Running TI from TM1 web issue.

[swati_phadtare]

We have created a TM1 application which will be accessed by more than 500 users.
Volume data should be uploaded by these 500 users which are at different remote locations. We are providing access to TM1 Web & not TM1 Perspective.
The problem is how they can upload data by themselves as if we select any TI Process in TM1 web then we dont have option to select file from our local machine.
That path has to be fixed for all. We do not have any common location for all users where they can upload their files & run the TI process.
Is there any way to achieve this. Please suggest
Thanks & Regards

[rmackenzie]

You made two comments there:

That path has to be fixed for all

and

We do not have any common location for all users where they can upload their files

They seem to contradict one another - I suggest you resolve that in your application design.

[swati_phadtare]

I suggest you resolve that in your application design.

Can you please suggest any idea for the same?
Thanks

[Christopher Kernahan]

I suggest you resolve that in your application design.
Can you please suggest any idea for the same?
Thanks

I think rmackenzie means you should create a common location for users to place their files in, in order to run the TI.

Alternatively, explore using a VBA macro to copy the file using a system account's credentials with access to the folder, and set the TI to run as a Chore on that particular folder.

[tomok]

You could also pass the full path and file name to the data file to the TI process as a parameter and update the data source of the TI process using the DataSourceNameForServer variable at run time. The only negative to this approach is that the process will bomb if the TM1 service does not have security access to the file that is passed.

[swati_phadtare]

Is there any way to upload files in TM1 from TM1 Web? We have 500 users which use Web & not perspective. How should they upload files in TM1?
Thanks & Regards

[lotsaram]

Is there any way to upload files in TM1 from TM1 Web? We have 500 users which use Web & not perspective. How should they upload files in TM1?
Thanks & Regards

You've already been given a few pointers on how you could do this so asking more about a feature that doesn't exist isn't going to get you any further. Out of the box you live with users specifying a UNC path and file name as a string and then clicking an action button to run a TI to load the file specified. (Note although this will certainly work validation of the file format and reporting of status of the load back to the end user is certainly going to be limited.) If this isn't good a good enough solution then you could undertake a bit of custom development to add a button or menu to the standard TM1 Web toolbar to launch an external web application to ftp a nominated file, validate it, then use the api to load the data or launch a TI to do the load. However, that's not a path I would recommend as the custom development will take time and money and make any future upgrade much more difficult. What you could do is still have an external app do the ftp and validate the file format but just launch this via a hyperlink in a TM1 websheet. That way you cut out the customization and have something that is almost as "integrated". Or you simply have a 2 step process with some other interface of your choosing to handle the bulk file load requirement.

[PlanningDev]

What you could do is still have an external app do the ftp and validate the file format but just launch this via a hyperlink in a TM1 websheet. That way you cut out the customization and have something that is almost as "integrated". Or you simply have a 2 step process with some other interface of your choosing to handle the bulk file load requirement.

lotsaram is right. If you take a look at "Javascript File Browser" on google you will quickly find sample code that can be pasted into an html document that will allow an end user to browse for a file and then upload to a location you control. We have tested this and works fine.

[tomok]

What you could do is still have an external app do the ftp and validate the file format but just launch this via a hyperlink in a TM1 websheet.

Good luck getting any IT department to OK that. You're effectively by-passing any Windows-based security when you do that. I don't know of a single IT department that's going to let you implement that. Why not just set up a share on the TM1 server, create an AD group that has READ and WRITE access to that share, and make the users a member of that group. Then they can just copy the file up with Windows Explorer.

[paulsimon]

My guess would be that if you have 500 users, that doesn't mean 500 sites, so there is no need to store the files on their local machines. That would probably not be that secure, eg if someone loses their laptop. I would also guess that you don't have 500 individual files to upload. You mentioned high volume data. Presumably the low volume data, eg their plans are just being typed in?

I would guess that you probably only have a few sites. If so then assuming that there is a file server at each site, then set up an area where the large files must be placed, and map a network drive to each site's File Server on the TM1 Server.

If file access is not practical and validation etc is required, then the better approach would be to stage the data in your IT Depts preferred relational database, and then you only need one ODBC connection to that database from TM1.

I suggest that you have a word with your IT Dept to see what they would prefer. My guess would be that if you have high volumes of data, then it is either coming out of an IT system, or you have purchased it from outside? If the data files are extracts from IT Systems, then it might be easier to just go directly to that IT System.

Regards

Paul Simon

[rmackenzie]

I suggest you resolve that in your application design.

Can you please suggest any idea for the same?
Thanks

Can you provide some more information about what you are trying to do? Why do users need to upload files instead of entering data via TM1 Web?

I guess if you have a TM1 application servicing 500 users then you have at least a large-ish IT function. I agree that they aren't going to like any custom HTML (<input type="file" />), Javascript solution, or FTP. These are a pain to hack into a TM1 Web solution and as tomok says the sidelining of Windows Security is going to be a governance issue. I once tried to propose HTTPS to the TM1 web server when this issue came up before, but that wasn't popular and is not really very straight-forward to implement due to the need for SSL certificates etc. They wanted an SFTP solution instead but they weren't using TM1 Web so I don't think there is much of a comparison.

One option you do have is to use e-mail automation rules - typically, even a globally distributed workforce are working within a single e-mail domain. If you set-up a mailbox (e.g. tm1-input@your-company-name.com) that will automatically take an action to save an attachment when it receives a mail then you could use this mechanism to work-around your lack of a single-point-of-access for a distributed user base.

I think if you could provide some more information then you might find you don't need users to upload files at all... I'm sure many people on this forum have had to try and solve this problem, and similar ones, before now.

[swati_phadtare]

Thank you all for all your valuable suggestions,
As rmackenzie has suggested, I would explain my scenarion here which would help me getting most feasible solution by all experts here..
- We have implemented “Retail Audit” application in TM1 which will be remotely accessed by around 500 users.
- All these users are located at different sales offices for which we dont have any "single" access point where they can upload there files & which can be picked up by TI process.
- User needs to upload value & volume figures in TM1, Number of entries to be uploaded in TM1 are huge which can not be entered manually, So we are looking for an upload option.
- User does not have access to TM1 Perspective. User will access TM1 application through TM1 Web.
- User should be able to upload their files at such a place which can be read by TM1 TI process
- TM1 Version : 9.5.1
Kindly Suggest.
Thanks & Regards

[rmackenzie]

- All these users are located at different sales offices for which we dont have any "single" access point where they can upload there files & which can be picked up by TI process.

I don't think there is any native TM1 functionality that is going to help you out with this problem. Your solution is going to involve using some other platform in your enterprise. I've already suggested using an e-mail box to centralise upload files and expose them to the TM1 server. Other options would be your corporate intranet, or a SharePoint instance if you have one. You can link to an upload page on your intranet from within a TM1 Web application. You could do the same with SharePoint, or you could embed your TM1 Web views inside Sharepoint.

[lotsaram]

You can link to an upload page on your intranet from within a TM1 Web application.

Sounds remarkably similar to what I had suggested.

Since any web intranet application would a) also be running behind the firewall, and b) could also require logon authentication - then I don't see why an IT department would object. Of course some IT departments object to anything that isn't "an end to end integrated SAP solution" (or insert appropriate mega vendor name of your choosing), but that doesn't mean the objection is valid and can't be swung with a valid counter argument.