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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW – Navigation Approaches Using Action Buttons

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Have you ever been in a situation where you created a multi-tab IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) book that required a combination of inputs, TurboIntegrator (TI) processing, and the viewing of results?  If so, you may have created a two-part workbook that included an input sheet with an action button and a separate reporting sheet. While this approach does everything you need, it requires your users to perform two steps to see the full processing results: click the button to run the script and then manually navigate to the resulting report.

PAW version 101 added functionality that eliminates the need to manually perform the navigation. When configuring action button properties, users are now given the option to define when navigation occurs. Users can still navigate immediately upon clicking, but they can also have the navigation occur after a process is completed. 

In addition, users can differentiate the navigation approach for a successful process completion vs. a process that completed with an error.

These advanced settings allow you to simplify the user navigation while also offering IF-THEN functionality with a single action button click.

Revelwood is an IBM Gold Business Partner with 25+ years of experience designing, developing, implementing and maintaining IBM Planning Analytics environments. Revelwood has helped clients in all sizes across all industries optimize and grow their use of Planning Analytics. Revelwood’s Planning Analytics team consists of experienced PA experts, including a multi-year IBM Champion.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Thumb Cell Formatting

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Have you ever created an exploration in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) and noticed the arrows at the beginning of your rows and columns? These are called thumb cells and are used as the equivalent of a “select all” button. For example, if I click on the down arrow at the top of my rows, then all elements in the rows will be highlighted.  

Below is an example of a view with two thumb cells: a row thumb that I clicked on (note the arrow pointing down) and a column thumb that I did not click on (note the arrow pointing right).

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Sometimes a thumb cell is great since it allows you to reference all of the elements in your exploration, but sometimes you may not want to see these additional gray boxes on the screen.  PAW version 99 introduced formatting options to modify the appearance of the thumb cells.

Within the format manager, you can modify the thumb options in both the column header and row header settings.

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Below is the same view with the row thumbs not showing and the column thumbs not showing the icon. You can see that that there is no longer a gray box above the rows and there is no longer an arrow icon to the left of the columns.

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These formatting settings will allow you to customize the appearance of an exploration and, if preferred, eliminate boxes that may confuse your end users.

Revelwood is an IBM Gold Business Partner with 25+ years of experience designing, developing, implementing and maintaining IBM Planning Analytics environments. Revelwood has helped clients in all sizes across all industries optimize and grow their use of Planning Analytics. Revelwood’s Planning Analytics team consists of experienced PA experts, including a multi-year IBM Champion.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Exploration Icons

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Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted your users to reference an exploration or chart on your IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) page, but you didn’t want to give them full access to make changes? You can do this by editing the toolbar to include or exclude icons.

This setting is found within the Properties area within the Custom, Toolbar section. Here is a sample of the options for an exploration:

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Not all icons are configurable (for example, the zero suppression icon will always be available to users), but each item in the list uses a simple on/off trigger to determine if the icons should appear for end users.

Here is an example with the “Edit MDX” icon enabled:

And here is an example with the “Edit MDX” icon disabled:

As you can see, disabled icons will completely disappear from the list.

This approach provides an easy way to simplify the ribbon for your end users.

Revelwood is an IBM Gold Business Partner with 25+ years of experience designing, developing, implementing and maintaining IBM Planning Analytics environments. Revelwood has helped clients in all sizes across all industries optimize and grow their use of Planning Analytics. Revelwood’s Planning Analytics team consists of experienced PA experts, including a multi-year IBM Champion.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Generated Statements

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One of the great things about IBM Planning Analytics Perspective’s process editor is that the wizard can be used to create code within your scripts. The results of the wizard based statements are inserted within areas called “Generated Statements.”

However, there may be times when you want to change the code within the generated areas. Maybe you want to temporarily disable some lines from running or maybe you want to add a debugging line within the existing section. Perspectives does not allow you to perform this type of task, but Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) does!

A user preference is built into PAW’s modeling workbench that allows you to either lock or unlock generated statements. You can access this setting by clicking on the preferences icon on a workbench.

From there, you can toggle the Lock Generated Statements option within the Process editor area.

When unlocking, you will need to refresh the script before the system will allow you to make changes within the previously locked area. The following window will appear as a warning:

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This approach will allow you to quickly modify your generated statements while also providing the ability to easily reenable them for future development.

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for, is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Administration Page Layout

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Did you know that the administration page layout has changed in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) update 57?

