Cognos TM1 TI Processes Using Cubes for Dynamic Variables

4/28/15

TM1 cubes can be used for more than calculations and analysis.  They can be utilized as parameter variables for TI Processes as well.  This can also be used as a work around if you are on a version of Perspectives that merges multiple parameters when you use an action button to execute TI Processes.

Here is an example of a cube used to make it easier to select the variables needed to allow TI Processes to be dynamic.  I created a basically generic cube and then saved different views of this cube for the user to choose the parameters for specific TI Processes.  Keep in mind that your measures dimension needs to be the last dimension, as it will contain string data.

TM1 Dynamic Variables

This cube has only two dimensions.  Since some processes may have one or more variables that need to be dynamic, the Parameters is a simple list of available slots for the parameters needed.  I also added a slot that gets populated with a time/date stamp of when the process last ran.

TM1 Dynamic Variables

Leveraging a picklist control cube and aliases, the views make it easy to choose valid variables for running your TI processes.

Picklist control cube:

TM1 Dynamic Variables

Aliases:

TM1 Dynamic Variables

View:

By creating the picklist control cube, the user can simply choose a valid parameter from a drop-down menu.

 TM1 Dynamic Variables

In the Prolog tab of the TI Process, I create a variable using the CellGetS function to retrieve the variables chosen in my parameter cube:

TM1 Dynamic Variables

In the Epilog tab of the TI Process, I script the coding to populate my parameter cube with the timestamp of when the process ran.

TM1 Dynamic Variables

Another benefit of using a cube instead of the Parameters tab in a TI Process is that, like in this case, I needed to use these same exact parameters to run several processes to populate data in different cubes.  Doing it this way, the user makes the selections once and then runs a TI Process that has those multiple processes batched to run.

Last, organize it in your applications folders.

TM1 Dynamic Variables

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