1.6.1 Modeling Release Notes, March

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

New Features and Enhancements

Topics:

Organizing Views and Reports in Folders

Dimension Security Enhancement for Designer Users

Modeling Permission Subtask

View Enhancements - Support for Multiple Number Format and Ability to Lock Members in Views

New ClearLeafData Calculation

External Source Model Enhancements

Additional User Security

Update to Planning, Consolidation, or Reporting Applications Configuration Settings

Managing Processes

Model Backup / Restore Update

Known Issues

Organizing Views and Reports in Folders

The new folder structure functionality is available in SpotlightXL. It allows you to organize views and reports. New folder structure functionality is available on the following pages:

• Analyze task and the Data subtask

• Analyze task and Design View subtask

• Analyze task and Design Report subtask

• Report task and Run subtask

• Report task and Design subtask

The Model and View list-boxes as well as the Report list-box have been replaced with one list-box as shown below.

New

Legacy

To organize views and reports as well as run a report or display a model/view, click the list-box as shown below.

View and Report Organization Functionality

The following topics discuss the functionality within the Folder Organization page.

• Adding a Folder

• Accessing Folders

• Deleting Folders

• Renaming Folders

• Moving Views and Reports

• Searching for Models, Folders, Views and Reports

• Default

Adding a Folder

1. Select a model and click the Add Folder button to add a new folder.

2. Enter a folder Name and click OK.

The new folder (named DW2) is now added under the Decision Works model.

Accessing Folders

Folders are not based on security role (Admin, Designer, and Reviewer). Any type of user can add a folder, edit, rename, or delete a folder. And, any type of user can and move reports and views they have access to from folder to folder.

Access to models, views, and reports remains the same. A user must have access to open a report or view.

Deleting Folders

To delete a folder:

1. Select the folder.

2. Make sure there are no views or reports in the folder as you cannot delete a folder that contains views and reports.

3. Right click and select Delete as shown below.

Renaming Folders

To rename a folder:

1. Select the folder.

2. Right-click and select Rename.

3. Enter the new name of the folder.

4. Click OK.

Moving Views and Reports

Views and reports can be moved from folder to folder by dragging and dropping.

Searching for and Displaying Models, Folders, Views and Reports

Use the Search functionality at the top of the screen to search for Models, Views and Reports. Use the up and down arrows to scroll through the results.

Click the Model, View or Report and click the Select button to display it in the SpotlightXL spreadsheet.

Default

Default views cannot be deleted, renamed, or moved. For each Model a default structure is created. The model is at the top with the Default view listed below it. Each additional view is listed under the Default.

Dimension Security Enhancement for Designer Users

Dimension security now applies to views and reports for the Designer user type. In the past, dimension security was only applicable for Reviewer user types. Administrations can now configure dimension security for both Designer and Reviewer user types.

For information on how to set up dimension security and for additional details on how dimension security applies to Designers, see the User Setup and Security Guide.

Additional User Security

Administrators can now prevent users from accessing Spotlight and SpotlightXL by:

• Configuring a number of invalid login attempts

• Manually setting a user to a Locked status

Configuring a Number of Invalid Login Attempts

When you configure the number of invalid login attempts, any attempts beyond that number (by any user) to log in to SpotlightXL or Spotlight will fail. For example, if you select 3 and a user makes 3 invalid login attempts, the user will be locked from accessing Spotlight and SpotlightXL until that user is unlocked by an Administrator user.

To configure the number of invalid login attempts:

1. Access the Manage task and the Application Administration, Application Settings subtask.

2. In the Lock User Account after invalid attempts field, enter a number. In the example below, a user’s account will be locked after 5 attempts.

3. Click Save.

Manually Setting a User to a Locked Status

To lock a user to prevent sign on:

1. Select the Manage task and the User subtask.
2. In the Locked Status field, select Locked from the list-box for a specific user.

Unlocking a User

To unlock a user that has been locked out due to too many attempts to login, or, to unlock a previously manually locked user, complete the following steps:

1. Select the Manage task and the User subtask.

2. In the Locked Status field, select Unlocked from the list-box for a specific user.

Managing Processes

Process Management is new functionality that allows you to view active running background processes and cancel them as needed. Calculations that are actively running are displayed when Run in Background is set to Yes as shown below.

Select the Manage task and the Application Administration subtask. Under the Application Administration subtask is a new task named Process Management as shown below.

There are 5 fields and 2 actions available on the Process Management page (displayed below). Each of the fields and actions are described in the table below.

For example, to stop the FinanceMaster process from running, select the process line and click Cancel.

