Dynamic Time - general definition syntax

Here, we add functionality to the Period dimension, so that the built-in Dynamic Criteria functions of the TARGIT Client can be fully exploited.

This will give the end-user an opportunity to create dynamic analyses such as constantly updated year-to-date data, and even being able to compare it to the data of the same period last year.

Generally, Dynamic Criteria are enabled in the Analysis Services Project by entering a TARGIT specific syntax in the description field of a Period dimension.

Applicable dimensions are dimensions of type Time, and furthermore, the individual attributes or levels of a hierarchy must be of the appropriate type as well, e.g. type Years, Quarters, Months etc.

The general syntax for the description of the Period dimension is this:

#|TimeDef:[<>]|#

Note that a set of brackets [<>] must be included for each level in the dimension, e.g. a two-level hierarchical dimension with a Year and Quarter levels must have this description syntax:

#|TimeDef:[<>].[<>]|#

If the dimension values on a certain level include alphanumeric characters together with integer numbers, these characters must be included in the description syntax. E.g. if the Quarter level of the Time dimension has been prefixed by a ‘Q’, giving the values Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4, the syntax must be:

#|TimeDef:[<>].[Q<>]|#

If the dimension values do not contain any integer values, or if the prefix or postfix characters re not unique, then the syntax must contain the full list of names. E.g. if the Month level of the Period dimension only contains Month names (jan through dec), the syntax must be:

#|TimeDef:[<>].[Q<>].[jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec]|#

Alternatively, if the KeyColumns property of a certain level of the Period dimension is different from the NameColumn property, then the syntax may be changed to refer to the KeyColumns instead of the default NameColumn. As an example, the Month level of the Period dimension has often been designed with Month names (January through December) as the NameColumn and Month numbers (1 through 12) as the KeyColumn. To refer to the integers in the KeyColumn, the syntax must be:

#|TimeDef:[<>].[Q<>].&[<>]|#