The Mighty Listbox and Treeview -- part 1

The best member selectors you’ve ever seen

What, he’s still going on about this?  How much can anyone write about member selectors? 

Oh sure, Dodeca’s in-built ad-hoc member selectors are the best.  And yes, you have to admit, may it ever be so reluctantly, dynamically driving comboboxes through delimited lists, API queries, report scripts, and a merger of SQL and Essbase dimensions is pretty intriguing, but more?

Oh yes, more, because those other two posts were but mere preludes to two coolest member selectors:  listboxes and treeviews.

As always, remember, these dimension pickers/member selectors/call them what you will are all code free, unless of course you want to wrap code around it.  Try doing that in Classic, i.e., the Classic Legacy Old-Fashioned Same-As-It-Ever-Was Excel add-in, aka CLOFSAUEWE, aka Clof-Saw-You, or even in Oracle’s latest and greatest client tool, SmartView.

What do they look like?

The path to member selector nirvana is the same as the ‘umble ComoboBox - via the Dodeca toolbar.  Just click on the dimension control.  Note that Dodeca shows a default “Select a market” message as nothing has been selected yet.  Of course, this message is configurable, as we’ll see shortly.

Starting off simple with Listboxes

Remember, the UI to a listbox is, well, a list within a box.  And that isn’t terribly exciting.  But don’t forget that all of those ultra cool ways of populating a combobox apply to Listboxes as well.  Beauty is only skin deep, character goes to the bone.

Names, Aliases, and Alias Tables

If the dimension has both member names and aliases, these buttons flip between the two.  Also, if the Essbase database has multiple alias tables, the table can be selected on the fly.

Top level TreeView

This is where Dodeca’s member selectors get interesting.  An Essbase dimension of any size is almost always (dare I say always) a hierarchy (For those even more pedantic than I, all dimensions are hierarchical by definition, I mean a more than a two generation hierarchy).  Dodeca does an excellent job of displaying them in an easy to navigate TreeView control.

And here is the Market dimension from My Very Favorite Essbase Database In The Whole Wide World, Sample.Basic, aka MVFEDITWWWSB, also aka meph-edit-wysb, in all of its simple glory. 

TreeView’s buttons

Big deal you say – a treeview is a treeview is a treeview.

But as always with Dodoca, even the out of the box controls have high functionality.  See all those buttons at the bottom of the treeview?  Lots and lots of functionality, all there for the taking.

Expand All/Collapse All

Just like the button text states, these modal buttons expand to all descendants/collapse to one generation above whatever is selected, e.g., East or Market collapses to Market, New York collapses to East, West, South, and Central.

Expand Branch/Collapse Branch

Same as Expand All/Collapse All, but limited to a single branch of the hierarchy.

Show Selection

Expands the TreeView to the selected member if the hierarchy has been collapsed.

Cool little doohickey that doesn’t have a name/I shall call it the Member Options control

Did you catch that little downward pointing arrowhead all the way to the right of the Show Selection button?

Member Tips

With this on, hover the mouse over a member name and you see all kinds of cool information about a member including member name, alias, its shared status, and any UDAs that apply to the member.

Member Information

One of the many things I love about Dodeca are the little surprise-and-delight features.  Member Info you say…

Ta-da, more than you ever thought you could possibly know about the member Oregon:

Find

Not much use in Sample.Basic’s Market dimension, but think about your really, really big Product dimension in that mighty ASO reporting cube.  Nice to have, eh?

Tabbed dimension selector

If you have more than one treeview/listbox selector open, you can tab switch between the two.

Pin or Auto Hide

As with seemingly everything in Dodeca, there are options.

Want the member selector to stay firmly in view?  Pin it up.  Want it to slide away to give you more space? Select Auto Hide.

When the member selector is hidden, simply hover over the dimension name and it will reappear.

Awesome.

How do I populate them?

You’ve had the sizzle, now let’s take a bite of the steak.  Vegetarians/vegans can instead have a mouthful of tofu.  I prefer the ultrafirm Japanese tofu – everything else is a bit too slimy for my taste.  I digress, again.

See the previous post on The Humble ComboBox for an definition of a Selector and Selector List.  This is the beauty of a continuing blog series – they build upon each other.

Selector Lists

EssbaseDelimitedString

Before Dodeca can display a selector, it must first have a selector list.  We’ll start with the simplest – a delimited string.  Remember how I wrote “no code required”?  Here it is.

Okay, there is a little bit of code – I need to type the word “Market” into the DelimtedString property

Edit the View property sheet and change the selector.

And we see the default dimension.  Not one line of code – one word of code.  Powerful enough for you yet?

Hmm, no description and guess what, this report is only valid for the West, and the dimension picker ought to open when the View is selected.

AutoOpen

Default message and It’s The Law of the West

And here is the View with a limited Market hierarchy and a default message just for the West.  By the way, the Market TreeView pops up automatically.  Your choice (as always with Dodeca), I just decided to set it up this way.

