How to change the Time range in GCR

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edited April 2 in How-To Guides
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1. Abstract

In every Board application, the definition of the time range becomes very important because it guides the data that will be loaded and made visible to the end user. Changing the Time Range during the implementation will require several steps in a specific order. This topic has been already explained in a specific article available in the community.

The focus of this article would be how to manage and change the Time Range in GCR, since it is a pre-built solution any change in the Time Dimension may cause unexpected issues in the application.

2. Context

Since GCR is a pre-built solution, the Time Range will be originally provided with some pre-defined periods. By default, it is set from 2018 to 2026 as you can see in the print screen below

image.png

Before starting the implementation, it is important to review this Time range and eventually update it from the beginning. It could also happen that the modification of the Time range may be needed in a second time, due to some change request from the customer.

There are four possible changes in the Time Range:

  1. Extension of the “From” Year. This action is not suggested because it will not give any added value in GCR, in case you don’t need to use some periods you can simply ignore those.
  2. Reduction of the “From” Year. This may be needed in case the Customer wants to upload historical data from the period prior to 2018. This article will show how to manage this case in paragraph 3.2.
  3. Extension of the “To” Year. This is the most common situation. 2026 May be too early for the needs of the customer so an extension may be needed. This is explained in paragraph 3.1.
  4. Reduction of the “to” Year. This action is not suggested because it will not give any added value in GCR, in case you don’t need to use some periods you can simply ignore those.

3. Content

3.1 Case 1: Extension of To Year

In case you need to change the Time range from the beginning, those are the steps that need to be followed:

  1. Run a Backup
  2. By Default, the Beginning of the Fiscal Year in GCR is set in January. In case the required change of the Time Range also implicates a change in the Fiscal Year, apply it as a first step.
    image.png
  3. Open The Data Model Tab, look for the procedure called “ADM – Extract Month Tree” and run it. This action will generate a txt file that is needed to update some members.
  4. Download the file that is generated in this path: %Conso_Dataset%\Standard_Entities\Tree Month.txt
  5. Copy/Paste the Txt format in Excel. You should find a file that looks like our print screen below
    image.png
  6. In case of Extension of time range, add new row for how many periods you need to update. In our example we are extending it until 2030, so we have to update the file until Dec.2030 using for each column the same format we see in the extracted file.
    image.png
  7. Once the modification has been performed in the excel file, remember to copy/paste the file back to the original txt template.
  8. Replace the txt file modified in the original path of the extraction (%Conso_Dataset%\Standard_Entities\Tree Month.txt)
  9. Change the “from” Year as needed. In our example we are extending the Time Range from 2026 to 2030.
    image.png
  10. Open the capsule GCR Admin, and click on the tab Quick Configuration Wizard
  11. Execute the procedure “#Update Version”. This procedure is needed to update the custom time entities
  12. Open the GCR Data model, look for the procedure “ADM – Reload Month Tree” and run it.

This procedure will reload the updated month tree.

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3.2 Case 2: Extension of From Year

The from Year in GCR is set by Default to 2018. You may not need to use any periods from 2018, but extending it will not give you any added value, so we would suggest keeping 2018 even if customer data would start from any further period (2019 as an example)

On the other side, the customer may want to have historical data for the period prior to 2018. In this case, it would be necessary to change the Time Range in GCR.

In this example, we are simulating a change in the “From Year” from 2018 to 2016.

To manage the time shift correctly, the following steps must be followed in order:

  1. Run a backup
  2. Extract all cubes; This action is needed because the modification of the “From” Year will automatically reset any data.
  3. Clear all cubes;
  4. Run the Procedure “ADM – Extract Month Tree”
  5. Download the file extracted in the path %Conso_Dataset%\Standard_Entities\Tree Month.txt
  6. Update the Time range: change the “From” Year from 2018 to 2016
  7. Follow theinstructionsn explained in the first paragraph in order to update the file correctly.
  8. Reload All Cubes
  9. Run the procedure #Update Version from the screen Quick configuration wizard in the Admin capsule
  10. Run the procedure “ADM – Reload Month Tree”

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