1.5.2 Modeling Release Notes, January
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1.5.2 Modeling Release Notes, January

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Article summary

This document describes all the new features and enhancements with this release of Spotlight/SpotlightXL, as well as any known issues.

New Features and Enhancements

Code or Display Label for Dimension Members in Views and Reports

Match Criteria

Duplicate Members Report

Formula Reference Manager (Opt-In Feature)

Known Issues

Code or Display Label for Dimension Members in Views and Reports

You can now opt to display dimension members by label (Display Label), the code only, or customize the dimension member name altogether for views and reports in Modeling.

This functionality provides the flexibility to both analyze and report the data based on Code or based on Display Label for the dimensions in the Model. You can customize the dimensions with a Display Label for each dimension member in the Model and can use the same in Views and Reports.

Important!
This functionality eliminates the need for lookups. However, you can continue to use lookups. If you want to use Display Label functionality for a model that has been sourced from Planning, Consolidation, or Reporting applications with lookups, we recommend that you recreate the model.

For models sourced from Planning, Consolidation, or Reporting applications, the Display Label is defaulted to the dimension member code-name. For example, if a dimension member is named Executive and the code is Exec, the Display Label would be Exec - Executive. If no name exists for dimension member, the dimension member code is displayed.

You can set the Display Label for each individual report or view.

Complete the following steps to set the Display property to Display Label for Views:

  1. Select Analyze, Design View.

  2. Click the Properties button.

  3. Under Display, select Code or Label as shown below.

  4. Click Save.

In the view below, Display Label is selected.

The same view is shown below with Code selected for Display property.

Complete the following steps to set the Display Property to Display Label for Reports:

  1. Select the Analyze task and the Design Report subtask, or the Report task and the Design subtask.

  2. Click the Properties button.

  3. Under Display, select Code or Label.

  4. Click Save.

Customizing the Display Label

You can customize the Display Label so that it does not reflect the code - name of the dimension but rather another label altogether. For example, in the View below, the dates are displayed by code.

However, let’s say you don’t want the month abbreviated. So, you customize the label and results are as shown in the View below.

Complete the following steps to customize the Display Label:

  1. Access the Model task and the Dimension subtask.

  2. Select the dimension you want to have a customized display label.

  3. In the Action list-box, select Display Label option as shown below.

  1. The Member Display Label column is enabled as shown below. Select the dimension member you want to customize.

  1. Enter the new dimension member label/name and click Save. Now, set display settings to Display Label for reports and views.
Note:
By default, views and reports display settings is set to code. This can be changed to either code / display label for any view / report from the properties page.

If you clear the model, the customized display labels are preserved. If you copy a view/report from an existing view/report, the target view/report will inherit the display property of the source view/report.

Display Labels in POV, Drill Through, & Search Functionality

Search functionality supports Display Labels as does drill through and Point of View (POV). In the example below, the report has the Display Label feature enabled, so the POV dropdown contains the display labels.

Display Labels and Lookups

Models sourced from Planning, Consolidation, or Reporting applications with lookups do not need to use the Display Label feature. It is best to use one or the other and not both. If both features are used simultaneously, the default display name will have a lookup in place of the code. For example, let’s assume a dimension member has code “code”, name “name”, and lookup “lookup”. The resulting default display label will be “lookup – name” instead of “code – name”.

Match Criteria

This enhancement allows you to specify common Match Criteria when creating a map. Before this enhancement, if the member count between source and target models was different, the Map would fail and an exception error would occur. Now, you can select a ‘Common’ option, which moves all common data from the source to target model.

For example, let’s say you have the map below where you are moving 4 projects from the source model (January Release) to the target model JanuaryReleaseV1).

Match Criteria is blank. The result after running the calculation would be the model below that contains the 4 projects you moved from the JanuaryRelease model to the JanuaryReleaseV1 model.

Now, let’s say you add 2 additional projects to the JanuaryReleaseV1 model. So, the JanuaryRelease model has 4 projects and the JanuaryReleaseV1 model now has 6 projects. Because the number of projects differ between the two models, the calculation will result in an error when you run it. To avoid the error, select Common for Match Criteria on the Map page as shown below.

Note:
Note. Match Criteria is applicable for MemberAndBelow and A llMembers filter selections. Using Match Criteria is optional.

Duplicate Members Report

This new report displays duplicate dimension members sourced from the Planning, Consolidation, or Reporting applications. Access the Validation report by selecting the Model task and the Model Administration – Validation subtask. For Model, select HACPM_Financial.

Duplicate members are appended with the Member ID. To eliminate duplicate members, update the member codes in core applications and then perform a model refresh.

Note:
Note: A video tutorial is provided in the Knowledge Base that provides you with the steps to refresh a model.

Formula Reference Manager (Opt-In Feature)

Contact Support to enable this feature. It is not enabled by default.

We’ve introduced a new feature on the Model Formula page called Formula Reference, which simplifies the process of defining multi-dimensional formulas. Use Reference Manager to reference a dimensional intersection from any dimension within the Model.

With this enhancement you can refer required dimension members intersection when defining the formula, which will simplify the process of creating multi-dimensional formulas in Modeling Cloud.

To setup formula references access the Model Formula page by selecting the Model task and Formula subtask.

Copy and Paste Exchange Rate from Formula Design to Formula Member to define a reference for it. Then, click Reference Manager from the Formula Reference cell.

In the image above, the Temp 1 dimension member is selected for the Account Dimension and the USA dimension member is selected for the Location Dimension.

Tip!
Select dimension members by clicking the button shown below and selecting Member Selector.

Skip Dimension excludes the dimension from the formula meaning that the formula will not be applied to the dimension.

Selections made in Reference Manager automatically generates the syntax.

Note:
Note. Reference Manager is only applicable for Key dimension types.

Known Issues

Issue ID
Spotlight or SpotlightXL
Task
Description

733

SpotlightXL

Report Design

With the introduction of Display Label, you can design Views and Reports using Code or Display Label. Based on the chosen setting the design is updated accordingly. But, the Dimension Member Filter in the Report Design will always display Code, ignoring the chosen Display Label setting. While running the report the POV dropdown in the Ribbon will honor the Display Label setting.

417

SpotlightXL

Report Design

Excel Accounting Number Format functionality can be applied to a report while in Report Design. Right not this functionality is not working properly.

405

SpotlightXL

Report Design

In Report Design, specify a dimension to be cascaded. Copy and paste the cascaded member/block in the same column. Select Save and Run The following is displayed 'Cannot find variable '@Cascade' in model...'. Select Refresh and the following is displayed 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object'.

Important!
The cascaded member must be defined in the same line or above the cascaded block, otherwise the report will not run.

477

SpotlightXL

Report Design

The scale for cascade cells does not apply to other cascade cells when the report is run.


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