Dynamic Time - the full overview

TARGIT has a very strong feature called "Dynamic criteria".

In short, it is a feature related to Time dimensions that will allow end-users to work with dynamic time criteria such as "Year-to-date", "Previous month", "Yesterday", "Previous 12 months" etc.

E.g., a dashboard with a "Previous month" dynamic criteria that is opened in September 2022 will show data for August 2022. When opened in January 2023, it will show data for December 2022 etc.

To the end-user, the Dynamic Criteria option may look something like this from the Criteria bar:

How to set up Dynamic Time

In order for Dynamic Time to work, it must be set up (enabled) first. Depending on your Data Warehouse platform, different methods apply.

Setting up Dynamic Time on a TARGIT Data Discovery platform

Dynamic Time is fully automated on the Data Discovery platform. If your data contains dates (of data type 'Date'), Data Discovery will automatically create Time dimension hierarchies such as 'YQMD' and 'YWD'. These hierarchies will also automatically be Dynamic Time enabled.

On the Data Discovery platform there are no options to add further Dynamic Time options than the automated ones.

Setting up Dynamic Time on a TARGIT InMemory platform

If the Data Warehouse platform is a TARGIT InMemory platform, Dynamic Time can only be set up directly on the time dimension(s) in the TARGIT Data Model Editor.

In short, to set up Dynamic Time on a time dimension in the Data Model Editor, you should:

• Change the dimension/hierarchy type from 'Regular' to 'Time'
• Change each level of the hierarchy to its correct type, e.g.,:
  • TimeYears
  • TimeMonths
  • TimeDays
• Add the Dynamic Time syntax to the dimension's/hierarchy's 'Time definition' property

Example:

Detailed article on Dynamic Time set up in an InMemory solution: https://community.targit.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017099097-Dynamic-Time-set-up-in-InMemory

Setting up Dynamic Time on a SSAS Multidimensional platform

If the Data Warehouse platform is a SQL Server SSAS Multidimensional platform, dynamic time can be set up in two ways:

• As part of the time dimension's description property directly in SSAS
• In the TARGIT Management client's Decorations settings

The latter option will seem easier in most cases - especially in an environment where you do not have direct access to the SSAS platform. The only downside of the latter option is that you may potentially have to do the setup multiple times for seemingly identical time dimensions in different cubes - whereas, if you do it in SSAS, this time dimension might be a single time dimension, which is shared among multiple cubes.

So, first, enabling Dynamic Time via the dimensions/hierarchies on the SSAS platform is very similar to how it is enabled in the InMemory platform. On the SSAS platform you will also need to:

• Change the dimension type from 'Regular' to 'Time'
• Change each level of the hierarchy to its correct type, e.g.,:
  • Date -> Calendar -> Years
  • Date -> Calendar -> Months
  • Date -> Calendar -> Days
• Add the Dynamic Time syntax to the hierarchy's 'Description' property

Example:

Notice the additional #|TimeDef: ... |# syntax necessary for the SSAS Dynamic Time set up.

Alternatively, you can also use Decorations to set up the Dynamic Time definition on a SSAS multidimensional platform. See the description in the section about Tabular Data Warehouses below.

Detailed article on Dynamic Time set up in SSAS multidimensional: https://community.targit.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017188437-Dynamic-Time-set-up-in-SSAS

Setting up Dynamic Time on a SSAS Tabular platform

Notice: This description will also be valid for SSAS Multidimensional platform. For the Multidimensional platform you can choose either the method described above, or this method, using Decorations from the TARGIT Management client.

On a SSAS Tabular platform, your only option to enable Dynamic Time is to use the Decorations feature in the TARGIT Management client.

In short, you will need to go through these steps:

• Open 'Manage Decorations' in the TARGIT Management client
• Locate the Time dimension hierarchy and select the 'Dynamic dates definition' property
• Set up the dynamic syntax and apply corresponding 'Level type overrides'

Example Decorations syntax and Level type override:

Detailed article on Dynamic Time set up with Decorations: https://community.targit.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017188717-Dynamic-Time-set-up-with-Decorations