Use new metric like legacy with Last value function on keyword field

[Jonas_S]

Hello,

i create one index per month, which are grouped in a data view. There is a keyword field in the index which contains a string representation of the month that the index was created like 'May 2023'.

Up until now i used the old Metric, now Legacy Metric to show this string in the Dashboard. Such that a user always knows to which month the current data belongs. The last value function is fine, as within an index every field has the same value and there is always only data from one index in the dashboard. (Filtered by control)

I tried to switch to the new Metric to avoid problems in future releases, when Legacy Metric might be removed. But as it turns out, the Last value function is disabled for keyword fields in the new Metric.

Is this intended or just overlooked up until now?
If you are not planning to allow last value for keyword fields, how are you supposed to simply show some string in a dashboard? Am i supposed to create a table with one element?

Best regards
Jonas

[Marco_Liberati]

Hi @Jonas_S

that is by design for now. There's a task to add support for non-numeric values as well to the new metric visualization: you can track this issue for progress [Lens] Allow non-numeric metrics for metric vis · Issue #137756 · elastic/kibana · GitHub

[Jonas_S]

Thank you @Marco_Liberati
It looks like there isn't even a goal version when it should be finished, but i assume it will be done before legacy metrics are removed, right? So i can just put if off for now and wait.

[Marco_Liberati]

Yes, can confirm that legacy metric won't be removed without addressing this enhancement.