Using FWM with Cognos Planning

[gatorfe]

We currently use Cognos Planning 8.3.  We have a fwm model created based on the data stored in SQL from planning so users can create analysis studio reports based on what they see on the contributor grid.  If new customers or products are introduced I see them in Planning Contributor but in order to see them in analysis studio I have to manually sync fwm.  Tech support suggested I would have run scripts using the history logs files in FWM.  Does anyone have any suggestion on accomplishing this another way?  Does anyone have this process automated?  Thanks in advance for your time.

[Cognos KW]

Why dont you directly connect to the Contributor after you publish the contributor package . YOu can create reports out of that model also .

[ericlfg]

I would strongly recommend maintaining the publish container approach to generating reports off planning data.  Using the live planning application through the Planning Data Service is an option for small cubes / implementations.  Performance is not optimized using the PDS.

Gatorfe, you may want to post in another thread here on cognoise regarding the requirement to setup scripts to synch the FWM.  There must be someone out there that has experience with this and can provide a sample.

Cheers

[Rutulian]

Hi Gatorfe,

I haven't done this myself but can sketch out the rough steps... I'm assuming here that you've started with the Planning-generated FM model and then added customisations.

The changes you make to a framework manager package can be saved as a script file and then replayed in FM after regenerating the FM model, as support identified.  You can automate the running of an FM script using the bmtscriptplayer tool, which I think lives in cognos/bin, which you can put in your GTP process using the 'run command line' macro step.

That should help if your FM changes are just adding things to dimensions other than customers or products, eg extra calculated measures. 

If you're layering things on top of those dimensions, give it a try anyway and hit up some FM-focused colleagues (or the forum in here).  I guess you might have to do something fancy like manipulate the script before running based on the dimension changes, and that makes my head hurt a bit!  It is possible, but won't be trivial.

I totally back eric on the 'Fear the PDS' statement - it can work if you have small numbers of users, maybe just the exec team, and PDS-dedicated hardware, but it's often significantly slower and more server-intensive than using an incremental publish.

Rutulian

--everytime someone uses PDS, a CPU dies--