External Source Model Best Practices

We recommend no more than 120 fields in one ESM model.

We recommend no more than 5 million records in one ESM model.

Define the ESM model and required formulas, load some sample data, and then validate the data and formulas. Once everything is working as expected, you can define the map to move the data from ESM to the Master Model. At any given point in time, users can update the formula expressions; however, if there is data loaded into an ESM model or if a map is defined, then making structural changes to the ESM model (such as adding a field, changing the type of the field, deleting the field) is not allowed. You must clear the data before making changes to the fields.

When using copy and paste or when using a file to load data into an external source model, all the existing data in the model will be cleared and the new data loaded.

Contributor and Reviewer users do not have the option to create a view on an ESM model. Only Power users have the option to create views.

To create an ESM view, it is mandatory to select a map from the associated master model and also to select a POV dimension which will serve as a filter in run mode. For Contributor and Reviewer users, the filter dimension from the associated master model will filter the dimension members based on the dimension security defined for the Contributor and Reviewer users.

ESM views where saving data is enabled allows users to load up to 10,000 records. If there are more records, then the recommendation is to leverage filter dimensions to filter the data input into smaller chunks.

Use a single quote to input the dates in SpotlightXL.