Advanced Rules Editor - Consistency, Thy Name Is IBM

[Alan Kirk]

Somewhere in the dim recent past I recall reading that IBM was discontinuing support for the Advanced Rules Editor (which I shall also type, once, as "Advanced Rule Editor" merely for search purposes). I do not recall exactly when that was going to take effect from (since I'm still a fan of being able to store meta information and previous versions in .xrus), but since it's a .Net product it seemed inevitable that it was going to fall victim to the anti-Microsoft / pro-Java crusade at some point. That's fine, that's OK, they never got the thing to work well anyway. Though as with the .Net API, the problem struck me as more a lack of application to the task than anything else; Vizier was a classic case of what can be achieved with some skill and perseverance, the A.R.E., conversely, a case of "what might have been". As a result the A.R.E. was rarely warmly loved, and will probably be relatively unlamented.

However.

I do recall a time when end of life statements were embedded in searchable .pdf files so that we could at least do a search for them, find them easily, and know them. Instead, these days, we need to rely on dynamic bumpf like the all singing, all dancing IBM Software Product Compatibility Reports (SPCR) tool. Because such tools can, in theory, be reprogrammed to show modified versions of history, I grabbed a screenshot of the current incarnation for 10.2.2:

2015-05-13_SupportedSoftware.jpg (305.11 KiB) Viewed 7127 times

That's four references to the Advanced Rules Editor, zero to it being unsupported. In addition, the 10.2 New Features Guide makes no reference to the A.R.E. being dumped but merely says:

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher is needed only for the Cognos TM1 Architect expanded rules editor.

So I was a tad surprised to see this Technote in this morning's news feed.

Unable to open rules editor in Perspectives/Architect

Technote (troubleshooting)

Problem(Abstract)
User attempts to open the rules editor to edit a rule and the editor does not open.

Resolving the problem
The Advanced Rules Editor is no longer available as of TM1 version 10.2, so make sure that AdvancedRulesEditor = F is set in the tm1p.ini file.

Close all TM1 clients before modifying the tm1p.ini file. Then re-launch and test to be sure that the basic editor is functional.

I'm sorry, what the...? "is no longer available"? Not "is no longer supported" (which is itself far from obvious based on much of the documentation), but "is no longer available"? Yeah? Since when? Also, even if it is "no longer available" then why, prithee tell, given all of the dozens of freaking gigabytes that we have needed to download in the form of fix packs over the course of the 10.2 series, has not one, not one of those fix packs re-trained Perspectives and Architect to ignore the AdvancedRulesEditor parameter rather than leaving it to a Technote to tell us that we must manually, manually no less, tweak the .ini files with our own two little hands? That's after we get through explaining to users exactly what an .ini file is. (At least, the users who weren't alive in the Palaeolithic Era of Windows 3.1 and who were born into an era which carries an expectation that settings such as these, and I mean all of the settings such as these, can be done through an application's "Options" or "Preferences" GUI dialog.)

Edit: I think I may have found what I was thinking about:

Product documentation

Abstract
Cognos is committed to supporting the latest technologies being used by our customers. As we move forward in our support for these newer technologies, Cognos TM1 10.1.1 will be the last release to support the environments and/or features listed in this document.

Content
Cognos is ending support for the following environments and/or features in an upcoming release.

Components
Advanced Rules Editor in TM1 Architect and TM1 Perspectives

Utilities
TM1Top

"...in an upcoming release". Yeah, that's unequivocal and clear. Certainly enough to suddenly declare a component to be "no longer available" out of the blue.

[RJ!]

So TM1 Top theoretically shouldn't exist under 10.2 either?

Interesting as it's working fine for us...

[moby91]

So TM1 Top theoretically shouldn't exist under 10.2 either?

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/libra ... index.html
IBM Business Analytics Proven Practices: IBM Cognos TM1 Top

21 March 2014

IBM Cognos TM1 Top is a command window based application that runs on a Microsoft Windows platform. It will dynamically display various pieces of information regarding operations that TM1 Server is performing.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/libra ... 74-pdf.pdf


Download

Description	Name	Size
Cognos TM1 Top is an unsupported utility.	TM1Top.10.1.1.2.zip	264KB

[Alan Kirk]

So TM1 Top theoretically shouldn't exist under 10.2 either?

