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Special Dimension Handling

Dimensions in most cases represent basic data entities and are connected to one or more facts to supply basic data information in an Information Source. A dimension connected to an Information Source is visible unless the referenced dimension is not installed, but as soon as the dimension is installed, all broken connections gets valid.

There are however other areas of usage for a dimension within Business Reporting & Analysis services. A supportive dimension can be created with the main purpose to define a view source for List of values in IFS Reporting. Data can also be shared between dimensions by using a concept called add-on dimensions. For both these types it is rather likely that the dimensions exist but are never connected directly to an Information Source.

Published IFS Business Reporter reports will be available in IFS Reporting and it is important to understand how to use Business Reporting & Analysis services metadata to enable appropriate List of values functionality in IFS Reporting.

This section deals with special dimension handling cases.

Dimension or Fact

The IFS Business Reporting & Analysis services model is transaction centric, i.e. there is a transaction based fact entity in the middle and with dimensions attached it, where the dimensions in almost all cases represent basic data entities.

The fact is controlling the statements built by IFS Business Reporting & Analysis services. So if the purpose of IFS Business Reporting & Analysis services and especially if used in IFS Business Reporter, is to create statements/reports based in basic data (dimensions), then one possible solution is to create a fact entity from dimension related sources:

  • Create a Fact entity based on the basic data tables.
  • Make sure that there is at least one fact item.
  • Connect dimensions if any.

There is also the case when it is not obvious if a fact or a dimension entity should be developed, since both are possible. The solution in this case is to:

  • Create one dimension entity from the basic source.
  • Create one fact entity from the basic source.

Note:If a dimension entity is built on a typical transaction or fact source, then the performance might be affected at execution time when referring to this new dimension, especially if the underlying source as lots of transaction. Dimension entities are normally based in small data entities.