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Object name case changes on UNIX

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 11:33 am
by jstrygner
Hi,

I wanted to clear my doubts I have. I first started replying to this, but then I thought it might be worth creating a new thread.

What I found on this forum in some threads is that TM1 models run on UNIX environments are case sensitive, but I am afraid, there is something more.

I think it is also changing all object names to lower case after server restart.

Here's what I did:
1. Created Cube_One and cube_two cubes. Attached some views with mix case names to both.
2. After server restart I noticed cube_one and cube_two (both names lower case). The cube_two had all its views, but their names turned into lowercase, cube_one had no views (probably because views were attached to Cube_One that does not exist anymore, so this one is not that surprising).
3. Just to add, dimension element names that were of mixed case, were just the same as before restart (those are not stored as separate files, so also not surprising).

But what is surprising (for me) is that after restart, object names change their cases.
I think developers should be aware not only of the case sensitivity (I can live with that) but that TM1 (on UNIX) tends to change cases in object names, what leads to break some of objects' references (like views in cubes, I also suspect subsets in dimensions).

Will appreciate any comments.

PS. I did it on AIX, TM1 Server 9.4.1 - FP3 (no further details about HFs and so on, as this environment is not mine, I just use it for now).

Re: Object name case changes on UNIX

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 12:22 pm
by jim wood
The company I last worked at ran TM1 on Solaris 10. We restarted the model every Friday night. While the service was down we had a script that checked for any spaces and capitals and removed. I still develop windows models now without spaces and capitals. Once you get in to the behaviour it's difficukt to change!! :roll:

Jim.

Re: Object name case changes on UNIX

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 12:24 pm
by jim wood
The other thing that you may find (I think I have alreayd mentioned this on the forum but there we go) Is that when running TI scripts you'll need the UNC path of your samba share in the file location (when running off csv files) and the server location set to the Unix file path. Also any ascii exports have to be set to the Unix file path. If you have any other questions regarding TM1 on Unix give me a shout,

Jim.

Re: Object name case changes on UNIX

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 12:33 pm
by Michel Zijlema
I'm also working on a 9.4.1FP3 installation on a AIX machine and I can confirm that all object file names are reset to lowercase. Regarding the views/subsets: the }vues and }subs folder names are also changed to lower case, but these will appear next to the original folders with mixed case naming. These original folders will still contain the vue and sub files, which you can copy to the folders with lowercase names (after converting the file names to lowercase...).

Michel

Re: Object name case changes on UNIX

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 12:53 pm
by jstrygner
Guys, thank you for your input.
jim wood wrote: While the service was down we had a script that checked for any spaces and capitals and removed.
My Views, and some of Applications I created now for further behavior observation have spaces in names and it does not seem to be the problem.
Should I expect any issues with spaces (my cubes, dimensions, processes will not have ones, but I would NOT like to get rid of those in views, subsets and applications names, if I don't have to).
Michel Zijlema wrote: the }vues and }subs folder names are also changed to lower case, but these will appear next to the original folders with mixed case naming. These original folders will still contain the vue and sub files, which you can copy to the folders with lowercase names (after converting the file names to lowercase...).
Michel
Thanks for this tip. This tells me, I should definitely try to organize own AIX environment, where I will be able to dig directly in the model files and folders. Without that I was not able to spot it.

Cheers

Re: Object name case changes on UNIX

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:33 pm
by jim wood
I was never 100% certain that spaces would cause an issue. There was some debate amongst our Unix gurus. In the end we agreed not to use spaces. Just to be on the safe side. I think I remember consulting Keith Faulkner on the issue and he was also uncertain. Personally I would air on the side caution,

Jim.