Learn the best ways to use the Board platform, directly from the internal Center of Excellence. Best Practices have been developed to be applicable in most situations, by general consensus. This section is frequently updated to keep you informed of the latest capabilities and techniques offered in the platform to optimize your planning operations.

Best Practices

Learn the best ways to use the platform, in most situations.

Drill Actions
1. Abstract Board offers multiple drill options, it’s important to consider the requirements when planning or setting up drill options and to design the solution accordingly. 2. Context Board offers multiple options when drilling into data, which is the right one to use depends on the specific requirements – whether the…
Selection Options in Procedures
1. Abstract Board technology allows different types of select, static, or dynamic queries. In particular, in procedures, it’s possible to choose between three methods that can seem very similar: Selection (fixed) Select Entity based on Cube Dynamic selection (from the “Select” step) Although they can give the same result…
Dataflow common mistakes and best practices
1. Abstract The dataflow is the main action to perform calculations between cubes, it is used in all the processes of the application, therefore it is very important to know how to set up a dataflow in the best possible way, to obtain the correct results with the best performances. 2. Context In this article, we will first…
Data Access Control Architecture
1. Abstract Database and Application security refers in general to the range of tools designed to establish and preserve data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. In Board terms it is the definition of the various access levels so that the users are presented and can modify only data relevant to them and for which…
Best Practices in Writing Procedures
1. Abstract Most probably every Board application will have procedures to cover interactivity by the user (e.g., navigation), perform calculations (e.g., processing plan data) or run other backend processes like creating a backup. To provide the best maintainability, quality, and robustness, some guidelines should be…
Moving Data
1. Abstract Often customers’ requirements are to copy data from one element to another. Typical examples are copy processes from one version to another or to copy data from an existing reference product to a newly created product as an initialization. The calculation logic in those examples is the same and can be applied…
Synchronize multiple data model
1. Abstract In the case of an architecture with several data models, the synchronization process may be required to update metadata and data. Defining which data model should be the master and how to set up synchronization is of primary importance. 2. Context In complex and cross-functional applications, having a single…
Custom Time Entities – Generic Month example
1. Abstract Custom time entities are a subset within the time range section in the BOARD database. They are mainly adopted during the application to intercept those time analyses which cannot be implemented with only the standard time function available by default in the BOARD data model. Since they are limited in BOARD,…
Reporting Layer: Optimize a report
1. Abstract Users are more and more demanding and are looking for the right balance between the correctness of the result and the scalability of the solution at the same time. Improving response time has always been a top priority, therefore the purpose of this document would be to explain the main best practices to apply…
Initialization process, Versioning and Simulation
1. Abstract Initialization process is a common topic on many projects. In its most common definition is the pre-population of a Scenario/Version with reference data so the planning/analysis can be quicker. This process can easily become challenging since it often deviates from a simple copy and includes also recalculations…
Entity Definition - Concatenation or not
1. Abstract In complex applications, we often face a situation where we have too many dimensions structuring the cubes. In such cases, it is necessary to evaluate the impacts on the usability of the application, and to measure the risks on the overall performance. In case of performance issues, one of the possible…
The Backup Mentality
1. Abstract Each Board environment should foresee an appropriate backup policy for the existing Data Models, should it be a development, sandbox or production environment. Such backup policy must always be present and it should be developed on top of the standard backup policies implemented by the cloud team for disaster…
Comparison between different versions or scenarios in the same report
1. Abstract During the implementation of any application, a typical request is to combine multi-scenario or multi-version information in the same view to promote delta analysis and quick data comparison. Board plays an important role due to its flexibility and allows a solution to be achieved in several ways to provide the…
Auto Max Item Number
1. Abstract One of the initial steps of the development phase in a project is the creation of entities. The most important property of an Entity is the Max Item Number which needs to be defined carefully, considering the effect it has on the performance of the application. 2. Context One of the entities’ most important…
Broadcasting & Notification Tool
