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Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

  • 1.  Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Thu October 20, 2022 04:36 PM
    Edited by System Fri January 20, 2023 04:18 PM
    Summary

    Modeling, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, multidimensional analysis-there's a lot you can do with IBM Planning Analytics. Chances are you're just scratching the surface.

    Join us live for our monthly "Ask me Anything" session, designed to answer all of your burning IBM Planning Analytics questions from product roadmap to upgrades, hosted by a member of our Product Management team. Each month we'll feature different members of the IBM Planning Analytics team from development, to quality assurance, to lab services.

    Please join us in this on-demand recording. Share your questions below and register to watch here.


    ------------------------------
    Michael McGeein
    ------------------------------
    #PlanningAnalyticswithWatson


  • 2.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Tue November 15, 2022 10:59 AM
    Hi Mike,

    Any chance of an improvement to the find/replace functionality within Workspace TI/rules editor?

    Perhaps this is already implemented?  We are some way behind on version.

    Thanks

    James

    ------------------------------
    James McCarthy
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Tue November 15, 2022 02:16 PM
      |   view attached
    Hi James,
    This functionality is available using the shortcut keys.

    Best Regards,

    ------------------------------
    Svetlana Pestsova
    IBM Planning Analytics Product Manager
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Wed November 16, 2022 04:32 AM
    Thanks! Had not seen these.  Think we'd all assumed ctrl+h would be replace.

    ------------------------------
    James McCarthy
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Wed November 16, 2022 10:23 AM
    James,
    we can't use this key combo as it conflicts with Chrome (our supported browser) - it's opening the history page in a new tab.
    Best Regards,

    ------------------------------
    Svetlana Pestsova
    IBM Planning Analytics Product Manager
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Thu November 17, 2022 03:10 AM
    Hi Mike,

    I have 2 questions for the AMA PA session in December:

    1) I've received a lot of security bulletins recently; the normal recommendation is to upgrade some or all of the PA components. Quite a few of our clients are using IBM PA Express and we use CA for authentication and in some cases for reporting and analysis - so, for the PA components it's fine, because they can be downloaded via Fix Central. However, the knock-on effect of upgrading PA components is that they will no longer be compatible with the installed CA version, and the CA version that we would require is NOT available via Fix Central. Is there any way that a compatible version of CA could also be released via Fix Central, or that PA Express could have a more regular release cycle which would allow us to protect our clients in relation to these security vulnerabilities?

    2) When developing PAW applications for customers, I've noticed that when I'm typing into a dimension tile or selector widget, sometimes the letters that I'm typing don't appear on the screen and I discover that I have skipped several letters; it seems to be intermittent, but when it does happen it means that I have to type really slow to make sure that what I want appears on the screen. I wonder if this is an issue that anyone else has come across and if there is any solution to it?

    Thanks and Regards,

    Mark Hackett

    ------------------------------
    Mark Hackett
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    IBM Champion
    Posted Mon December 05, 2022 03:32 AM
    Hi Mark

    Re.2) I often experience the same thing and I have not yet found a pattern that causes this.

    ------------------------------
    Jesper Poulsen
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Mon December 05, 2022 05:02 AM
    Thanks Jesper and Mark Wragg. Glad to see that I'm not the only one experiencing this.

    Mark

    ------------------------------
    Mark Hackett
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Fri December 09, 2022 04:26 PM
    Hi Mark,
    For your second question regarding working with a dimension tile or a selector widget, that was a known problem that was fixed. 

    Best regards,

    ------------------------------
    Svetlana Pestsova
    IBM Planning Analytics Product Manager
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Mon December 12, 2022 02:50 AM
    That's good to hear - thanks very much Svetlana!

    Mark

    ------------------------------
    Mark Hackett
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Fri November 18, 2022 11:09 AM
    Edited by System Fri January 20, 2023 04:14 PM
    Hi Mike,

    I have 3 questions for the AMA session in December:

    1. The new cube viewer looks great and will be a huge improvement. However several of our clients do not like the placement of the "Target selecting" functionality. Stuart commented on an enhancement request regarding this topic. Could you talk about what the plan is and if there is an ETA for the change? Also, are there more new formatting capabilities coming for the new cube viewer?

    2. Are there any plans to improve the formatting capabilities for both
    - "synchronization tiles" as they are called in the new cube viewer, meaning dimensions which are dragged out from cube views
    - "selector widgets" these are added by right-clicking a dimension in the data tree on the left. E.g. hierarchy formatting and text formatting in general would be great

    3. Are there any plans to provide the possibility to synchronize dimensions between books in "Applications"? That's the one thing preventing some of our clients to start using "Applications". Instead we have books with navigation buttons using the "Pass context" functionality. There is also an enhancement request which Stuart commented on.

