Custom Entity Relationships in Time Range

Samir Jones
Samir Jones Active Partner, Community Captain
100 Comments Third Anniversary 100 Up Votes 25 Likes

Are Custom Entities only working as a parent to the lowest level?

I'm struggling with the "Current Fiscal Year" (red mark).
In selection phases (i.e. a screen selection), the selection of the entity member "Current" on the "Current Fiscal Year" won't apply on the child "Fiscal Year" (member "22/23" in this case).

However, whenever I do a selection on "Current Month" (green mark), the relevant child in "Month" is selected.

I tried the same thing in a different Data Model, where "Day" was the lowest level.
Since "Month" wasn't the lowest level anymore, the "Current Month" stopped working.

We are on version 12.6.01

No children are selected

"Current Month" works fine.

Accepted Answer

  • James Packham
    James Packham Employee
    Fourth Anniversary 25 Up Votes 5 Likes Level 100: Foundations of Building in Board
    Answer ✓

    Hi Samir

    With custom time entities there is no automated association between indirect levels of the hierarchy - in this case I would go into the Custom Relationships view, select Month and then select Current Fiscal Year to see the existing mappings between the 2 levels - it may be blank under column Current Fiscal Year. I would do similar checks up and down the entire time hierarchy. The possible resolution here is either to associate the months manually in the Custom Relationships screen (which could be time-consuming) or to create a data reader for Month and its Custom Time entity parents (including Fiscal Year) which will effectively 'normalise' those associations.

    James

Answers

  • Samir Jones
    Samir Jones Active Partner, Community Captain
    100 Comments Third Anniversary 100 Up Votes 25 Likes

    @James Packham

    Thank you for your quick and detailed reply.

    I will try to find a user friendly way to relate "Custom Fiscal Year" to "Month", that can be based on "Current Month"

    Thank you :-)

  • Hello Samir,

    as said there is not a "normalization" action for time tree out of a full tree reload by datareader.
    Have you thought about using a mapping cube by Fiscal Year and a dedicated additional dimension (Preivious, Current, Next) to drive select on desired FIscal Year?

  • Samir Jones
    Samir Jones Active Partner, Community Captain
    100 Comments Third Anniversary 100 Up Votes 25 Likes

    Hello @Leone Scaburri

    The reason I want an Entity instead of a Cube is because I will use the Entity as a Block Reference in data views.

    We had the Cube solution from the beginning but it didn't fulfill all the needs.