In PMF is there anyway to set the default drill dimension? When we drill down on a metric (via “metric details…”), it goes to the time dimension. We would much rather have “metric details…” go to the non-time dimension, Organization. Is there a way to set this? I seem to recall that this is defined by the order in which you set up your dimensions in the measure definition screen. However, in the measure definition screen the Dimensions are set to “OT” (Organization Time). Also, in the Manage tab, under settings the default dimension is set to Organization.

Some example reports where we would like to have the drill down to first go to a non-time dimension by default:

Measures – Rolling 5 period (Today Page)
Metric – Performance Trend Grid
Analysis Designer

Curiously, the “Measures – Previous vs. Current” seems to drill to Organization.

Any help in how to set this up would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

-Seth

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SethW,

Generally the first dimension listed in the measure panel (the single-letter representation of the dimension) is the default for the Measure Detail drill. That's really the only effect the order of the dimension codes has - it controls the drill order for the dimensions.

There are exceptions - any report that sets the HIGH LEVEL SORT to something else - for example the Measures - Rolling 5 Period Report, which sets the HIGH LEVEL SORT to TIME - will override this.

There will shortly be a new setting in PMF that lets you control whether this happens, it's partially implemented but not for all views and reports. Should be available in the next major release (V6).

Thanks Bob,

Unfortunately we can not wait until version 6 comes out. What’s the best way to change the HIGH LEVEL SORT? The Rolling 5 periods would be a good example.

Does anyone else have a workaround? Our end users are not happy to waste clicks by having to drill through time before they could start drilling to another dimension.

-Seth

Hi Seth,

The report in question you are talking about is the measure detail report. This is run via the file a_meas_detail01.fex. The measure detail report is smart enough to pick up the sort field that was passed from the called report. The reason that the previous vs. current report correctly picked up the first dimension type is because there was no dimension sort to be picked up and used from this report.

If you put in the following code at the top of a_meas_detail01.fex after step :S00_A this will force the sort field in the report to be the first dimension type listed on the measures source form.

-******************************
-INCLUDE PMF_PM_MEAS_SRC

-SET &PRIMARY_DIM_TYPE = SUBSTR(&MSMEDM.LENGTH, &MSMEDM, 1, 1, 1, 'A1') ;

-INCLUDE PMF_DIMTYPES_SAVE

-REPEAT :S00_A_LP FOR &I FROM 1 TO &NUM_DIMTYPES
-SET &SUB = IF (&I LT 10) THEN '0' || &I ELSE &I ;

-IF (&DIMTYP.&SUB NE &PRIMARY_DIM_TYPE) THEN GOTO :S00_A_LP ;

-* Move the sort across filter to the second sort for filter
-* NOTE: Here you LOSE the 2nd vertical sort filter that was passed.
-SET &SORTBY2 = &SORTACROSS ;
-SET &DRILL_VAL2 = &DRILL_VAL3 ;

-* Set the default SORTACROSS sort field and initialize the across filter.
-* In this report, the SORTACROSS takes priority
-SET &SORTACROSS = &DIMNAM_VAR.&SUB ;
-SET &DRILL_VAL3 = ' ' ;

-:S00_A_LP
-******************************

NOTE: There is a gotcha in using this approach. You basically lose the 2nd vertical sort drill filter value from the called report. If you are OK with this downside this should get you where you'd like to go.

Make sure to document this for future reference and put this in a separate pmfcustom folder.

Good luck!
Mike

Thanks Mike. I also appreciate letting me know about the 2nd vertical sort drill gotcha. We'll try testing this out.

-Seth

I ended up using this technique for one of my reports, and it worked well. The loss of the second vertical sort did affect other reports, however, which manifested in some strange behaviour. I setup a new drill-down parm, called &DRILL_SOURCE, and made sure it was being passed with a custom a_get_drill_down.fex. In the a_meas_detail01.fex, I checked for the one report that I knew worked, and if it wasn't found, I skipped the whole block of code. Now my report will go to the non-time dimension on drill-down, and revert to default drill behaviour for all other reports.

Note for future reference that PMF has a setting that says *not* to use the default outside sort but to default to the measure's preferred sort order (if the outside sort is a Dimension). That feature will be fully implemented in the next major release (5.2.0, due out beginning of the Fall).

Hope that's interesting and you'll keep an eye out. At that point, this customization might not be needed any longer? Or are you doing this for a different reason?

thanks

I do look forward to being able to choose a "favourite" drill-down dimension, although I'd settle for a "favorite" one in the US.

I absolutely did the above work-around just to avoid seeing TIME upon drilling-down. I'll be able to remove the customization once the new feature is in place.

Cheers,

Joey