    Thank you!
    Mario

    ------------------------------
    Mario Hasler
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Mon November 21, 2022 03:26 AM
    Hi,

    re Mark Hackett's point 2 issue, i.e. sometimes the letters that I'm typing don't appear on the screen and I discover that I have skipped several letters,

    I can confirm that I have experienced this too.

    Following on from Mario's point 3, we actually do use Applications and also pass context when navigating between books.

    The issue I have is that when you navigate to a different book from within an Application, you find yourself outside the Application, even if the book you are navigating to is part of the Application. The only exception is if the book you are navigating to is the first book in the Application, or the book you are navigating to has been previously opened from within the application. In these cases you remain within the application.

    regards,

    Mark




    ------------------------------
    Mark Wragg
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Mon November 21, 2022 08:20 AM
    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for your comments.

    "Following on from Mario's point 3, we actually do use Applications and also pass context when navigating between books."
    How do you do that? The functionality which we are missing within an "Application" is the possibility to "pass context" without using action buttons when navigating from one book in a section to another book in a different section. Does that work for you? We could not find any way to make this work.


    "The issue I have is that when you navigate to a different book from within an Application, you find yourself outside the Application, even if the book you are navigating to is part of the Application. The only exception is if the book you are navigating to is the first book in the Application, or the book you are navigating to has been previously opened from within the application. In these cases you remain within the application."
    Yes, that is also an issue we have.

    Regards,
    Mario




    ------------------------------
    Mario Hasler
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Mon November 21, 2022 12:35 PM
    Hi Mario,

    I was just making the point that we use the pass context option to navigate between books within applications, and it allows us to pass the relevant dimension element to the targeted book.

    regards,

    Mark

    ------------------------------
    Mark Wragg
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    IBM Champion
    Posted Tue November 22, 2022 02:14 AM
    Hi Mike

    Are there any plans to have Report Bursting capabilities in PAW, with email capabilities. These could be burst either on a regular basis or in the event that a defined threshold is breached ?

    Many Thanks

    ------------------------------
    [Armand] [Mizan]
    [Business Analytics solutions Specialist]
    ------------------------------



  • 16.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Tue November 22, 2022 03:18 AM
    Hi Mike,

    Another question for AMA session - do you have any further update / clarification with regard to potential additional costs to customer with regard to Docker licensing now that Mirantis seem to be taking this component over from Microsoft (as per post from Walter Coffen on 14th Nov)?

    Thanks,

    Mark

    ------------------------------
    Mark Hackett
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Tue November 22, 2022 08:46 AM
    This needs better clarification as we only run Docker as its needed for PAW but don't have enterprise plans to support or run Docker.  If this is going to be decoupled and there might be a cost associated with it then there has be options for customers and I almost feel IBM should have a PAW Docker version and work out the pricing.

    Shahhere


  • 18.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    IBM Champion
    Posted Mon November 28, 2022 12:49 PM
    I happened across this link earlier and demands further investigation:Podman for Windows
    No guarantees, express or otherwise. If I get some time over the holidays may investigate and post feedback unless someone beats me to it.

    ------------------------------
    George Tonkin
    Business Partner
    MCI Consultants
    Johannesburg
    ------------------------------



  • 19.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    IBM Champion
    Posted Wed November 30, 2022 08:32 AM
    HI Mike and team, probably one for @Ted Phillips.

    In PAfE, we are trying to use TM1ELLIST to return a list of members per a given set.
    The list is returned using principal names even though the set is saved with an alias.
    Apparently supplying an alias using the AliasOverride argument is not support in PAfE (for a PAfE function??)

    Apparently this is a known defect and will not be fixed, rather the documentation will be aligned. Guessing it will say something like TM1ELLIST always returns the principal name...

    This does not sound right imo, has someone got it wrong? Case TS011393302

    Assuming they are correct, TM1ELLIST created the array of values but you then need to couple a DBRA to it to yield the alias. Referencing the TM1ELLIST as an array with the hash suffix to address the spill range does not work. Only the first element is referenced. Is this going to be reviewed/addressed, for all similar functions?

    Thank you.


    ------------------------------
    George Tonkin
    Business Partner
    MCI Consultants
    Johannesburg
    ------------------------------



  • 20.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Thu December 01, 2022 12:22 PM
    Edited by System Fri January 20, 2023 04:50 PM
    I'll check on the case ticket as I can but wanted to get you a quick reply, particularly since I've been rebooked and won't be able to answer you live in next week's AMA.

    It's true that PA for Excel does not yet support the alias option for TM1ElList functions, that's a current documented limitation. In terms of the outlook for it operating that argument, always interested to further the conversation but I would say it is not a shoe-in. Our hope would be that we are now offering and will offer better ways to service this particular class of need. Example: for a 'make a set from an expression with no unnecessary cube dependency' type workloads, TM1Set (in addition to being hierarchy-aware) can do this.




