Focal Point
Objectives - Compare to Previous loses Time Dimension Value when drilling to Measures

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September 26, 2008, 04:10 PM
Moogle
Objectives - Compare to Previous loses Time Dimension Value when drilling to Measures
Hi,

When you run the Objectives - Compare to Previous report, there's a Dimension tree on the left. If you click on TIME, and then choose a year or quarter, it filters the report output to show only have values matching what you clicked on.

Clicking on an objective name brings up a multi-drill menu and the first option is Show Measures - Compare to Previous, which runs that report. Problem is, that report is not filtered by the same time dimesion, which I believe it should be. When you have the Measures report showing, you can still click on the Dimensions tree, but as soon as you do, it regenerates the Objectives report instead of filtering the Measures report.

I'd be happy with one of these solutions:

-Drilling to the Measures report could pass the time variable, but what is that variable called?
-Clicking the Dimension tree when you are at the Measures report instead of re-running the Objectives report.

What do you think?

Cheers,

Joey


-WebFOCUS 8.2.01 on Windows
September 26, 2008, 04:37 PM
Bob Jude Ferrante
It's true. In terms of the eras of PMX those reports are absolutely paleolithic. They don't receive parameters from anywhere but the tree, and the things you click on the three are not "sticky." Each click sends only the thing you clicked on to the report.

The Time variable is called, drumroll please, TIME. It is set to the fully qualified literal representing a point in time (a year, quarter or month most typically). All dimension values are padded out to 30 characters per level. So the value of TIME for Q1/2008 pads out to:

2008                          1


Note that 26 spaces follow 2008. That's because level values max out at 30 characters per level in PMX (which is more than enough for almost anyone).

If you wanted to refer to a particular level value PMX has different variables to help you precisely refer to those levels. For example, the year level is TIME_LEVEL01 and the (generally) quarter level is TIME_LEVEL02. The values of these are TIME_LEVEL01_VALUE and TIME_LEVEL02_VALUE. There are also special variables for time such as TIME_LEVEL0102_VALUE and TIME_LEVEL0103_VALUE because humans concatenate how we refer to time (2008/Q1 and 2008/03 for third month in 2008).

Of course the actual values used and even their layout vary depending on how you have configured the Time Dimension. YOu might be using Y/Q/M or you might be using Y/Period/Week.

Hope this helps!


Bob Jude Ferrante
Director of Business and Development
WebFOCUS Performance Management
Bob_Ferrante@ibi.com
917-339-5105

I'll take any questions about PMF - business or technical - anytime!