Create New Dimension Members Without Leaving Your Table

No need to leave your story to add new dimension members: add them to your table and let the system update the master data.

Context

Working in a table and suddenly realize that the member that you need doesn't exist? You don't need to leave your story and go to the model. Simply add the new dimension member to your table (sometimes referred to as adding a “member on the fly”) and keep on working.

When you define the new member, you supply a description and an ID for it, and you can set the read and write access for others.

You can also add a new member to your table for an existing but unbooked member.

Note

Your model must be a planning model.

This feature is not supported for SAP BPC Embedded models.

You can't create members for the account, version, or date dimensions, or new measures for a model with measures.

You can't create members for level-based hierarchies.

You can't add members to a table that has advanced or tuple filters.

To add new members more quickly, the Unbooked Data setting must be turned off.

You can't delete members from a table; you'll need to open the model to delete any members.

Some settings, such as currency, responsibility, or setting the member as a child member may not be available if the existing dimension does not have those settings.

After you save the new member, you will no longer be able to change the member details.

When you create a new member, it will have no data and therefore it won't be visible if Unbooked Data is turned off. However, if you create a new member on an inner dimension, then Unbooked Data will be turned on for that member.

Example

  • The table contains two dimensions, Region and Color.

    The first or outer dimension is Region, and the second or inner dimension is Color.
      Time Nov 2018
    (Outer dimension) Region (Inner dimension) Color  
    Germany Red 4
      Green 5
      Blue 6
    Canada Green 7

  • Adding a member to the inner dimension: when you add a member to the inner dimension, only one new row is added to the table.

    For the Region “Germany”, add the Color Black
      Time Nov 2018
    (Outer dimension) Region (Inner dimension) Color  
    Germany Red 4
      Green 5
      Blue 6
      Black -
    Canada Green 7

  • Adding a member to the outer dimension: when you add a member to the outer dimension, it is not clear which member of the inner dimension you intend to add data to. For that reason, several new rows may be added to the table, all with unbooked values.

    Adding a new Region France.
      Time Nov 2018
    (Outer dimension) Region (Inner dimension) Color  
    Germany Red 4
      Green 5
      Blue 6
    France Red -
      Green -
      Blue -
    Canada Green 7

    Because unbooked data was turned on to allow the new entries to be shown, all unbooked values for the table are displayed as well.

    Displaying all unbooked values for the table.
      Time Nov 2018
    (Outer dimension) Region (Inner dimension) Color  
    Germany Red 4
      Green 5
      Blue 6
    France Red -
      Green -
      Blue -
    Canada Red -
      Green 7
      Blue -
    Spain Red -
      Green -
      Blue -

Procedure

  1. Right-click a member in your table and then select Add Member.
  2. Provide a Description and an ID for the new member.
  3. Include names of people that are allowed to have read or write access to the new dimension member.

    As the creator, you always has write access to the members you create.

  4. If there is a second measure for your new member, provide a Description and ID for it as well.

Results

A member is added to the table.

Until you exit the story, you can still edit the details of the new member.