I found an answer to something that bothered me for a while.
In setting up a Time dimension, there are requirement of the physical Tables that can be used, for e.g. Time Dimension table cannot join any physical table other than the fact table Time Dimension sources on the physical layer cannot be part of a complex join In the BM layer any logical Dimension defined as a Time Dimension cannot be part of any other logical tables . In the current 7.9.5 rpd the Date Dimension does not meet some of these requirements So if we were to designate the out of the box OBIApps rpd Date dimension as time dimension we can not have complex join to w_day_d in the physical layer. Currently out of the box OBIApps rpd has several complex join defined with the w_day_d_common alias table which is the detailed level LTC in the Date logical dimension. This issue causes error if you then try to check the time dimension flag and do a consistency check.
A comment on this from one of our Consultant as below “apps 7.9.5 was not ready to convert it to a true time dim. If you check the checkbox you will see all of the consistency errors. Part of it is due to the date fields being used in the inner joins of LTSs on other Dims and Facts which is a no-no for the Time Dim. It is easier just to create your own Time Dim that is used for the Time Series formulas. Or you could configure time series the old school way.” However the OBI 7.9.6 apps does have the Date Dimension checked as a Time Hierarchy. Also an additional response from Engineering as below
==================== The simple answer was that we didn’t use the OBIEE Time Series functions in BI Apps 7.9.5, and used them in BI Apps 7.9.6, hence configuring the Date dimension as a time dimension. In BI Apps 7.9.5, none of the new OBIEE Time Series functions were used. This was because the functionality was immature and had many bugs. These bugs were fixed in OBIEE 10.1.3.4.1 and BI Apps 7.9.6 has uptaken and used the new Time Series functions quite a bit. So for correct functionality of BI Apps 7.9.6, OBIEE 10.1.3.4.1 is a must.
This is interesting. My favorite part is “In BI Apps 7.9.5, none of the new OBIEE Time Series functions were used. This was because the functionality was immature and had many bugs. These bugs were fixed in OBIEE 10.1.3.4.1″ – soif you’re on 10.1.3.2. – you should upgrade as soon as possible (although this might mean months). I knew time dim was broken for a while – it’s just an official confirmation.
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