Multilingual Cubes and Dimensions

[CoN73mP7]

Hi,

I'm using the Java Api to create Cubes and Dimensions, and its working fine. Now I want to get those Cubes and Dimensions multilingual. But there is little to nothing in the Developers Guide. Did I get it right, that I first have to add an Attribute to the Dimension of the Type Aliase and then add an Attribute to each Element of the Dimension with the translation? How do I get the cube to be shown multilinual after doing that to all Dimensions? Do I have to create different views of a cube? I've tried to do it on the TM1 Architect but didn't get it right, so I don't know where to start by doing it over the Java API.

Some references to Tutorials or to the corresponding Section in the Documentation or even some Sample-Lines of code would be great

Alex

[jim wood]

I'm not sure if thiss would work but you might want to consider having multiple servcies on your server with different data directories. Within the directory it will create a cfg. In the cfg file set the data directory to central point for all services and see if you can change the language. In essence create say an english and say a spanish service both pointing to the same set of cubes. Then add aliases.

Another way of trying it might be keeping the services seperate and replicate the data cubes between them. This way you will be able to have seperate default views and subsets.

Have a go. I've never done it myself so these are only suggestions,

Jim.

PS. There may be licensing implications of having 2 seperate services. I would check this before choosing this path.

[tomok]

There is no documentation, AFAIK, about how to make TM1 multilingual because there is not a specific functionality in the tool for that. You can make your system "somewhat" multilingual by creating aliases for each language for dimension elements but that's about it. You can make your reports pretty much multilingual by the use of aliases and creative use of IF logic in Excel, but you can't make the Server Explorer tree multilingual, or the objects underneath it until you get down to the actual dimensions themselves. Someone else may have some other tricks they've thought up to make things multilingual but that's the way I do it.

[CoN73mP7]

OK, I've got it. But what I still need to do, is to put alias to the Elements of a Dimension. What I do is the following:

Code: Select all

newDimension = tm1server.createDimension();
while ( go over all elements) {
   elm = newDimension.insertElement(elm, elementNAME,elementTYPE);
}

Now I have to add an alias to each Element. How do I do this? Could anybody tell me?

[tomok]

Now I have to add an alias to each Element. How do I do this? Could anybody tell me?

Have you thought about looking this up in the TM1 documentation? Look for Attribute Manipulation TI functions. It's all there, with examples.

[CoN73mP7]

Of course I did, but it is not described how to do this by using the Java (or any other) API. Or I wasn't able to find it. If this is the case I'd be glad if someone could tell me, where I could find it.

[Alan Kirk]

Now I have to add an alias to each Element. How do I do this? Could anybody tell me?

Have you thought about looking this up in the TM1 documentation? Look for Attribute Manipulation TI functions. It's all there, with examples.

Actually he's using the Java API, not TI. The API, any of the APIs.... eeeeh, not such good examples (when there are any at all). I've just looked at the Java API documentation and if anything I like it even less than the .Net API "documentation", and that's saying something.

I've never used it myself so I'm afraid I can't help but someone else may have gone down that path before.

[Edit: This crossed with Alex's previous post but I'll leave it here anyway...]

[Alan Kirk]

Of course I did, but it is not described how to do this by using the Java (or any other) API. Or I wasn't able to find it. If this is the case I'd be glad if someone could tell me, where I could find it.

I'm pretty certain that you can't do it at all in the .Net API; that's one of the things that hacks me off about it, it was released without the ability to do most metadata operations. Which means that as an API, it's largely pointless.

In the "classic" C/VB API it can be done via the TM1ObjectAttributeInsert function. I did notice a TM1Attribute class in the Java API documentation; that's probably where I'd be directing my attention, assuming that there's any consistency in the APIs. (Note I said "any".)

[CoN73mP7]

thanks for your answers. I've tried a differend approach with the TI. But something does not go the way I want it to go. Can anybode tell me, why this:

Code: Select all

if(DimensionExists('TestDimension') <> 0);
   DimensionDestroy('TestDimension');
ENDIF;
DimensionCreate('TestDimension');
DimensionElementInsert('TestDimension','', 'Australien','N');
AttrInsert('TestDimension', '', 'English', 'A');
AttrInsert('TestDimension', '', 'German', 'A');
AttrPutS('Australia', 'TestDimension', DimensionElementPrincipalName('TestDimension','Australien'), 'English');

does not work? I get an error saying something like Element Australien was not found in the Dimension TestDimension (Translatet from the german version, so the official Error message could differ from my translated one.

[CoN73mP7]

Doesn't anyone have any suggestions? I'm trying this since quite a while now

[Martin Ryan]

Your last line (attrputs) must be in the data or epilog tab, while the rest of them all need to be in the prolog tab.

Dimensions are edited in the prolog/metadata tabs, then the finalised dimension is available for use in the data/epilog tabs. Attributes are considered data (they are stored in control cubes).

[CoN73mP7]

So back to this topic

I#ve written a java programm to automatically build dimensions based on a DB-Table which contains the elements and their hierarchy. It works! So what I want to do now is to load in Alias to each Element. I've tried it with this code:

Code: Select all

tm1Child.insertAttribute(TM1Attribute.NullAttribute, "German",TM1ObjectType.AttributeAlias);
if(child.getName("German")!=null){
       tm1Child.setAttributeValue(tm1Child.getAttribute("German"),new TM1Val(child.getName("German")));
}

It adds the aliases to each Element as expected. But when I view my dimension in the TM1 Architect, I get an error saying: "could not change alias data on server for current subset"

Anybody an idea whats wrong here?
Do I have to do my first line of posted Code for each Element or could I add the Alias-Attribute (not the Value) to the dimension?

Thanks in advance
Alex

[CoN73mP7]

Doesn't anyone have a clue, what I'm doing wrong?

[Alan Kirk]

Doesn't anyone have a clue, what I'm doing wrong?

It's not unwillingness to help, it's just that if you had a Venn diagram of all TM1 users, then you'd have a standard sized circle. The subset of all API users would be substantially, and I mean substantially, smaller. The number of VB/C++ API users would probably be the largest subset of that. The number of .Net and Java API users would probably be visible if one had a good magnifying glass. Unfortunately the most likely reason that you haven't received an answer is that nobody reading has been down that path before.

[CoN73mP7]

Ok, I suppose thats true,

Then I'll try to change my question. I think that Working with TM1 Objects is more or less the same in each API.

Do I insert an Alias Attribute into each element and then get the Attribute to put in a value or do I add an Alias Attribute to the Dimension and then put Values in the Attribute for each element. (Each time I try this my TM1Server is shutting down)

Maybe I can try if I have some basic outline what to do.

Alex