Assigning alias to subsets?

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vasek1192
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Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by vasek1192 »

Hi, I was wondering and failing to find answer online: Can you assign alias to subset?

I dont mean using aliases of the elements in subset, but giving the subset itself an alias.

I am asking because the application we are developing is gaining on size and complexity. I would love to use some sort of prefix in naming the subsets so that I and other colleagues working on the project could differentiate which subset belongs to which part of the project. Problem with that is that for the user the subset names would probably be too technical and confusing.

Thanks for the reply :)
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Re: Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by Wim Gielis »

Do you want 1 subset with 2 different names ?
Or using prefixes and make distinctions between anyone's subsets ? (hence more than 1 subset)
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Re: Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by lotsaram »

vasek1192 wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 8:54 am Hi, I was wondering and failing to find answer online: Can you assign alias to subset?

I dont mean using aliases of the elements in subset, but giving the subset itself an alias.

I am asking because the application we are developing is gaining on size and complexity. I would love to use some sort of prefix in naming the subsets so that I and other colleagues working on the project could differentiate which subset belongs to which part of the project. Problem with that is that for the user the subset names would probably be too technical and confusing.
I'm wondering how the system size and complexity impacts on subsets?
- You can't refer to subsets in rules
- You most certainly shouldn't refer to subsets in TI processes

Subsets should really only be for assisting end users to navigate data and create views. So while naming can certainly always help organize things I'm still struggling to see why you woudl have such an overwhelming number of subsets that you need to implement a strict naming.

I'm not sure if aliases work for subsets but depending on the GUI used by users you can certainly create a }SubsetAttributes_Dimension cube using the TI function SubsetAttrInsert. So by creating a "Caption" attribute then you can control the display name for users even if the caption isn't an alias. (This would also let you have different display captions depending on the user's language locale).
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vasek1192
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Re: Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by vasek1192 »

Yes I intended to have subset with two names (aliases).

It is not so much for organizational purposes as for user friendliness. We use prefixes in our subsets to indicate for what purpose the subset exists and for which cube, so there are subsets named: OO_AC_Sales_All_Leaves, OO_AC_Sales_Lev2_SORTED_ABC and so on. But the users use subsets in PAW to filter the cubes but usually dont know what leaves are, dont need to see the prefixes and arent native english speakers (some of our developers are). So there is a struggle between what is most convenient from developers point of view and what is most user friendly.
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Re: Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by gtonkin »

May be better to name the subsets etc. with a friendly, easy to understand name for users who use PAW and PAfE.
Use aliases, which are possibly not supported elsewhere, for the developers to tag with their convention.

Also remember that you typically cannot rename TM1 objects and assigning numbering often leads to a constraint e.g. you need something between 01 and 02. At least with an alias, developers could update these to align without the need for recreation of subsets/other objects.
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Re: Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by PavoGa »

vasek1192 wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:31 am Yes I intended to have subset with two names (aliases).

It is not so much for organizational purposes as for user friendliness. We use prefixes in our subsets to indicate for what purpose the subset exists and for which cube, so there are subsets named: OO_AC_Sales_All_Leaves, OO_AC_Sales_Lev2_SORTED_ABC and so on. But the users use subsets in PAW to filter the cubes but usually dont know what leaves are, dont need to see the prefixes and arent native english speakers (some of our developers are). So there is a struggle between what is most convenient from developers point of view and what is most user friendly.
Create a subset with the naming convention you want. Then create a second subset named as desired with the following MDX:

Code: Select all

TM1SubsetToSet( [DimensionName], "FirstSubsetName")
You have the subset names you need without the hassle of dealing with subset aliases and the two subsets are identical.
Ty
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Re: Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by gtonkin »

The issue will be that the list of subsets down in the data tree and in the set editor will show the principal/technical name. Users would want to see the friendly name when working in views/sets.
At least that is how I understood the OP’s issue.
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Re: Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by PavoGa »

gtonkin wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 6:52 pm The issue will be that the list of subsets down in the data tree and in the set editor will show the principal/technical name. Users would want to see the friendly name when working in views/sets.
At least that is how I understood the OP’s issue.
Yes, two subsets would not be optimal for sure. We have cube aliases and unfortunately the cubes are sorted by their technical name but display their "user-friendly" captions. Not a fan and have not figured out to get them to display in any other order, although admittedly have not spent any time on it.
Ty
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vasek1192
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Re: Assigning alias to subsets?

Post by vasek1192 »

Thanks for your replies :)
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