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About preparing Time dimension data

Atualizado em: 2009-04-30

The Time dimension requires special attention during data integration, because a reference to Time occurs in every Planning Server model and every source database.

Time Dimension Data Preparation

Consider the following when you are working with Time dimension data:

  • When an application calendar is created in Planning Business Modeler, the Time dimension is populated with data. We recommend that you save the Time dimension immediately after calendar creation and before synchronization of the staging database.

  • The Time dimension contains time frequencies and time periods.

  • A time frequency is used for grouping data, such as weeks or months. A time period is a single instance in a time frequency, such as December 2006.

  • The conforming process for the Time dimension differs from that of other dimensions because of the use of Absolute Date fields.

  • Each model can have a different member set or view for the Time dimension, such as Yearly, Quarterly, or Monthly. Therefore, you should use special care to determine what view was used in the model creation before you start data preparation.

    ObservaçãoObservação:

    You cannot load data into the Time dimension.

  • When you load data from another Planning Server application and the application calendar pattern is different, you should use special care when you merge predefined Time dimension data. Make sure that MemberIDs and dates, in the Time dimension data that you are merging, map correctly.

Use of Absolute Date Fields

Locales can use a variety of date formats, such as MM/DD/YY or DD/MM/YY. Therefore, use care when you integrate data into the Time dimension in the application database. This is addressed by using three absolute date fields: ActualYear, ActualMonth, and ActualDay.

Absolute date fields contain the extrapolated day, month, and year from the date field in the application database. You can then map these fields to the date/time values in the source database during data preparation. Mapping eliminates the requirement to normalize date formats in source data before data integration.

ID Fields in Measure Group Tables

Every model in Planning Business Modeler contains one or more measure group tables. Measure group tables contain the dimension ID for each dimension in the model.

For the Time dimension, several dimension ID options are available, depending on the member set or view of the Time dimension. However, only one dimension ID can be used for each measure group table.

The available Time dimension ID fields are as follows:

  • Annual View: Time_Year

  • Quarterly View: Time_Quarter

  • Monthly View: Time_Month

  • Daily View (default): Time_MemberId

The naming of the Daily View column follows the standard MemberId convention for dimensions. Weekly views are not available.

For example,

  • When you prepare data for a model by using a Daily View, use the three absolute date fields ActualYear, ActualMonth, ActualDay, and determine the Time_Member ID fields.

  • When you prepare data for a model with a Quarterly View, use the three absolute date fields: ActualYear, ActualMonth, and ActualDay and determine the Time_Quarter field.

If you are preparing data in a label-based format, you must use the related label. For example, label-based data for the month should be mapped to Time_Month_Label, not Time_Month.

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