difference between short cut and alias

[inu]

Hi
please tell the difference between shortcut and alias, when to use shortcut and when alias.
i googled it but didnot get it.

thanks
inam

[MFGF]

Hi
please tell the difference between shortcut and alias, when to use shortcut and when alias.
i googled it but didnot get it.

thanks
inam

http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/documentation/docs/en/10.2.1/ug_fm.pdf

Take a look at page 165

[saumil287]

Hi All,
I had gone through the link and understood that shortcut is only a reference to the qs
where as alias shortcut is independent of qs.

I created a sample fm project, imported 3 physical tables(PLINE, PTYPE and PRODUCT)
Created a shortcut and alias shortcut of PTYPE
Then edited(removed some cols) from the physical columns of PTYPE, On updating PTYPE, both shortcut and alias shortcut got updated.
I am expecting only shortcut to be updated.

did not got the concept clearly

Any guidence is appreciated.

Thanks
saumil sanghvi

[cognos810]

Hello Saumil287,
A shortcut as you know is of two types, Reference and Alias. Both of them will point to the Target QS for getting the columns(names,data types etc) defined in the target.That part cannot be overridden in an alias of any kind, reference or alias.
What differs in both is the relationship defined with other Query Subjects. A reference shortcut will respect the relationship defined between its Target and other Query Subjects, where as an Alias is standalone and has no relationships carried over from its target. You will have to manually define relationships for the Alias Shortcut.
Example: A and B are two query subjects. A has a join/relationship with B. Now, if you create a reference shortcut for A, call it A1, and try including columns from A1, and B in a test query subject, you will see the join definition is the same as defined between A and B. Try the same after changing the shortcut type of A1 to Alias. You will get an error regarding cross joins, indicating that there is no relationship defined between A1 and B.

-Cognos810

[saumil287]

Hi,

Yes I tried what you had given the example and was working the same way.

Thanks much for your reply.

Appreciated it.

Regards
saumil287