One quick question on Data picker using entity !?

Hello Team,

is it possible to use Data picker with using Physical Name and any specific entity in that cube ?

for example:

I want to Data which is in cube say V111 (physical name of cube), within that cube there is a entity member Name X12345.

what i want to do is to use Data picker in rule which will fetch value of entity x12345 from cube V111.

is this possible ?!

Something like , Rule Test_1 =@[V111; x12345]

regards,

Malav

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Previous Member

Hi Malav Shelat,

you can add selections to your datapicker like this example: .

For more information please check out this article BOARD Data Picker Functionality .

Best regards,

Bettina

Previous Member

Thank you Bettina Clausen , that worked perfect.

Regards,

Malav

Paul Wyatt

Hi Malav,

The Datapicker is fantastic and adds some real flexibility to modelling. However, if this is your first time using it, I just want to draw your attention to 2 points:

1. Rule Syntax - This one is so obvious, in my opinion, it is easily missed.

2. False Error - This is a 'BOARD behaviour' when using rules.

1. Rule Syntax

the syntax you must use when calculating the values within cubes is, in my opinion, easy to miss until you're familiar with the datapicker and its fiendish ways.

Directly under the illustration provided by Bettina Clausen , which is in the reference she has provided you, is an example of what you cannot do, which is to use @cube references within the calculation - see below:

Instead, you must reference the ITEM code in a separate row. In short, to perform a calculation on the contents of a cube using a datapicker, you need to use at least 2 rows in your Entity:

One or more rows to identify values from cubes - datapicker
One or more rows to compute calculation using the values from the cubes - formula.

A Working Example

Below are 2 images. The first is an entity I use for creating a rule to calculate total floor area and total table covers. The second is the rule. Note the entity member codes and where they are used in the rule.

Image1: Entity [REPORT PS Property Summary] for use in a Rule with datapickers to drag in the calculable values

Image 2: Rule [Property Search - Property Summary] with Datapicker and calculations formulae

Report

For completeness, here is the report created from the above structure:

Image 3: Finished Report using Entity & Rules.

2. False Error

Reports using entities and the datapicker can appear to break randomly and present you with zeros values in all totals - see Image 4 below. All that has happened is that the values have not been passed to the temp cube designated to hold them. All you need to do is unload and reload the database or model. The process is as follows:

Symptoms

Datapicker populated report presents zero values but rest of data model functions and reports correctly - see image 4 below.

Image 4: Report object appears to have failed

On investigation, you find nothing obviously wrong with the entity, cube or rule. Everything else looks fine.

(NB: In practicality, this issue will probably occur just before the demo and lead to the systematic and increasingly neurotic deletion and re-creation of each component followed by numerous data reloads and lots of head scratching and colourful banter because nothing is actually broken - ahh...the fun I had with this one).

Probable Cause

The report entity was cleared either singularly or, more likely, by using the function

(NB: you did this because, just before the demo, you thought it a good idea to scrub all entity members and reload the data 'afresh' in order to clear the excessive and unused entity members in entities that don't even matter...possibly?).

Remedial Action

Step 1: Unload database from Database > Utilities > Unload

Step 2: Re-open Capsule to confirm values have returned.

Step 3: Regain poise and composure, apologise for delay and have a great demo, yay.

Hope that this helps in some way.

Previous Member

Thank you so much Paul Wyatt - Avison Young UK for detailed explanation, This will be really helpful for many including me now.