Description	Name	Size
Cognos TM1 Top is an unsupported utility.	TM1Top.10.1.1.2.zip	264KB

I think that's the principal problem. Few people cared about the A.R.E. Some did, but not many. But I doubt that a serious TM1 admin lived without having TM1 Top heavily embedded in their daily toolset. The Java console simply isn't a replacement. When things go wrong you need it low level, and you need there to be as little as possible between you and the engine so that you can see what's going on. Fast. A lot of people cared about TM1 Top. It's good that it's still available. It's NOT good that it's unsupported.

[Steve Vincent]

Yep Top is depreciated as of 10.1, along with A.R.E.

Which is hilarious when trying to debug an issue with IBM support and they asked me to grab the logs from it. On a 10.2.2 server.

A.R.E. is still supplied as far as i know, it just isn't going to be looked at should you have any issues. My guess is it'll be pulled completely in the next major release.

The Ops Console is certainly replacing Top. It's improved each iteration but i do feel it's being developed more towards pretty sales bling than actual low down functionality like Top is. Key example; top allowed you to force an admin authorisation login so you could kill a rogue process. OC won't, it queues with everything else so the only option is to force kill the server.

A.R.E. is being down away with in preference to Performance Modeler. Ye gods, that has a long way to go before i'll resort to using it. You'll probably find the TI editor is going the same way.

[Alan Kirk]

Yep Top is depreciated as of 10.1, along with A.R.E.

Which is hilarious when trying to debug an issue with IBM support and they asked me to grab the logs from it. On a 10.2.2 server.

There are some support people who know their stuff, and those are the ones who are most likely to do that simply because they know why and how the thing has value. Unfortunately they don't have control over whether the powers that be decide to "unfriend" tools like that.

A.R.E. is still supplied as far as i know,

Yes, it's those 5 little words ("as far as I know") which were the inspiration for the irritation and narkiness in title of this thread. Making vague statements about "an upcoming release" is hardly an unqualified statement of where they stand on support issues, and doubly so when the installation guide and the SPCR "tool" both still refer (without qualification) to the need for the .Net framework to run the A.R.E.

it just isn't going to be looked at should you have any issues. My guess is it'll be pulled completely in the next major release.

Maybe that's what FP4 will be; in addition to two updated libraries fixing the FP3 bugs (total size, 3 Meg), the other 2.5 gigabytes will be devoted to the removal of A.R.E. and a "search and destroy" Java tool which will seek out, hunt down and destroy any installed instances of TM1 Top on the user's network.

The Ops Console is certainly replacing Top. It's improved each iteration but i do feel it's being developed more towards pretty sales bling than actual low down functionality like Top is. Key example; top allowed you to force an admin authorisation login so you could kill a rogue process. OC won't, it queues with everything else so the only option is to force kill the server.

Exactly. Which makes the thing de facto useless. When the plumbing screws up we need a tradesman's entrance, not a flooded marble staircase leading to the vestibule of a grand ballroom.

A.R.E. is being down away with in preference to Performance Modeler. Ye gods, that has a long way to go before i'll resort to using it. You'll probably find the TI editor is going the same way.

I suspect that it already has. I doubt any updates would be done to the TI Editorsaurus in Perspectives[1] even if someone proved beyond any doubt that the thing had a bug so bad that it was the source of the Ebola outbreaks in Africa.

-----------------
[1] With the obvious exception.
Clued-in Iboglix Developer, Probably Left Over From Applix: "Hmmm, we need some developments that will help real users."
IBM Marketing 'Droid: "Yes! New icons with a Fresh! New! Look!"
Clued-in Iboglix Developer: "Yea-wait, what?? NO! That's not what I'm talking ab..."
IBM Project Manager, interjecting: "Brilliant! That will help our sales teams no end! New icons it is!"

[Marius]

In our TM1 10.2.2 environment we have access to A.R.E. by using the 32-bit version of Architect, but it's not working in 64-bit version.