TM1 Forum

Hello,

in the documentation I read that if I want to export a cube view to excel in TM1 9.5 with the option slice a classic slice is exported. Dynamic slices are not supported anymore. Does that mean that the parameters "AllowDynamicSlice" in tm1s.cfg and "ClassicSliceMode" in tm1p.ini do not have any influence anymore and are obsolete?

I read about functions like:

CUBE01RNG location of the cell hosting the name of the cube referenced
SL01C01DIMNM subset used or dimension name if not using a saved subset
SL01C01ELEMS_01 list of elements to display
SL01C01EXPANDUP 1/ 0 trigger consolidations as collapsed or expanded
SL01C01FMTNM name of the elements format to use
SL01C01RNG range for the stacked dimension
SL01DATARNG range for DBRW cells
SL01FILT

As I do not find them in excel anymore I guess I can not use them in TM1 9.5.1?

Thanks a lot,

Toto

The Dynamic Slice functuionality slice doesn't exist in 9.5.1 as that has been replaced by Active Forms. I can't think of anything that you could do in Dynamic Slice that can't be done in Active Forms, plus Active Forms adds a whole lot more and better functiionality.

I can't think of anything that you could do in Dynamic Slice that can't be done in Active Forms, plus Active Forms adds a whole lot more and better functiionality.

Used to agree with you Tomok, but now I have gone back a version of TM1 and looked at dynamic slices I am not so sure.

How about Expandable columnar consolidations and dynamic formatting? Can these be done in Active Forms?

Just about to try this so I am just wondering whether IBM have scrapped Concorde to build an Airbus.

It seems a huge amount of effort has gone into the dynamic slice. Does anyone have any idea why IBM withdrew the technology.

As always Thank You in advance.

John

If you keep using Dynamic Slices for a while then you will soon find out. While the functionality was brilliant, the reliability wasn't. They would periodically stop working or disappear altogether. I would guess that the issue was in coping with the vagueries of the various versions of Excel and what events each exposes to the outside world, etc. It seems that rather than spend a lot of effort to try to get this to work correctly, that IBM decided to ditch it, and instead set themselves a much lower bar to jump with Active Forms.

Personally I am becoming dis-enchanted with Excel as a front-end to TM1 in general. It is great in Finance Depts where there are usually a few Excel Wizards. However, when rolling out to a wider population of users, as is happening increasingly with TM1, not everyone is an Excel Wizard, and not everyone finds TM1 Web Views that easy to navigate either. The wider population are typically doing a limited range of things, eg filling in a monthly forecast sheet, or reviewing a monthly P&L report for their Dept or Product. They are occasional users, and therefore need to have a good user interface, and good layout. There will always be compromises in the Excel layout, eg if you display two lots of data then the column width above determines the column width below, etc. Similarly in terms of the user interface, you are limited in what can be achieved in TM1 Web, because you cannot use macros, and installing the TM1 client on 200+ desktops is not likely to give a low support cost. There are also performance issues with the client on a WAN.

One option is Citrix/Terminal Services. This avoids the chattiness of the client, and gives the benefits of a central install, while still allowing VBA Macros and Forms to improve the user interface. For example, not every user wants to learn the Subset Editor, so a combo box can be an alternative. However, the subset editor issue can be minimised with the use of appropriate subsets. The real issue comes when a selection in one dimension needs to limit the selection in another. That is somewhat harder to do. However, Citrix/Terminal Services has its own set of issues in terms of additional hardware, and license costs, etc.

Most IT Depts would prefer a Web based solution, and as TM1 moves from Departmental to Enterprise scale, the IT Dept is increasingly involved in making the decision on tool choice.

I suspect that IBM are now focusing more effort on getting Cognos BI to work as a front-end for TM1, than on TM1-Excel integration. TM1's integration with Excel is already very good, and there are limits on how far you can go with Excel as a front-end, on the Web. Anyone who has experienced the various formatting issues in TM1 Web which converts Excel to HTML will know what I mean. For example try merging columns and then use the column width button in TM1 Web over a column that has merged cells.

Potentially Cognos BI will offer a richer reporting front-end, where highly customised reports are needed for a wide user base.

IBM are also making advances at merging the Cognos Enterprise Planning front end with TM1.

Sorry for the long answer, but I think the above explains why fixing Dynamic Slices became less of a priority. (Of course that is only my personal best guess as to the reason).

Regards


Paul Simon

John Hammond wrote:

I can't think of anything that you could do in Dynamic Slice that can't be done in Active Forms, plus Active Forms adds a whole lot more and better functiionality.

Used to agree with you Tomok, but now I have gone back a version of TM1 and looked at dynamic slices I am not so sure.

How about Expandable columnar consolidations and dynamic formatting? Can these be done in Active Forms?

Just about to try this so I am just wondering whether IBM have scrapped Concorde to build an Airbus.

It seems a huge amount of effort has gone into the dynamic slice. Does anyone have any idea why IBM withdrew the technology.

As always Thank You in advance.

Well one thing active forms don't do is expandable columns. But everything else about them is much much better than dynamic slices.
- Far superior performance
- Supported on web
- Much easier and infinitely more flexible formatting
- Ability to filter and sort
- Full exposure to MDX query interface (IMO this is THE killer feature)

Although active forms can be "quirky" at times (I wouldn't put my hand on my heart and swear that they are 100% stable) they are much more stable than dynamic slices ever were. One of the main issues with dynamic slice performance was that zero suppression was performed client side not server side, something that has been addressed with active forms.

(Maybe you aside) I have never heard anyone wish for dynamic slices after becoming familiar with active forms.

having to recently implement something with dynamic columns with active forms in 9.5 I couldn't help but wish that I was using dynamic slices in 9.0

you could be right about the stability etc but know that active forms can be just as fragile especially when putting more than one on a sheet. I would be happy with active forms with dynamic columns as I like the MDX stuff you can do