In previous versions of PAW, the administration page used a tabbed approach that separated each component into its own tab. This required administrators to click through each tab to gain insight on a single component.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Administration Page Layout

In PAW version 57 and later the administration page uses a tiled approach. Each tile represents the individual components of PAW administration. IBM has also incorporated some basic insights for several components. This provides a singular place where administrators can see a high-level status of PAW rather than having to click through each tab. If an administrator spots an issue or needs further information for a specific component then he/she can simply click into the tile.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Administration Page Layout

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for, is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Waterfall Chart

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IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) includes various visualizations that can be used to view your data. One of these visualizations entails a chart called a waterfall chart. This type of chart will help you show the components of a summarized number and is very helpful in determining which values are beneficial to the total and which values are detrimental.

The image below shows an exploration and its corresponding waterfall chart.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Waterfall Diagram
  • The chart shows information about each region while also defining each region as a positive (green) or negative (red) amount, which makes it easy to determine what is adding to the total and what is reducing the total.
  • The chart makes it easy to compare regions against each other, which allows you to quickly see that the Northeast gross profit is much larger than the West.
  • The chart allows users to look at the pieces as a rough percentage of the total, which lets you see that the Northeast accounts for more than half of the total.

PAW also allows you to customize various aspects of the chart, including colors for each bar.

Understanding the waterfall diagram in IBM Planning Analytics

The combination of an exploration and a waterfall chart can be used as the starting point for a user friendly dashboard in PAW.

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for, is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Change Element Type in PAW

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Most users of IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) are familiar with the dashboarding and reporting capabilities for front-end users. However, IBM has built-in features that allow administrators to manage their models from PAW as well. Managing the dimension structure is one such feature. Though most of it is intuitive, updating the element type is a bit hidden.

To access the dimension editor, first open a workbook in PAW. Then in the left navigation pane, expand the “Dimensions” node to find the dimension that you would like to edit.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Change Element in PAW

Drag the dimension to the work area pane on the right. You’ll see a warning stating that any changes will apply instantly unless you have reserved the dimension. Reserving the dimension locks the dimension so that no one else can make changes.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips: Change Element Type in PAW

In the PAW dimension editor, click on the paw iconicon to show the properties window. Select a member to show or change its properties. Please note that PAW doesn’t have “Consolidated” as a selectable type in the dropdown. PAW will automatically convert an element to a consolidation when you add children to it.  Conversely, it will change a consolidation to a simple element when you remove all children.

IBM Planning Analytics Tricks: Change Element Type in PAW

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for, is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Asymmetric Axis in PAW

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One of the helpful features of IBM Planning Analytics is the ability to create explorations using asymmetric axes. This is useful when you have stacked column or row dimensions, and only want to display certain combinations of elements instead of all combinations of the stacked dimensions.

To do this in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW), open a workbook in PAW and open an exploration. Click on the Icon in PAW icon to make the row dimensions asymmetric or the icon in PAW_2 icon for the column dimensions. Next, hold down the CTRL key and select the rows or columns you want to keep or hide.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Asymmetric axis in PAW

Right-click on one of the selected columns and select “Keep” or “Hide.”

Asymmetric axis in PAW

If you need to revert back to the normal view, right-click on any row or column and select “Unhide All.”

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for, is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters. You can also sign up to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks sent directly to your inbox.

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Control Space

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Have you ever been deep in thought while writing a rule or a process only to realize that you forgot the parameters for a specific command?  IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) has solved this dilemma by giving you the ability to determine those parameters with a simple set of keystrokes.

PAW’s rule editor and process editor allows you to use Ctrl-Space (e.g., press the control key and the space bar at the same time) to determine the required values associated with any rule or TI command. For example, if I type ATTRS and then press Ctrl-Space, the following will appear on the screen:

IBM Planing Analytics Tips & Tricks: Control Space

I now know the parameters that are required to complete the code.

Ctrl-Space will also help you determine which function to use.  For example, if I type ATTR and then press Ctrl-Space, the following will appear on the screen:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips: Control Space

I am now aware of all the possible attribute functions that are available and can double click on one of the results to have it automatically inserted for me.

If I do not know anything about the name of the functions to use, I can click on the fx button to see a list of the available functions, all grouped by category.

IBM Planning Analytics Tricks: Control Space

This approach allows you to quickly remember the functions and parameters that can be used in your code without having to shift your focus to another screen or manual.

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for, is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

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