Creating Analytic Model Definitions

This chapter provides overviews of the analytic model definition creation process and the conventions for naming analytic models and parts and discusses how to:

• Create a new analytic model definition.

• Open an analytic model definition.

• Create organizers.

• Enter notes for an analytic model definition's parts.

• Find parts.

• Validate analytic models.

Understanding the Analytic Model Definition Creation Process

You create analytic model definitions to define the rules that are used to calculate application data in the PeopleSoft Analytic Calculation Engine. This section provides a high-level discussion of the steps for creating a new analytic model definition assuming that you already have record structures on which to base your analytic model.

To create an analytic model:

1. Create a new analytic model definition.

   See Creating a New Analytic Model Definition.

2. Perform these tasks in whatever order is appropriate to your own development needs:

   • Create the analytic model definition's dimensions.

     See Creating Dimensions.

   • Create the analytic model definition's data cubes and set the properties of the data cubes.

     Consider the kinds of information that the end user should analyze. These kinds of information should be your data cubes.

     See Creating Data Cubes.

   • Define formulas and user functions to calculate the data cubes.

     Define a formula for each data cube that you want to calculate. If you want to reuse the formula in more than one data cube, create a user function and reference the user function in the formula for each of the data cubes.

     See Defining and Editing Data Cube Formulas.

   • Attach dimensions to the data cubes.

     Attach the dimensions to the data cubes after you have created the dimensions and data cubes.

     See Attaching a Dimension to a Data Cube.

   • Define the analytic model's cube collections.

     See Creating Cube Collections.

   • Define the analytic model definition's filter functions.

     See Filter User Functions.

   • Define the analytic model definition's organizers.

     See Creating Organizers.

3. Save the analytic model definition.

Understanding Conventions for Naming Analytic Models and Parts

You must adhere to these rules when naming analytic models and all analytic model parts:

• Names must consist only of letters, numbers, and underscores (_).

  Other than underscores, do not use nonalphanumeric characters.

• All letters must be uppercase.

• The first character in a name must consist of a letter.

  Do not use a number or underscore as the first character in a name.

• Blank spaces are not allowed in names.

  Use underscores instead of blank spaces.

• Names must not exceed 30 characters.

See Also

Understanding Part Conversion Details

AnalyticModelDefn Class

Creating a New Analytic Model Definition

To open a new analytic model definition:

1. Select File, New in PeopleSoft Application Designer.

   The New Definition dialog box appears.

2. Select Analytic Model.

3. Click OK.

   The new analytic model definition appears.

Opening an Analytic Model Definition

To open an analytic model definition:

1. Select File, Open in PeopleSoft Application Designer.

   The Open Definition dialog box appears.

2. Select Analytic Model in the Definition drop-down list box.

3. Provide selection criteria.

   Enter an analytic model definition name or description (or the beginning characters of either), or select a project.

4. Click Open or press Enter to display analytic model definitions matching the selection criteria that you entered.

   To clear the current selection criteria and start over, click New Search. To change how the search list appears, perform one of these actions:

   • Click the List button to view only the names of the analytic model definitions.

   • Click the Details button to view the names and descriptions.

     By default, both the names and descriptions appear in the search list.

5. Double-click the analytic model definition that you want to open in the definition workspace, or highlight the analytic model definition and click Open.

   You can also press Shift+Click to select more than one definition to open in a single action, or right-click to view a pop-up menu from which you can open, print, rename, or delete the selected analytic model definition.

Creating Organizers

To create an organizer:

1. In the analytic model, select the Organizers branch in the part browser.

2. Select Part, New, Organizer.

   The Edit Part Name dialog box appears.

3. Enter a name for the organizer.

4. Click OK.

See Also

Cube Collections

Entering Notes for an Analytic Model Definition's Parts

Use the notes bar to create notes for the analytic model definition or its parts. To create a note:

1. In the part browser, select the analytic model definition or the part for which you want to create a note.

2. Click the notes bar.

3. Enter the note.

   You may also:

   • Press Enter to create multiple paragraphs.

   • Click Cancel Changes to cancel the changes you made to the note.

4. Click Accept Changes to accept the changes you made to the note.

Finding Parts

You can select one or more parts and find all of the locations in the analytic model where the parts are used.

Note. The Find Part feature does not operate on organizers.

To find a part:

1. Select one or more parts in the part browser.

2. Select Tools, Analytic Model, Find Part.

   The locations of the parts are listed in the output window.

Validating Analytic Models

An important part of the analytic model creation process involves periodically validating the analytic model. The validate utility runs a series of tests on the analytic model and sends its results to the Validate tab in the output window. If errors are found, they are listed on this tab.

To validate an analytic model, select Tools, Analytic Model, Validate.