help organizing a large project model

[ry1633]

Hi all,

I am in the middle of an ongoing Cognos project where the number of views and query subject is beginning to grow and will grow even more in the future.  I have 30+ query subjects all on the same level right now, and methinks that I don't want to keep it like that as things grow.  Was wondering about whether I should group things into Namespaces or Folders and what would be the Pros/Cons of each.

I assume that I wouldn't have to re-draw or rebuild the relationships between the objects per se, but I assume that the resulting package might look and function differently for the end user.  Would cherish a little high-level guidance as I think this through.   Many thanks, Ryan

[bdbits]

There is an important difference between namespaces and folders. Namespaces are exposed to users and actually become part of the name of a data item, whereas folders do not and are thus primarily an organizational tool. This means that if you decide to move things between namespaces, you may break existing reports. On the other hand, model objects (query subjects, filters, etc.) have to be uniquely named within their namespaces. So when you have folders within a namespace, the items still have to have unique names across all of the folders.

If there are a lot of conformed dimensions, I like to keep things pretty flat across a subject area or datamart and drift toward folders over namespaces in a large model. When some areas are clearly differentiated or it is useful I will use namespaces, for example you might want a separate namespace between financial data versus payroll data. I do use folders quite a bit to keep the model more manageable for me as a modeler.

[ry1633]

I'm wonder if in my circumstance, folders might be the best or easiest route just for organization, since they'd clean things up and wouldn't break any relationships or reports.   I'm in the veterniary sciences field so I don't have financial data.  I have scientific data items like product codes, product licenses, and those types of things.

[ry1633]

am experimenting with the use of folders in FM today.  Is it possible in Diagram View to "turn off" the view of the folders so I can see my entire model without the folders if I wanted to?

[cognostechie]

I'm wonder if in my circumstance, folders might be the best or easiest route just for organization, since they'd clean things up and wouldn't break any relationships or reports.   I'm in the veterniary sciences field so I don't have financial data.  I have scientific data items like product codes, product licenses, and those types of things.

Cognos uses only the namespace at the lowest level in the MUN. Any namespace at a higher level would not break the report. However, if you re-organize and move items from one namespace to another in the Physical/Database Layer then you will have to re-point the Business Layer to the new namespace. As bdbits pointed out, the advantage of namespace is that it allows you to have the same field name for multiple subject areas. Ex: You can have Comments for Sales Invoices as well as Sales Orders. I usually use Folders for organizing and namespaces for separating data for different subject areas . Ex: Namespace for AR, AP, OP, IN etc and folders within namespaces for Filters, Pre-calculated metrics, Read-Me (for online help) etc. 

[bdbits]

If you are in diagram view and select a higher-level folder in the navigation tree on the left, you should see all the objects in all of the folders underneath it.