Learning Outcomes:
Identify the differences between real-time and historic data.
Learn how to access and utilise each data type in TRAC.
Pulsar's data comes in two forms: real-time data and historic data. Both types serve unique purposes and provide different insights depending on your needs.
By understanding the differences between real-time and historic data, you can make informed decisions on which type of data best serves your needs, ultimately enhancing your research and analysis capabilities in TRAC.
How can I collect data within TRAC?
You can find options for collecting both real-time and historic data in TRAC from the Search Management > Status menu, as shown below. From here you can collect data in real-time or historically. Historical availability will depend on the data sources you have enabled in your search.
Collecting Real-time Data
Real-time data collection means collecting data from the moment you initiate a real-time search onwards.
You can schedule real-time collection to commence at a later date in the future or start collecting data immediately.
Real-time collection can run infinitely, can be manually paused, or you can set a date in the future when you want the data collection to automatically stop.
Posts are collected at regular intervals, 247, and the frequency of data collection during a 24 hour period depends on the data source, for example, real-time X data is collected every 90 seconds.
📝 Note: Real-time data is available for all TRAC data sources.
Top Tip: When using TRAC to collect posts related to a time-limited event or campaign, you can schedule an end date for the real-time data collection to cease.
Collecting Historical Data
Historic data is content from the past, which is delivered to your TRAC searches based on a time period you specify. A search can contain both real-time data and historical data; or can have real-time data only; or can have historical data only.
To help you manage the amount of data you will collect historically, every historical data order comes with a data volume preview. If you are happy with your volume previews, you can proceed with launching your historical data collection.
📝 Note: All historical data orders, up to 250K, are authorised automatically by the system, whilst orders above 250K will require authorisation by customer success or an account manager.
Not all data sources have historical data access. Click here to learn more about historical data availability.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article! 📚
If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support team via live chat. 🚀