1. Abstract Board offers the possibility to have a notification system to inform people about different events that are happening in the application, it also offers the possibility to share information with a larger population outside the application. 2. Context Three different features allow us to spread and share…
Capsule Procedure vs Datamodel Procedure
1. Abstract While developers are facing procedure creation, they need to understand when it is appropriate to use data model procedures vs Capsule procedures. 2. Context As developers, it is our responsibility to always keep the long-term maintainability of our solutions in mind. Procedures must be developed in a…
Navigation - Tips & Common Mistakes
1. Abstract Talking about navigation, there are several best practices and tips to avoid common mistakes and sources of issues. 2. Content No calculation in navigation procedures: based on what has been discussed above the usage of navigation procedures should be very limited since most of the data access logic is covered…
Application Navigation Design
1. Abstract Navigation is "the act of moving between screens of an application to complete tasks". It is about managing the path that the users can follow when using an application and therefore it involves defining the different navigation steps (based on the level of flexibility required) and eventually combining them…
Sparsity
1. Abstract During the creation of a new cube, the question is usually about whether dimensions should be dense or sparse. A cube can store a value for any combination of its dimension’s members: for example, a three-dimensional Cube (e.g. month, product and customer), has a cell for any triplet. If every customer…
Use of Nexel
1. Abstract Nexel is a hugely powerful tool but it has its limitations, it’s important to understand when it’s appropriate to use Nexel and how best to store the original definition screen. 2. Context Use of Nexel can be hugely powerful, and in some cases necessary in order to achieve certain outcomes, however there are…
Managing high-volume entities
1. Abstract In complex environments, it happens to manage elements with a high volume. In such cases, it is crucial to identify the possible cascading effects on the rest of the model and what measures need to be taken when loading entities with millions of elements and evaluate in advance the possible impact on cubes,…
Temporary Cube vs Staging Cubes
1. Abstract When developers create a simple or complex procedure, they need to know that they have an advanced feature to ease their job by keeping the database simple and lean. This feature is the temporary Cubes. 2. Context Since B11’s introduction, developers can leverage the temporary Cube to store data temporarily and…
Cube definition insights
1. Abstract Insights on cubes definition and options. 2. Context The following best practices are applicable every time a new cube needs to be created in a data model. 3. Content Some limitations and constraints but also tips and guidelines from best practices and real-life cases. Cube’s dimensions can range from one to…
The Use of Tab Container
1. Abstract As soon as developers face screen creation, in particular, if we are talking about reports or BI Dashboards, where usually a lot of different data has to be shown, they need to use carefully the layouts to avoid any screen object overflow and, consequently, less impactful data meaning. 2. Context In the…
Multiple Cubes or Measure Entity
1. Abstract Using a measure as a dimension in a Cube should always be weighted based on the aim. The balance between the Cube size and Cube proliferation, how the measure will be shown in a layout, and any calculation between different measures. Board exploits a multidimensional and a multi-Cube database. When designing…
Data Load Guidelines
1. Abstract While developers are focused on data model creation and data integration, they need to remember that in addition to the data model structure, they have to fill this structure with data. Entities and Cubes have to be filled with meaningful data to be seen by the users. This document provides a standardized…
Data Transformation
1. Abstract The data transformation process can be done in three different ways: 1. with SQL transformations directly in the data source or in the Data Reader Object 2. with the out-of-the-box Board ETL function 3. after the data has been imported into Board by using the dataflow engine. The type and number of data sources…
Offset Rules
1. Abstract Offset rules are a type of rule which allow you to reference multiple blocks in the same layout as part of your calculation, they can be very powerful but should be used with caution. 2. Context Offset rules can be very powerful in certain circumstances but should be used with caution due to the complexity they…
Rule Consolidation
1. Abstract The rule is a key functionality that allows on-the-fly calculations between members of the same entity. The consolidation is a further step to physically store the result in the data model. This step is needed only in specific cases, usually when the calculated rows need to be reused as a source for following…
Use of Number Scaling
1. Abstract A common requirement when displaying data, particularly financial data, is to use scaling – whether that’s displaying numbers in thousands, millions or whatever makes sense in order to make the displayed data more easily readable. 2. Context There are multiple ways in which scaling can be introduced when…

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