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Re: Substitution Formula in message
Thanks Helmut,
I just tried your solution and it still didn't work but I have realised the error was mine.
At some point the default data model changed and it was running off a different one.
The confusing thing is that the debugger was showing the correct selections from the data model associated with the screen (and the model I was intending the procedure run on) but the procedure itself was operating on a different data model.
I appreciate the help nonetheless, I will check this out in the future.
Edward
2025 April Badge of Impact
Happy April! This month's Badge of Impact focuses on Board's incredible Academy and the wealth of knowledge that can be gained from it. Our Academy is your go-to resource where you can find courses to enhance your skill and expertise to get results from Intelligent Planning with Board, and we'd love to get your feedback on it as you earn your April Badge of Impact.
Thank you to our fantastic March badge earners for their contributions, @Fethi ZERARA, @Samir Jones, @Mads Meissner, @Nico Weber, @Mindy Waltz and @Karry Schupp. Awesome feedback as usual, and remember that it's never too late to reply to a past month's prompt!
2025 brings big plans for Community Captains program. If you're interested in joining the ranks of our Captains, please comment 'I'm interested' below, and we'll follow up with you directly. If you're a frequent contributor to the Badge of Impact program—you've already got what it takes to be a Captain. Expand your knowledge share, and join the Captains!
Interested in learning more? Check out these recent Badge of the Month/Impact responses:
April question of the month
Academy: How has the Board Academy improved your Board practice?
Added challenge: Call out a specific key learning from the training, or share one of the hardest challenges that you overcame to pass? Share your feedback in the comments and earn yourself the April badge.
And if you've taken, and completed, our latest Advanced Developer course, let us know your thoughts on it below as well.
Re: 2025 April Badge of Impact
The Board Academy significantly enhanced my ability to design and optimize financial planning and reporting solutions. One of the most valuable learnings was mastering data flow optimization — ensuring efficient data transformations and minimizing processing times in complex Board applications.
A key challenge I overcame during the training was handling large-scale data processing while maintaining performance. By applying best practices in algorithm efficiency and cube structuring, I was able to streamline calculations and improve execution speed. This experience has directly translated into building more scalable and high-performing Board solutions in my projects.
Re: Is there a way to only show one direction of procedure link in Impact Analysis
Hi Edward,
I’ve come across the same issue when working with procedure-to-procedure analysis. I usually export the data to Excel for further analysis, but when I want to filter on one direction inside Impact Analysis, I use a simple filter like:
Object Equals "Name of the procedure that contains the call procedure"
This helps me isolate only the outgoing calls from that procedure and avoid seeing the reverse (duplicate) links.
Akrem
Re: YoY Growth Calculation - Dataflow
Hi @Efraim,
As Bart correctly explained above, the "Offset" function will reference a specified number of periods based on the dimensions of your cube. In your case, since the cube is dimensioned by Month, you'll need to set the offset to -12 in order to reference the same month from the previous year for each Month in the cube. If your cube were dimensioned by Year, an offset of -1 would suffice.
Kind regards,
Hamza
Re: blob export
Hi @Shailesh , the wrong link was posted above. The old manual version that @Alexander Kappes was referencing is here: Blob InfoCubes
And for Board 14, we have update documentation on Blob InfoCubes, which you can read here:
Mapping Blob Cubes
Hope this helps!
Kind Regards,
Product Management Team
How to use validation rule to avoid special characters in text cubes
1. Abstract
Text cubes in Board applications serve as flexible data entry points, allowing users to input free text such as comments, narratives, or descriptions. While these cubes offer a simple interface for capturing data, they also come with a set of challenges due to the variety of text input formats that users may paste or type.
A common issue is the pasting of text from various sources (e.g. PDFs, Word files, Excel sheets, Notepad). These external sources can introduce hidden or special characters that may interfere with subsequent data processing. These problematic characters might not be visible to the user, but they can cause errors when the data is extracted in a flat file and then reloaded into the system or in other systems. Some of these problematic characters are: carriage returns, line feeds, and tabs.
2. Context
This solution is applicable in any scenario where it is necessary to prevent special characters in text cubes, particularly when the data is exported to flat files. In such cases, the presence of special characters can cause issues when reloading the extracted file into Board using a Data Reader or into other systems.
