Use private subset as Pick list source

[siroyuth]

Hi all,

I have question about the Pick list on TM1 9.5.1. I already created pick list and set to read data from my private subset. When I open view via Architect or Perspective, the pick list will not appear on my cube view but if open view on TM1 web, I can.

So, I would like to ask question as below;
1. Can we use private subset as Pick list source or not?
2. If yes, how to set private subset as pick list source in the Architect/perspective?

Thank in advance for your help.

[lotsaram]

To the best of my knowledge private subsets are not supported for picklists, nor should they be! Think about it from an application developer's perspective, the point of picklists is to control and validate user input. An administrator/developer has no control over users' private subsets, users are free to change their own private subsets to whatever they see fit (including deleting them). Using private subsets as a picklist source is simply not a good idea or sensible design whichever way you look at it.

[siroyuth]

Hi lotsaram,

Thank for your sharing idea.
My situation opposite from you. I need to use private subset to allow user can select element for the pick list by themselves because they are forced to can't create public subset from permission. But I still have a question. Why I can use private subset as source of pick list on TM1 web?

[lotsaram]

I remain confused/bemused by your desire to use a private subset as the source for a picklist, as I am sure TM1 product management and the development team would be also. You need to refer to the subset by name either as a literal string attribute value or in a string rule to set the picklist - with private subsets how can you even know in advance whether the subset exists for the user let alone whether it contains appropriate content?

The concept does not make sense. If you want to allow users to define their own picklist then what is the point of the picklist at all, why not give them free entry? If you say "to restrict entry to only a valid set of dimension members that the user is allowed to choose from" then fine but contrary to what you say it is actually very easy as a developer to allow users to create or modify public subsets, you just give them appropriate access to run a parameterised TI that manages the subset.

This approach should work for you, but I would suggest if you have a reasonable level of concurrency that the public subset(s) for this purpose should be not individual but group based (they could be user based but unless you have a single user per group security setup which is typically NOT RECOMMENDED then it will be difficult to determine the user and subset.)

As to a private subset working on Tm1 web but not in perspectives/architect cube viewer or excel I would classify this as a bug not a feature. It is more than likely some API coding that has failed to discern that the subset is private not public. As you should be aware the usual behaviour of TM1 is for private objects to override or take precedence to public objects of the same name. Obviously this is very dangerous for picklists an should not be the case, I think with TM1 web you have likely just found a loophole that has not been closed and should not be relied on.