With TM1; It feels like only yesterday that we were working exclusively in drab grey cube views – where an Excel add-in was our only respite if we wanted to try and create something even remotely aesthetically appealing for our users. Every so often I like to remind myself of that fact when working in Planning Analytics Workspace – it’s incredible to think that this is the same product.
I think the epitome of this; is the Map Visualisation in Planning Analytics Workspace. As a concept, a Map chart may seem like an obvious thing to have available but when I started working with TM1; we didn’t even have TM1 Web – that means I didn’t even have built-in Bar Charts to work with!
Agenda
In this video, I try and cover off some off the core information surrounding the Map Visualisation:
- How to implement the chart
- How to use the chart
- A couple of Error Messages that you are likely to see
- Some of the regions that you are and are not able to use (including a couple not covered in the official documentation)
Resources
During the video I mention a couple of links that would be provided; these can be found here:
}DimensionAttributes Cube Creation
If the }DimensionAttributes Cube has not been automatically created for you; you have a few options:
- According to the Official Documentation at the time of writing the cube should be created automatically when you open your model in either Planning Analytics Workspace or Performance Modeller (I have not found this to be the case though.)
- Use the DimensionAttrInsert function which will create the cube for you.
- Add the below basic code into the prolog of a TI process (no datasource) and execute once:
Map Reference Info
The key part to making you Map Visualisation work is providing a dimension or hierarchy with element names that it will recognise. You can find a list of the officially supported values on the IBM Website Here.
What can you find?
The world is a big place. With thousands of possible regions that can be included; and those same regions having multiple alias names that can be used (Ivory Coast being the current champion with 85 acceptable names!)
We have found that the individual countries within the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) can be used despite not being officially documented. As such it’s reasonable to assume that there are other such hidden places out there that we can use. Please get in touch if you find or have already found some of these – there will be a prize in it if anyone manages to find Atlantis or Narnia!
Any Chart or Visualisation serves a purpose. They allow you to display information in a way that is easier to understand and digest. And Map Visualisations can take that to an extreme. Personally, working with these map charts has shown me just how bad my Geography is. And having data displayed in this way allowed me insights into the data I would not have otherwise known.
Find other Videos and Articles from the Quick Tips series here.