I’m going to go on again about the coolness of this, just in case you weren’t paying attention.  Here’s the key thing:

There.

Is.

No.

Code.

Required.

Finally a phoneticism (is that a word?) that sounds half-way decent – TINCR.  Remember that TINCRing with Dodeca = awesomeness.

Think about how much code you’d need to do this in Classic or SmartView.  Think long and hard.  Funny, all I can think about is Dodeca.  That and actually having some free time because all of the code  I don’t have to write.

This post’s conclusion

And that’s where I’m going to stop this post because:

1)    What, this isn’t long enough for you?

2)    The next subject of combining Essbase, Dodeca metadata, and SQL to build report and user specifc METAREAD filters without ever touching Essbase.sec ,gets a little, mind, just a little, involved and I want to keep you focused (Mum, Glenn, and one or two other sad individuals whom I’m not related to).

3)    It’s so freaking cool, it really deserves its own topic.  Maybe it’ll be a little shorter.  Maybe.

A plea for feedback
I’m not getting a lot of comments on these Dodeca posts.  Is there interest in this?  I’m enjoying myself with this.  Anyone else?  You can always reach me via LinkedIn if the comments section isn’t your style.

Kalidoscope 2010 Symposium Agenda is here

And it’s awesome

Did you expect anything else?  I didn’t.  I have ranted and raved before about how big ol’ Oracle lets down its hair and opens a dialog up with us, the people who actually use this stuff.

Marketing drivel?  Nope.

Deep product knowledge?  This is Kaleidoscope, remember?  So, yes.  Lots of content, like future direction.  And interaction with the audience.  And taking notes (that would be Oracle taking notes, btw, not yr. obdnt. srvnt.  Did I not use the word "awesome"?)  And meeting and greeting your fellow EPM geeks.  What’s not to like? 

The interaction last year with the SmartView team was spirited (ahem) and useful for Oracle (I think, they have a great OTN board post last year's conference) and us, the audience.  I’m willing to bet Toufic and his team are up for more of the same.  I hope that the other product managers are as well.

If you want, you can attend just Sunday’s session.  It’s worth it.  Really.  We lucky few wll be there the whole week.  See you there.  I can hardly wait.

The Agenda

ODTUG Conference - Sunday Symposium - Sunday June 27th
Time	Facilitator	Topic	Description
8:00 - 8:15	Ed Roske/ Tim Tow	Welcome/Housekeeping
8:15 - 9:15	Robert Gersten/ Al Marciante	EPM Strategy and Interactive Keynote
9:15 - 10:15	Toufic Wakim/           Al Marciante	New User Interaction Paradigms for EPM	Interactive discussion on adapting the EPM User Interfaces to enhance user experience.  Topics include use of ADF for User Experience, Collaborative features in webcenter, and integrated workflow/task management that spans EPM applications, BI and operational systems.
10:15 - 10:30	All	Break
10:30 - 11:15	Janette Hollar	Financial Close Solutions Futures	Discussion topics include Hyperion Financial Management, Financial Close Manager, Disclosure Management and CFO Dashboard.
11:15 - 12:00	Toufic \Wakim	Smart View Discussion	This interactive session will discuss Smart View futures, adoption by Essbase customers, plug in architecture extensibility, etc.
12:00 - 1:00	All	Lunch
1:00 - 2:00	Shankar Viswanathan	Planning and Budgeting Futures	This session will discuss new planning applications and core planning work, including Project Planning, Forecasting, and adapting industry solutions.
2:00 - 2:15	All	Break
2:15 - 3:15	Alan Lee	Essbase	Interactive session on Essbase futures
3:15 - 4:00	Alan Lee	OBIEE	Focus on Answers, BI Publisher and post-Negril strategies.

 

More Secrets of Grand Central

There is possibly no more beautiful railroad station in the world than New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. (Note: It’s a ‘terminal’ not a station, because there are no ‘through-trains’).

As the destination of over 55,000 daily commuters from Connecticut, it’s a place where we spend a fair amount of time. But rather than rush to or from your train, next time you’re in GCT, look around and enjoy some of its hidden secrets.

Based on 40+ years of commuting experience, here are some of the nooks and crannies within the station that I find most fascinating… and useful.

The Million Dollar Clock: The famous clock atop the information booth in the main concourse looks good for a reason. Its four faces are made from opal, valued in excess of $10 million.

Look Up: Most people know about the zodiac ceiling painting in the main hall. But did you know the night sky is actually reversed? Or that, in its cleaning of soot and cigarette smoke years ago, one small rectangle was left in its darkened form? Just look in the northwest corner of the ceiling.

