Help. Element set as the top element and can not be edited!

[lotsaram]

Hi All - hoping that someone can assist with the following problem. A search of the IBM knowledge base and this forum for this error message returned nothing.

I have an issue with latest version with ICAS component (i.e. TM1 server) of CX 10 (all modules configured) where there seem to be some special properties for the element in dimensions with index=1. Updates via TI fail with the following error message:

Error: Element "X" is set as the top element and can not be edited. Components will be added automatically.

There doesn’t seem to be any “automatic” adding of components to speak of: after an unwind and running the TI that should add all components the first element is an orphan C with no children, everything else that TI should have done in terms of rebuilding the dimension has worked no problem. Interestingly manually editing in dimension editor or saving as XDI then editing are are both OK and allow changes to components of "top element" - the error only comes in TI.

Dimension sort order is set to automatic by hierarchy, components by name.
CX server version is 10.1.3.2353
I see nothing suspicious in the tm1s.cfg file
Dimension updates are happening on the PROLOG using a While loop
Using DimensionElementInsertDirect and DimensionElementComponentAddDirect

Anyone seen this and know how to manage it? I looked in the both Dimension Properties and Hierarchy Properties cubes but settings there are blank. On my Win7 x64 laptop which is running TM1 10.1.1 I have a more or less identical server with identical tm1s.cfg file with the exception of the CAM settings and dimension updates are normal there. I’m guessing this has something to do with Cognos BI interop but seems weird and makes no sense to me. Is this a bug or a new feature that I was unaware of? If a new feature then how are the "top element" properties managed.

The only mention I could find anywhere of "top element" was in the TM1 developer guide and operation manual recommending to set the default member property in hierarchy properties to the top member, but the issue is not in allocating the top member as the default it is how to edit and control the top member to start with.

As a temporary workaround I have just inserted an artificial 1st member to be the 1st element or the “top element” so that all the other real elements update fine but I would really like to know what’s going on.

Edit: Initially I thought that DimensionElementInsert and DimensionElementComponentAdd also produced the same result but on re-checking they don't. This error is only encountered with the new Direct dimension update functions. Can't see a reason for this. I'd rather use the direct functions as for the use case I would expect to encounter new dimension elements relatively rarely but it doesn't look like it is going to work (at least in CX vis-a-vis TM1). Bug?

[jim wood]

Hey,

One of our clients has been implementing CX 10.1 and they have hit few issues that have been raised with IBM. I'll see if this is one of them and get back to you,

Jim.

[me2]

FYI: I managed to reproduce Lotsaram's issue both in CX 10.1 and in TM1 10.1 itself (on which CX 10.1 is based). It seems to be resolved in CX 10.1 FP1 and TM1 10.1.1/10.1.1.1.

[jim wood]

I didn't get chance to talk the our guy but he has said to me a few times that most of the issue they were having were removed by 10.1.1 FP1. It's supposed to be the most stable version of 10 out there and it fixed most of their issues.

[lotsaram]

FYI: I managed to reproduce Lotsaram's issue both in CX 10.1 and in TM1 10.1 itself (on which CX 10.1 is based). It seems to be resolved in CX 10.1 FP1 and TM1 10.1.1/10.1.1.1.

Thanks for the confirmation. I see the same, i.e. the error in CX 10.1 but not in TM1 10.101
For now I am getting around it by not using the dimension direct update functions.

[Andy Key]

You wouldn't have used DimensionTopElementInsert to get that first element in there? I've not used the function myself, and assumed it was simply a short form of DimensionElementInsert without the need to specify 'C', but your error message and the function name seem a bit too similar.

Having said that, look out for an imminent Interim Fix for other issues with the Direct functions. Not sure how quickly that will get to CX though.

[me2]

I've not used DimensionTopElementInsert/DimensionTopElementInsertDirect myself either nor were they used to reproduce the issue.

What these functions appear to do though, is consolidate multiple root elements (if any) into a single top element in one go; no need to add the existing root elements individually.

The following statements will consolidate A, B, and C into top element Total:

DimensionCreate( 'testdim' );
DimensionElementInsert( 'testdim', '', 'A', 'N' );
DimensionElementInsert( 'testdim', '', 'B', 'N' );
DimensionElementInsert( 'testdim', '', 'C', 'N' );
DimensionTopElementInsert( 'testdim', 'A', 'Total' );