MDL and PYI

[dnivaras]

Whats the difference between mdl and pyi files in PowerPlay Transformer. Thanks in advance

 

[JGirl]

The difference between the two types of models is in how they are stored:
- ".pyi" models are stored in binary
- ".mdl" models are stored in ASCII

I work with the MDL files as opposed to the PYI files for a number of reasons including the following:
- The PYI models often become corrupt, and once that happens, there is nothing you can do to fix it
- The MDL files can be viewed in a text editor like textpad, notepad etc, whereas the PYI files can't
- The MDL files are generally smaller in size

Hope that helps!
JGirl

 

[quatermass]

Hi JGirl,

I normally use the PYI files and keep MDL backups for one reason;

I find that the database passwords are never stored in the MDL file and cannot be used for automated cube builds.

The backups are there for the very reason you state, corrupt PYIs cannot be opened.



Kevin **************************************************************
Rock is Dead (Long Live Paper and Scissors)**************************************************************

 

[JGirl]

Hi Kevin,

We build our cubes by running transformer in batch mode by scheduling a .bat file in Cognos Scheduler. The -k switch in the scheduled bat files sends the database user id and password to the model, so we can still have automated cube building using the mdl files (woo hoo!). For each cube we want to build in the bat file you have something like the following.....

cmd /c start /w c:\Cognos\cer1\bin\trnsfrmr.exe -n -k <DBName>=<DBUserName>/<DBPassword> c:\cubemodels\cubemodelname.mdl


J

 

[quatermass]

Hi J,

I do know about this method, but the places I have to build cubes are not happy with plain text database passwords being &quot;visible&quot; to others, no matter how secure the machine is...

Users....The world would be a lot simpler without them .


Kevin **************************************************************
Rock is Dead (Long Live Paper and Scissors)**************************************************************