HOWTO: Hide filters for dimensions that confuse users

re: HOWTO: Hide filters for dimensions that confuse users

Sinclair Boyd — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:34:48 GMT

I agree - getting rid of distractions is important.

Focus, focus, focus!

Thank you!

re: HOWTO: Hide filters for dimensions that confuse users

Alan Whitehouse — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:56:29 GMT

Peter,

Your points are really good. Those little things can make a big difference.

On a related thread -- any plans to allow for cascading filters or any work-arounds to provide those? By that I mean, the choices that appear in one filter are limited by the choices you make in another?

-Alan

re: HOWTO: Hide filters for dimensions that confuse users

petereb — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:20:12 GMT

Alan-

We've definitely discussed this one and its tricky - mainly because of the UI, not technical implementaiton. Presumably the order the filters appear in the rdl (and the popup) control the order in which they cascade. So that part is clear and already reorderable in the UI.

But what controls the cascading? Are we looking for pre-defined attribute relationships in the cube? Is there some UI that needs to be used to define the relationship etc.

Then of course what happens when the filters become out of sync? Do we just continue to show the filter selection out of scope error or what?

We've proposed various alternative tradeoffs for these cases, but haven't chosen one yet (although we do have a couple favorites which when they are more finalized we can talk about). So any feedback anybody has on how the cascading works would be good to validate the approach we do decide on.

New Microsoft Insider PPS Planning Blog

Sacha Tomey's blog — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:55:58 GMT

A great new PPS-P focused blog has been up and running for a good few weeks now. Peter Eb. , a developer

re: HOWTO: Hide filters for dimensions that confuse users

Pierre Naude — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:14:46 GMT

Hi Peter,

you mentioned in the blog:

"And there are valid scenarios to allow them to edit even the data-entry matrices for their ease"

does this not affect the connection to the model at all? could i change dimension views in the matrix and then still capture and submit data using this different format?

Pierre

re: HOWTO: Hide filters for dimensions that confuse users

petereb — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:02:39 GMT

Yes, the permissions are defined on the model, not in the form so changing the matrix will allow the contributor to submit different data then the default layout of the matrix.

Also the settings of the cycle (time/scenario/model) will be fixed so the writable area is slightly filtered from what is defined on the model.

Peter Eb. : HOWTO: Hide filters for dimensions that confuse users

Dating — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:13:54 GMT

For data entry forms (and even some reports) its pretty important to keep contributors focused on their specific task. Its especially easy for users who are not familiar with OLAP or PPS to be confused by some things: "TimeDataView" and "Business