Setting Up The Time Dimension - IBM Cognos User Manual

Procedure
1. Open the Categories diagram view of your model, right-click the category
2. Right-click either the root or the parent category for your scenario categories,
3. Repeat Step 2 for each scenario dimension.
4. From the Run menu, click Create PowerCubes to build the cube, and open it
5. Confirm that expected category values appear, rather than the values for the

Setting Up the Time Dimension

The time dimension in your model contains time categories that are meaningful to
your OLAP report users, such as financial accounting periods or the dates of sales
transactions. The following time periods are supported:
v conventional date periods, such as years, quarters, months, weeks, and days
v industry-specific periods, such as 13-week manufacturing periods
v custom periods, such as fiscal years, hours, or minutes
v lunar time periods, such as lunar years or months
v relative time periods, such as year-to-date or previous quarter
Some time properties are always true. For example, there are always twelve
months in a calendar year, and four weeks in a lunar month. Because these
standard properties have been programmed into Cognos Transformer, you can
work with time in ways not possible with other dimensions. For example, you can
set up relative time categories to track period-by-period changes in the measures in
your model.
On the dimension line, a time dimension is identified by this icon
Time dimensions contain date levels arranged in descending order. The date levels
are usually some combination of Year, Quarter, Month, Week, or Day. Cognos
Transformer generates categories for the levels in a time dimension by applying
date functions to the source column that you associate with the time dimension.
Cognos Transformer prevents you from creating more than one time dimension in
a cube that has a time-state rollup applied. Even if this is not the case, we
recommend that you create only one time dimension per cube, to avoid confusion.
If you need to track both calendar and fiscal year results, set up alternate
drill-down paths in a single time dimension, converging at a common level such as
month. Or, if you want to compare values from two date columns, such as the
elapsed time between the Order Date and Shipping Date, use a calculated column
rather than two time dimensions. For more information, see "Track Monthly
Performance Measures in Different Time Periods" on page 85.
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IBM Cognos Transformer Version 10.1.1: User Guide
whose values you want to show when the cube opens, and click Set as Default
Category.
click Properties, and on the General tab, select the Hide the value check box.
Note: There is no limit on the number of scenario dimensions you can define
in a cube. As long as it is not a time dimension or a measure hierarchy, any
cube dimension can be handled in this way.
in your OLAP reporting component.
non-selectable root or parent category, for each dimension identified as a
scenario dimension.
.