3. Content
Text cubes are largely used in Board applications with different scopes like:
Enter Comments and Narratives: Text cubes are often used in situations where users need to provide contextual information or explanations related to specific data points. These can be simple comments, detailed narratives, or other forms of textual input.
Edit Entity Descriptions: Text cubes are needed to manage the localization of Entity members, where the translated descriptions are collected in cubes.
This article shows how to enable the Validation rule to prevent users from entering undesired characters in the text cube.
Let’s assume that text cubes are used to allow users to edit an entity description, in this case, the common need is to:
- Avoid the usage of special characters like ENTER, TAB
- Limit the length of the text inserted by the user
Both cases cause issues when exporting those values to be re-imported in Board using a Data Reader.
In this case, the use of Validation Rules is very helpful using the function "search" to find the special character using the ASCII code.
3.1 How to write the validation rule
Following the example, two validation rules are added to validate data entry on block a:
The rule is applied on the block “a” itself.
First validation rule: “len(a)<513” is aimed to notify and block users if the text length is higher than 512 characters. This was done because the text was then reloaded as Entity description and exported to a SQL DB where the data type for the corresponding column was a “char(512)”.
Second validation rule: “IFError(Search(Char(10),a),0)=0”. This rule is using 2 functions:
- Search(Char10,a): this function searches for the ENTER character, whose ASCII Code is Char(10), in the block “a”. This function returns the number representing the position of the specified character.
- IFError: this is added to the formula because the Search function returns an error if the specified character is not found. So, in case of the character is not found the IFError is forcing the value to 0: IFError(<search>,0)
The formula is flexible and can be used to block any special character. To do so, simply use the correct ASCII code for the desired character in the search function (e.g., TAB is represented by “Char(9)”).
4. Conclusion
The use of validation rules is highly flexible and gives users full control over the data entry process. One key advantage of using validation rules, as opposed to a background dataflow for text cleaning, is that errors are immediately visible to the user on the screen. The user is prompted to correct the error before proceeding, ensuring they are fully aware of the issue. This approach prevents data entry from continuing until the problem is resolved, which helps avoid overwriting existing data.
Spring forward with a Board Community refresh!
Spring is a season for change, and the Board Community is all about it! We’ve listened to your feedback and given the Community a refresh, making it even easier to navigate, find content, and stay connected. Check out what’s new:
Threaded discussions: Deeper conversations, improved engagement
The Platform and Academy forums are always buzzing! Now with five levels of visibility, you can respond directly to a specific comment more easily without losing track of the conversation flow. Use the ‘reply’ button on a comment to start a thread; Use the ‘comment’ option to start fresh.
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Improved layout: Visually appealing for better navigation
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Upcoming events: Stay current on the latest happenings
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We hope you find the improvements…refreshing! As we continue to make user experience improvements throughout the year, remember to select ‘follow’ on the blog page and set your notification preferences in your profile to get automatic updates delivered in the method of your choice. Also, take a few minutes to give us your feedback on your Board Community experience.
Missed the presentation of Board Foresight & Board Signals? Or still have questions?
Thank you to everyone who joined our webinar yesterday! We were excited to introduce our latest products, Board Foresight and Board Signals. Your enthusiasm for these innovative tools is truly inspiring. With AI and economic intelligence, these products are set to revolutionize Enterprise Planning.
In case you have missed the webinar, we invite you to watch the recording.
We're thrilled by the interest and questions we've received following our webinar. To ensure we address all your queries, we'll be preparing a follow-up with more detailed insights. A great chance for you to add your personal questions if you haven't yet. Please feel free to drop them in the comments.
Re: Difference between using a Rule in a Data Block vs. in the Layout below a Data Block
The latter (the rule as a separate block) can act on algorithm blocks not just cube blocks.
I believe the main reason for the two methods is that it's just a way to display the original cube/block value and the rule alongside it. Without having to reference the cube in this case twice (one with a rule applied and one without).
I think one issue you may have by applying the rule as a seperate block is being able to use it in calculations because of the order of operations that the dataview and board engine will carry out on the layout.
IE Cube>Algorithm>Rule>Nexel as an example. Would be the order of operation in which Board layers it's calculations.
Edward