specific column names, something like this:

order_id	metric_time__day	customer__customer_name	orders	large_order	food_orders	order_total

Since the person who writes the saved query and needs the export might now have full control over the naming conventions used in the semantic model, they may end up with badly named columns (from their perspective). Currently, they would be able to correct the columns by... maintaining a view on top of the export?

How about allowing to configure an alias for every metric and group by in the saved query? Something like this:

saved_queries:
  - name: order_metrics
    description: Relevant order metrics
    query_params:
      metrics:
        - orders
          alias: count_orders
        - large_order
          alias: count_large_orders
        - food_orders
        - order_total
      group_by:
        - Entity('order_id')
        - TimeDimension('metric_time', 'day')
          alias: calendar_date
        - Dimension('customer__customer_name')
          alias: customer_name
        - ... # Additional group_by
      where:
        - "{{TimeDimension('metric_time')}} > current_timestamp - interval '1 week'"
         - ... # Additional where clauses
    exports:
      - name: order_metrics
        config:
          export_as: table # Options available: table, view
          schema: YOUR_SCHEMA # Optional - defaults to deployment schema
          alias: SOME_TABLE_NAME # Optional - defaults to Export name

Describe alternatives you've considered

An independent view on top of the export?

Who will this benefit?

Anyone using saved queries

Are you interested in contributing this feature?

Happy to test it out in preview

Anything else?

No response

_SL-3394

[Jstein77]

Hey acknowledging that we've received this issue. I think adding alias to saved query elements makes a lot of sense. We have the alias parameter in the the metrics object syntax which we would likely use here and add to dimension as well.