Underground Access: Sure, you can enter Grand Central from street level, but in bad weather you can find your way underground from blocks away. The new north-end access afforded at Madison and 47th St., Park Ave. and 48th Street, and the Helmsley Building at Park and 45th Street walk-ways are dandy. But did you know you can also access from 43rd or 45th Street, west of Vanderbilt, or via the subway’s shuttle station, on the south side of 42nd Street, just west of Park? There’s also a tunnel under Lexington Avenue directly from the Chrysler Building.

Fastest Way from the Lower Level: Many trains from Connecticut dump you on the lower level. But forget about the ramps or stairs for the long climb to street level. Instead, walk to the forward end of the train and look for the elevator near Track 112. It will take you to the upper level or, better yet, punch “E” and you’ll emerge within steps of Vanderbilt Avenue (see below).

Washrooms with No Wait: The new washrooms at the west end of the lower level have helped a lot, but still there’s often a line. Take the nearby escalator up one level, go right and just before the ramp up to 42nd St. and Vanderbilt, look on your left for the sign for the Oyster Bar. Go down the steps into the bar and you’ll find ornate bathrooms known only to a few, and staffed by a full-time attendant.

Best Place to Get a Cab: Forget about the long line at the taxi stand on 42nd St east of Vanderbilt. Instead, go out the west end of the Main Concourse, up the stairs, and out onto Vanderbilt Avenue. Cross the street and wait at the corner of 43rd Street. Taxis flow through here, leaving off passengers every few seconds. If you are heading west you’ll also avoid the heavy traffic on 42nd Street.

Recycling but Not Re-Reading: When newspaper recycling came to Grand Central in the 90’s, it apparently worked too well. Papers tossed into the open bins were too easily retrieved and re-read by others. To curb the loss in sales, the New York Times paid to have the bins capped and recycling increased by a ton of paper a day.

These are a few of my favorite “secrets” of Grand Central. Drop me an e-mail with yours and I’ll include them in a future column.

Bar Cars, The NY Times & The Truth

In an earlier life I was a journalist. A pretty good one too, winning awards in my time at NBC News and local stations. We used to have a joke in the newsroom about sloppy reporting, commenting that a reporter “should never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”

That rubric came to mind when I first read the NY Times’ April 20th feature on pending demise of Metro-North’s bar cars. I had spoken with the reporter, Michael Grynbaum, about the story. I even sent him to talk to others involved in the efforts to save the last commuter rail bar cars in the US.

But despite our conversations, he got the story wrong. Very wrong.

As I have written here before, the eight bar cars serving Metro-North riders in Connecticut are vastly popular but often under threat. When ridership peaked before the recession, there was some talk of adding seats to the bar cars, doing away with their 1950’s style banquette seats. Some of the old bar cars were literally being held together with duct tape while other cars of the same era went thru rehab, getting new electronics and cleaned interiors. Clearly, the priority was seats, not in-transit bar service.

But as of today, our sacred bar cars have been rejuvenated, having gone through the railroad’s CSR (Critical Systems Replacement) program. The cars are good for another 15 – 20 years and there are no, repeat NO, plans to remove them from service.

What is at question is whether we will see bar car designs for the new M8 car coming on line later this year. Here is where the NY Times got the facts wrong.
The paper implied that CDOT and Metro-North had no designs for an M8 bar car. Not so. The CT Rail Commuter Council has seen those designs and we’ve been told in recent days they are in the hands of Kawasaki, the M8’s builder, for bids.
Why would the state be seeking bids on an M8 bar car if they were being eliminated?

But remember that old newsroom mantra: “Never let the facts… etc.”

The Times also implied that when the new M8 cars come into service, all of our older cars (including the eight bar cars) would be scrapped. Not so. CDOT and Metro-North have long planned to retain about 150 of the rehab’ed cars, including the bar cars.

So even if there is no M8 bar car (and I have every confidence there will be), we’ll still have the older models. Ipso facto, the NY Times was wrong. But here’s where the fun begins.

Every media outlet in the NY area ran with the Times’ story, none of them even checking with me (as they usually do) to get the facts. If it was in the NY Times, it had to be true! Wow… what a lesson we’ve learned.

The day after the Times’ story came out, I reconfirmed my facts with the CDOT and Metro-North officials at our long-scheduled Commuter Council meeting. The next week was spent playing one-man truth squad, setting the record straight with commuters, lawmakers and media.

I even e-mailed the NY Times asking for an official correction. Surely, I thought, some editor would see the factual errors their reporter had committed and set the record straight. But of the list of factual flaws I cited in the original article, only one was acknowledged in a tiny correction printed April 28th…

“An article last Wednesday about the uncertain future of the bar cars on the Metro-North Railroad referred erroneously to their interiors. They are decorated with wallpaper designed to look like wood paneling; they do not have actual wood paneling.”

That’s the best I could elicit from the NY Times’ editors, perhaps the smallest of the mistakes I showed them. That the other mistakes were not corrected, or even acknowledged, speaks to the sloppy journalism and arrogance of this once great newspaper.

How sad.