Transformer 6.61 - calc vs. special categories

[donafran]

Help! I have a cube with several "Calculated" categories under the time dimension (for Cumulative YTD comparisons. There are several measures that don't work quite right the way in which I have added the months together.

There is a thread >> thread401-536341 << that deals with similar issues.

It advises using Special Categories instead of Calculated, with an additional level.

This sounds like a great solution -- but how do I convert the existing Calc category back to a Special Category so that I can drag & drop the months as children (a calc cat cannot be a parent).

I have users that have saved Upfront Cube views over the existing categories that I don't won't to &quot;delete&quot;the category.

Please Help with any ideas, work arounds, etc
Thanks !

 

[BruceReed]

If you don't want to delete the old categories, then you will not have to.

To create a Special catagory (which is what I believe you will want to use), in the dimension viewer, click on the date field. Then drag it to the right, and fill in the text box that comes up. In this box are all the parameters you will have to enter for your cataogory. Things like year to date, quarter to date, yesterday, last month, etc. etc. The basic ones are pretty easy, some of the advanced ones you will have to expirement with to get working.

If this sounds like a lot of work, you can also use the &quot;create time dimension wizard&quot; on the menu. This creates many of the relative time dimesions for you.

Hope this helps
Bruce

 

[donafran]

Hi - Thanks. I understand what you are saying, but my problem is the need to REPLACE the categories that are already in use with categories that will actually work. Right now, with the Calc categories certain measures, like Averages, percent growth, etc SUM up in the cumulative categories.

What I am trying to do is REPLACE them with Special categories that I can use as a parent and drag/drop the months needed as children categories. When you create a new category in transformer, it is automatically a Special Category. Then there is an option to &quot;Change to Calculated Category&quot; which is what I had done. Then in the calculation, I added the months together to get cumulative date ranges based on our Fiscal calendar.

What I want to do is delete the calculation and change the category back to a Special Category so that the new category that works replaces the old category, but doesn't destroy the users views who have already used and saved cube views with these categories.

 

[BruceReed]

I am not 100 % certain, but I believe that if you delete the unwanted catagories, and recreate them from scratch, but the SAME name as before, the end user won't know the difference.

Make a back up copy & give it a test. I would try it, but I don't have Cognos installed here.

Regards,
Bruce

 

[GJParker]

I think Bruce is right - as long as the new special categories have the same name as the existing calculated categories once the cubes are rebuilt the users shouldn't see any difference.



Gary Parker
Systems Support Analyst
Manchester, England