Correct. However, this applies then to all cubes in the TM1 database, and hence for all widgets.
To me, this seems to be too broad because in certain cubes, or widgets, I can imagine that overwriting a 0 at consolidated levels does not do any harm.
An extra message would be useful to users who are not very familiar with data entry. Typical case is my current customer where hundreds of sales people need to enter budgets 2025. There you very likely have issues of exploded data volumes.
I never tried it, but would a }CellSecurity rule that checks for the value of 0 at C level be an option (if N leve, CONTINUE) ? If 0 then apply READ.
Or one of the other security cubes like a }SecurityOverlay. Does anyone have experience with this approach in a larger model ?
Original Message:
Sent: Tue September 24, 2024 03:45 PM
From: Scott Brown
Subject: PAW Book in Edit mode - Updating cube data should not be possible
Hi,
At a system level, there is a configuration to turn off allowing entry to consolidations that are zero.
Administration->Databases-><Particular Database>->Configuration->Modeling->Spreading
ProportionSpreadToZeroCells*
Allows you to perform a proportional spread from a consolidation without generating an error when all the leaf cells contain zero values.
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Scott Brown
Original Message:
Sent: Tue September 24, 2024 02:20 PM
From: Wim Gielis
Subject: PAW Book in Edit mode - Updating cube data should not be possible
Hello Stuart,
This new option is definitely useful and makes it safer.
What I would think is even more safe, is blocking input on 0's at consolidated levels.
If that could be specified on a widget by widget basis, or on a cube basis if needed, then that would solve many issues related to data explosion / backing out wrong data with slow transaction querying / etc.
Or, a confirmation message box asking: "Are you sure to spread data over 1-2-3-4-... consolidated elements that make up your current cell ?", Yes or No
The default for the widget could even be to disallow entering data on consolidated 0, and the developer/admin person should toggle it ON to allow.
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Wim Gielis
Original Message:
Sent: Tue September 24, 2024 01:00 PM
From: STUART KING
Subject: PAW Book in Edit mode - Updating cube data should not be possible
We can consider a read only option for cube viewer and single cell widgets. I think this could just be an option regardless of edit mode.
Here is a sneak preview of a similar new cube viewer property that we are adding in November.
When the property is disabled users can only spread from consolidations using the spread dialog.
This is another example of a 'safety' feature that prevents accidental changes to the data.
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Stuart King
Product Manager
IBM Planning Analytics
Original Message:
Sent: Mon September 23, 2024 02:03 AM
From: Magnus Eckerbom
Subject: PAW Book in Edit mode - Updating cube data should not be possible
Hi Jose
No, making the cube read only would not work as we are talking about super users, if anything they have more access than our normal users. Of course you could build something like a "read only toggle" like Steven suggested, but that would make our security model more complex that really needed.
This is really about the expectations from a user or superuser on what should be possible to do when building in PAW books, and having the data open for input and changes is, for our user at least, counter intuitive. You are constantly moving things around and changing, and having the possibility to change the under lying data in the cubes is a risk. Of-course we train them and have this as a key point in our PAW training material for report builders, but people are people ...
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Magnus Eckerbom
Principal Consultant & Partner
XLENT
Malmö Sweden
Original Message:
Sent: Fri September 20, 2024 01:25 PM
From: Jose Luis Señas Cuesta
Subject: PAW Book in Edit mode - Updating cube data should not be possible
Hi Magnus,
Maybe I am too obvious, but, have you tryed to make the cube READ only fore those users?
Best regards.
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Jose Luis Senas
Data Analyst
Kimberly-Clark Mexico
Mexico City
Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 19, 2024 02:42 AM
From: Magnus Eckerbom
Subject: PAW Book in Edit mode - Updating cube data should not be possible
We are in the process of migrating a lot of our TM1 Web reports to Planning Analytics Books.
When doing this at least two persons, both very experienced PA/TM1 Developers, have made the same dangerous mistake. When editing a book you can also change the cube data in for example an exploration. This in itself might be ok, but what makes it dangerous is when you try to delete an object in the book by pressing DELETE on the keyboard. If you have selected a cell in an exploration, pressing DELETE in edit mode will delete the values in the cube, and if you are on a consolidated level it will delete all data in the cube.
Might be that we are missing a setting somewhere, but it would make a lot of sense to not allow any cube data changes when in edit mode in a book. The same way an action button behaves in edit mode, clicking it do not run any associated TI processes.
Ideally we would like our super users build their own reports, but this behavior make us hesitant. Most experienced user tend to use the keyboard more than menu buttons and right clicks, and the DELETE button is frequently used.
Any suggestions on how to mitigate this issue?
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Magnus Eckerbom
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