User Upload csv files through PAW interface

[CRP0021]

Hello all,
Just looking for a bit of advice on having multi-users upload data to TM1 via PAW.

Here's the details:
-Multiple users will input data offline into a standard template
-Security is controlled via a Department dimension for each user

What I've done in the past using TM1 Web is provide a hyperlink to a shared folder where users would drop the standard templates, then run a TI to import data into the respective cube.
It was a good solution at the time but had it's challenges i.e. upload files needed to be protected as data was sensitive, file management became tedious, etc.
I'm looking for a more updated/modern approach if one exists or just possible other ideas on how this could be accomplished.

To summarize:
Multiple users need to load data into TM1 via standard templates. Security exists on a Department dimension and data is sensitive in nature so that upload templates can't be stored in the same directory.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance!

[Wim Gielis]

I would give each user his or her own folder. All subfolders of 1 root folder.
If you do this in a consistent way (through naming and/or attributes on the }Clients dimension) then the DataSourceNameForServer function in the Prolog tab can easily satisfy which subfolder it is, and load the data. Normal Windows security access should be used for securing the subfolders.

[CRP0021]

Hi Wim,
Makes sense thanks for the reply!
What I'd like to know is if a user would be able to click a link from PAW and have the sub-folder pop open on screen. Is this possible?
I've read posts about customizing virtual directories in IIS but I believe that applies to hyperlinks from perspectives web sheets.
It's not an absolute requirement but to provide a clean user experience popping open the link to the sub-folder from within PAW would be desirable.
I imagine embedding a snippet of a perspectives sheet with one action button may help with this but not sure.
Any advice on this?

[Wim Gielis]

I haven't done that yet. Yes, experimenting with a Perspectives websheet and the HYPERLINK function into it can maybe lead to a solution, use the TM1User function in Excel as well as part of the hyperlink to jump to.

[paulsimon]

Hi

We allow users to upload data via CSV. We use a small VB.Net programme to do this. They get to this via a hyperlink from TM1 Web using the EXCEL HyperLink function which passes in the name of the Cost Centre etc to be loaded. The VB.Net is quite dumb. All it does is upload the file and to rename it using a standard naming convention based on the details passed. It puts the file into an Uploaded files folder on the server. The user then runs a TI process to load the CSV file into a cube. The user needs to have access in TM1 to the particular cost centre to do this and the file has the cost centre code in its name. Once processed, the file is moved to a processed files folder.

This approach gets past the issue of all files being in the same folder, since the users do not have direct access to the folder. The only way to get a file into the folder is via the VB.Net program and they have no read access to the folder. They can only access the data that is loaded from the file in TM1 and that is subject to normal TM1 Security Controls.

We just happened to use VB.Net. If I was doing it now I would probably use Vue and Node JS but the particular tools for uploading the file don't really matter that much.

The file uploader allows them to download a sample template CSV file.

Regards

Paul Simon