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Former Member
Oct 12, 2005 at 07:30 AM

Data slices and variables

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Important to mention before describing the issue we're experiencing, in preparation for planning we load via flatfile the budget by fund, functional area and commitment item (among other characteristics, of course).

In most cases access to our planning data goes through the same three key variables: fund center, functional area and the commitment items. If fund center variable values are determined using authorizations, the functional areas and the commitment items lists are built by looking at the preloaded budget cube. Only those functional areas and commitment items that are in the budget by fund center will be pulled by the cube look-up function module and presented either as a list of variable values for the functional area or as a list of commitment items which would automatically populate the leading column in many layouts for planning. To recap from the process point of view, a user comes to the web application, selects a fund center from a list of authorized values. A particular selection triggers a lookup for functional areas and brings a list of functional areas for further selection. The user then selects a specific functional area and that finally causes the appearance of the layout in the leading column of which we see all the commitment items for this functional area within, of course, the fund center selected earlier. All commitment items that are available for planning by fund center/functional area are only those that have some values in the budget cube.

Now, in the process of planning, we enter data by a very specific combination of fund center, functional area, and a bunch of commitment items and wish to apply data slice on just that. Neither can we afford creating as many data slices as there're fund center/functional area combinations (provided we apply a slice on all commitment items within a FC/FuncArea combo, and we're fine with that) nor does it make sense, since those combinations change.

So, Obi-Wan Kenobi, dynamic data slice which would capture an individual combination of characteristic values from the variables and activate only this portion is our only hope. Needless to say, same applies for deactivation. We've created as many data slices now (7 for annual planning) as there're major variables. Do we stand a chance of activating a data slice for just a specific combo of characteristic values contained in data slice variables? Can we use a Z* table to capture those values as part of the solution. Something tells me, that even if we manage to activate a data slice for a specific combination of char values, the data slice will already show as active and further re-activation of the same data slice, just for a different combo of characteristic values, won't be possible. Anybody having the same problem/opportunity as we do?

Best regards,

Anna