Update to Planning, Consolidation, or Reporting Applications Configuration Settings

The Horizon Uri, Horizon Tenant Code, and Soap Uri fields on the Manage, Application Administration, Application Settings page are now read-only. You must submit a Support case to change the settings.

ClearLeafData Calculation

We've added a new calculation type called ClearLeafData. ClearLeafData clears all leaf level data by zeroing out the data (posts 0 values), which is useful for advanced modeling cases.

To clear leaf level data, define a scope with appropriate dimension members. Then, use the scope along with ClearLeafData type in the calculation as shown below.

See Also: How to Apply Scope to a Model

For information on Types, see: Calculation

Model Permission Subtask Update

The Model Permissions subtask (formerly called Permission) has been moved under the Manage task. It used to be under the Model task. To access Model Permissions, select the Manage task and the Application Administration, Model Permissions subtask.

External Source Model Enhancements

Now, you can load External Source Model data (including transaction data which you can drill through) by specifying it as a source for your Master Model. The benefit of doing this is that you can perform all model management tasks from one point; the Master Model.

To specify External Source Model data as a source for your Master Model, complete the following steps:

1. Define a Master Model with required dimensions and load metadata for all dimensions. Use the Model task and the Setup and Dimension subtasks to complete this step.

2. Define the External Source Model with required transaction fields / columns. Use the Model task and the External Source Model, Source Model task to complete this step.

3. Define the Map, which will integrate the Master Model and External Source Model. Use the Model task and the External Source Model, Source Map subtask to complete this step. Optionally, when defining the Map, you can also specify Filter dimensions which can be used while loading the data.

4. Load the data by selecting the Model task and the External Source Model, Source Data subtask. For Filter dimensions, select the dimension members. Click the Load Data action.

5. Now that the data is loaded to your External Source Model, create a calculation to move the data to your Master Model. A new Calculation Type called ‘ExternalSourceMap’ has been added to move data from an External Source Model to a Master Model. Use the Model task and the Calculation subtask to complete this step as shown below.

6. Run the calculation to move the data loaded to the External Source Model to the Master Model.

The images below show External Source Model transaction data with the Drill Through option selected.

View Enhancements

Views now support multiple number formats (i.e. Numeric, Currency, Percent) and the ability to lock specific dimension members for any dimension.

Number Format

With this enhancement you can design a single View with all 3 number formats, which are numeric, percent, and currency. Until now, only one number format was supported for the entire View. For example, define a View where Price increase is in the Percent number format and Units is in the numeric number format. Then, apply the Currency number format to the calculated revenue.

Define Multiple Number Formats for Dimension Members in Views

1. Specify the number format for each dimension member by:

• Select the Model task and the Dimension subtask.

• Select the model from the Model list-box and the dimension that contains the members you want to define number formats for from the Dimension list-box.

• Select the Set View Properties action. In the example below, the Numeric number format is selected for Qty and the Currency number format is selected for Amount for the Account dimension.

• Click save after defining number formats for each dimension.

2. Update the properties at the View level so that the number formats defined at the dimension level are displayed as needed. Note that two new View properties have been added called Dimension based 'Number Format' and Dimension based 'Locked'.

• Select the Analyze task and the Design View subtask.

• Select the View.

• Click the Properties action.

• Select the dimension from the Dimension based 'Number Format' field you applied number format to on the Model Dimension page.

In the example below, Qty is defined as Numeric, Amount as Percent, and Calculated Revenue as Currency.

Lock Dimension Member

With this enhancement, you can lock specific members in a View to prevent modification. This is useful when you have multiple versions of data in Views and you want to allow data input for a specific version only. For example, lock Actual data from modification, but allow input for all Budget data.

1. Access the Model task and the Dimension subtask.

2. Select the model and the dimension that contains the members you want to lock.

3. Select the Set View Properties action.

4. For each dimension member you want locked, select Yes for the Locked field as shown below (the Actual scenario is locked).

5. Click Save.

6. Select the Analyze task and the Design View subtask.

7. Select the View.

8. Click the Properties action.

9. In the Dimension based 'Locked' field, select the dimension you locked on the Model Dimension page, which was Scenario (Actual Scenario) as shown below.

When you return to the View, both Actual and Budget data is visible, but Actual data is locked to prevent input. The light-grey color indicates the data in locked.

Model Backup / Restore Update

The maximum size of a model backup and/or restore is now defaulted to 200 MB.

From a best practice perspective, use Leaf Level for Data when exporting big models and do not exceed the limit of 500 MB.

The Model Backup/Restore page shown below is available from the Manage task and the Application Administration subtask.

Known Issues

The following table lists known issues for this release.