BPC 10.1 Embedded Comments with a Minimum of Modelling

[gerd_schoeffl]

In BPC 10.1 Embedded (as well as in PAK/BW-IP) we have the option to use a (advanced) DataStore Object with a characteristic as a key figure. With this technique we can enter comments (limited to 250 characters) or do a simple attribute planning.

You can use this feature to comment the values of some key figures. You can either store the key figures in the same (s)DSO as the comments or – more likely – store the key figures in a separate InfoProvider. You have to use the following setup then:

• Create a Composite Provider (or MultiProvider when not using aDSO) on top of the involved providers


• Create an aggregation level on top of this provider


• Create the query on top of the aggregation level.

This approach is fine when you create a new model with new queries. But what do you do if you already have existing queries on your key figure provider – maybe even a pure reporting query? You might not want to remodel the entire query just for the sake of being able to add comments – and this is especially true for reporting queries.

In some cases a quite straight forward approach could help you when using Analysis for Office 2.4.

Insert your original (reporting) query into a workbook


Create a comment (a)DSO that has all necessary characteristics, an aggregation level on top of it, and an input enabled query the has the same characteristics in the rows as the first query
Insert the comment query into your workbook.



Now use the new feature to combine the two queries into one.



You can now enter comments for the data.



Please be aware that we currently we still have some restrictions when using this approach.

• When using axis sharing it is not possible to enter new lines. If you share plan-queries that allow new lines the option to new lines will currently not be provided.


• The first query will be the ‘leading’ on, that is in the result you will see one line for each line that was available in the first query. That means if the comment query has less lines the system will generate cell accordingly – but not the corresponding data records. As a consequence the generated cell are not input enabled. Thus you should use the feature of combination proposal in the comment query to make sure all necessary records exist (see our example). If you generate more rows in the comment query then those additional rows will not be visible in the final result (see our example and have a look at the record for ‘#’ in the comment query).


• Currently we cannot mix the columns of the shared queries - that means with this approach it is currently not yet possible to place a comment column behind each of the key figure columns.


• You can only combine the columns but not the rows of the two queries.

We are working on lifting some of the limitations I have just mentioned. Please be aware that you can share more than just two queries but you limit the number of queries to a reasonable number.