    TM1ElList as a function has some intractable issues because it originated as a TM1Web-only function first, and the expectation was that you would blind write it in Perspectives, and the publish to the web to actually use it. When PA for Excel onboarded the function into desktop Excel, it became apparent that the consumption story for the plural outputs (as TM1Web did it) was not viable. So, PA for Excel's implementation has done it in the necessary way for it to function in Excel, but it requires considerable sophistication to write a single workbook using TM1ElList that works in both UIs. We don't consider this to be an acceptable outcome, nor would it be appropriate to break any Websheets that were written in the past. Given that it's also not in line with our other go-forwards spreadsheet formula concepts (hierarchies support, parameterized datasources, etc) I believe we would all be better served by accelerating delivery of the new stuff.

    I'd like to hear more about how you're using TM1ElList, to make sure our sense of the use cases and consumption techniques in the field are solid.


    --


    I'd need to get back to you on the spill referencing question, but I think that has less to do with TM1ElList being spillable, and more to do with our custom functions taking dynamic array references as input. A sample would be helpful, but I don't think we've declared much yet about dynamic arrays and our consumption story. Part of the struggle there is that formulas like DBRA were designed decades ago when there was no such thing, and that PA for Excel is still expected to operate across a broad range of Excel versions (including those that do not have such features). That doesn't mean no/never, but it does mean it's not as easy as having a lowest common denominator conversation where we can rely on dynamic arrays for consumption 100% of the time.

    ------------------------------
    Ted Phillips
    IBM
    ------------------------------



  • 21.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Thu December 01, 2022 05:08 PM
    I'll add my two cents here and observe generally that Excel dynamic arrays are truly a game changer. Arguably the single biggest change in Excel ever. The possibilities for building elegant and dynamic solutions are now unbounded.

    I have made extensive use of TM1ELLIST in applications I have developed for consumption in desktop Excel. Ironically enough, as a "workaround" to the issue of aliases not being supported, I was able to make use of another Excel DA function (BYROW) referencing the array returned by TM1ELLIST and embedding a SUBNM in BYROW, thereby creating a DA of elements returned by TM1ELLIST but with the alias returned by the SUBNM. That list can then be used in dropdowns, etc. But at the end of the day, that's a "workaround".

    I think that as PAfE evolves, and applications being developed with it evolve, being able to incorporate DA functionality is extremely important.


    ------------------------------
    Mitchell Powell
    ------------------------------



  • 22.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    IBM Champion
    Posted Thu December 01, 2022 11:56 PM
    Thank you very much for the detailed response Ted.

    In terms of uses case current for TM1ElList I have the following applications:
    • Custodian master data validations - lists based on MDX to show for example Products with missing attributes or other issues
    • Input sheets - Customers select a C level item from any level and the TM1ElList returns the leaf members associated with it
    • Source list for automation processes e.g. Report bursting, QR generation, emailers etc.
    • Data validations - TM1ElList is bound to a data validation used for various applications e.g. report filters (These could be TM1Set, SUBNM's or Picklists too)
    • Additional detail or context - an input sheet or report may have an area where after an element is selected additional information is shown like children, parents etc. could be Periods e.g. rolling 13 months or Products, parent elements like Brand etc.
    TM1Set could replace the data validation (once it works on PAoC) as it caters for MDX. SUBNM and Picklists are largely static.

    On the spilling issue, my sample would simply be a TM1ElList in A2 for example with an adjacent DBRA(<server>:<dimension>,A2#,"Description") in B2.
    I understand that the traditional functions may not work as I expect but always try my luck hoping for a favourable outcome!

    ------------------------------
    George Tonkin
    Business Partner
    MCI Consultants
    Johannesburg
    ------------------------------



  • 23.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    IBM Champion
    Posted Fri December 02, 2022 01:26 AM
    Just to add what George has already added. The other usecase would be to make the custom reports semi dynamic by making the rows dynamic using this function (and perhaps columns aswell by wrapping this within TRANSPOSE function) and if we could somehow get the spilling work for dbrw formulas then the report could be made completely dynamic too.

    ------------------------------
    Amin Mohammed
    ------------------------------



  • 24.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    IBM Champion
    Posted Thu December 01, 2022 08:30 AM
    HI Mike,
    Clients who have been paying S&S each year and had to buy PAW licenses are still very unhappy or use something else.
    With V12 approaching, what is the message to clients? Migrate licenses at no cost? Trade up requiring additional expenditure and a rebate based S&S? Something else?

    ------------------------------
    George Tonkin
    Business Partner
    MCI Consultants
    Johannesburg
    ------------------------------



  • 25.  RE: Ask-Me-Anything: Planning Analytics - Dec. Edition

    Posted Thu December 08, 2022 03:42 PM

    Hi everyone,

    You can watch the on-demand recording here. Please share any of your questions below.



    ------------------------------
    Michael McGeein
    ------------------------------