Supressing Categories in Cognos Transformer 1

[JGirl]

Help!

In a cube I have created, I have a dimension called Type. For this dimension, there are 2 levels, Account and Group. A sample of my input data for my cube is as follows:

Account Group
Computers Computers
Depreciation Computers
Depreciation Buildings
Depreciation Refurbishments
Buildings Buildings
Refurbishments Refurbishments

I dont want the 'Depreciation' category to appear the Account level in my cube, so I have tried to supress this category, however, this results in duplicate categories appearing in the cube as follows:
Type
Computers
Computers
Buildings
Refurbishments
Buildings
Refurbishments

Does anyone know of a way that I can remove the duplicates?

J

 

[drlex]

J,
If you don't want the values for Depreciation to appear in your cube, then use 'Exclude' on Depreciation - this has the effect of removing the category and subcategories and their values. However, if you want all values in the cube and merely want to give the user the opportunity to view without the depreciation category, could you not create a special category that only includes the categories you want?
best wishes
lex

 

[JGirl]

I would like the user to be able to view the data without the 'depreciation' category appearing, but all values under this still appearing. I simply want the 'Depreciation' category supressed, but the problem with this is that I end up with the duplicate category names appearing in the drill down (As the Group categories coming underneath the depreciation item have the same names as other Account categories).

I have created an alternate drill down which is a special category, and is just what I need, however, I dont want the original drill down (containing 'Depreciation') to appear in the cube.

All I want to see in the Type dimension's drill down is:
Computers
Buildings
Refurbishments

Is this possible?

 

[drlex]

J,
If you want users to see the data for depreciation, then it must form part of a visible category.
"Suppress" merely causes the category to be skipped, so that the user sees the subcategories. In your example, these subcategories are Computers, Buildings and Refurbishment, so giving the effect of labels being visible twice, the first occasion is the Account category, the second as the subcategory of the excluded Depreciation category.
To see the depreciation data in the account categories that you do want, you need to either make that link in your data source, so that you have a suitable category or move the subcategories in the branching dimension window to link to the desired category and suppress the now empty category header.
Since you have created the desired special category view, why not just drag it above the regular dimension map and switch of the suppression of the 'By Account' drill category. Now the user will be offered the special category drill down first, with the regular drill down at the bottom of the list, labelled as 'Show by Account'
hth
lex

 

[JGirl]

lex,

Thanks for your help so far...It sucks being thrown in the deep end with no training....I think i'm finally getting on the right track (via a lot of wrong ones!)...I'll try your suggestion of dragging the special category view above the regular dimension map (I wasnt aware you could do this) and see how it goes.

What I really need is to be able to exclude the original drill down path from the cube, and only use the special category, but its not an option.

J

 

[drlex]

J
Umm - not wishing to inflame the problem, but if you just use the special categories, you will not see any of the data for the depreciation category.

You need to link the subcategories of depreciation to categories that you do want shown, either on the dimension viewer (the window that shows the drill down paths) or in your data source.

In the former instance, just click on the right had side of the subcategory labels and drag a connection to the categories that you want displayed. Once you have 'emptied' the depreciation category in this way, you can suppress the category. However, you will now have the multiple labels showing as subcategories, since Computers for example are a subcategory of computers and also of depreciation.

With this in mind, it might be better to amend your data source and reallocate the subcategories of depreciation to other categories to avoid the duplication of labels.

Sympathise with you on the training - if you are using Cognos on a f/t basis, I'd highly recommend their courses - get your company to fork out and it gives you an extra marketable skill
lex

 

[JGirl]

No chance of the company forking out!......Ive been there for 2.5 years, and have been promised and promised any sort of training courses, but get the old "its not in the training budget".

Try working for a bank.....for all the money they make, they sure dont like to spend it!

 

[drlex]

My condolences; the Cognos courses certainly aren't cheap. One could try a - "yes, it is £3,000, but over the year, it will save 2m work = £4,000 (or whatever 1/6 of your salary is!)".
Did you at least get the result you wanted? Judging from the times of our respective postings, we're in way different time zones, so a 'phone call is ooq, but I'm happy to keep up the thread until you get it or give up!
lex

 

[JGirl]

Training courses sound cheap when they are expressed in pounds.....you thought £3000 sounded like a lot...its even more expensive when you put it in Aussie dollars! Not much change from $10,000 (and thats a quarter of my salary!).

Thanks for all your help, but im going to give up, and make someone else think....Im going to "delegate it".

Cheers
J