Hiding a Dimension Properties

Product suggestions
1

Hi All,

I wanted to know if there is a way to hide a property from user view. This is not to stop the user from using the value but they are hidden from the user. I know this sounds odd but let me try to explain.

The two example I can provide is I am setting up a shortcut URL to SSRS and want the user to see the value labels but the the shortcut link will use the code.
For example:
PriceList (property user sees) = PriceListA, PriceListB
URL (property of URL string) = http://yourserver/blah/blah/report&PriceList=10,20

In the above the user would see the price list Property (the names) but the shortcut link has the full URL. I dont want them to see the URL as a property, BUT the user has to obtain the property for the URL shortcut.

In QlikView we could create a hidden prefix code such as “_" which any fields which are prefixed with this would be available for use but hidden from users. So in the above the url would be called "_URL”, available but not visible for display.

So this is not a data restriction per se, rather a system type property I don’t want the end user to see.
NOTE: I cannot use the https://mywebsite.com/CustomerInquiry?CustomerID=%% approach listed in the external sites shortcut link documentation due to complexities in the SSRS report parameters. The URL constructed in SQL works but I simply don’t want the users to see it directly, only indirect via the shortcut URL.

Another example which @StuartH provided is custom sort orders where you want to assign a numeric value to a property/dimension so it is sorted by a custom numeric order (hidden) and the text is displayed, think of an ordered checklist which you would not sort alphabetically but it would be based on an ordinal position. So the sort would be:

1 - Get out of bed
2- Brush teeth
3- Put on clothes
Currently in Phocas the order would be:
Brush Teeth
Get out of bed
Put on clothes

Hope this makes sense. Anybody discovered a way of performing this?

Kind Regards,

Jon

2

I also can see merit in this for something I would like to introduce around “Sort Order”.

Some of our dimensions have a label and a code as normal but the order they appear in on a report needs to non-alphabetical.

I would propose to add a column with a simple number sequence in 1, 2, 3 etc but while I want it to be used in the sort, I’d rather it wasn’t displayed as it would mess up the legend in the chart etc.

I can see checking the manuals that there is a hide code option, but no idea if I can use this to sort by.

image

1 Like
3

Thanks @StuartH,

I think this may be the correct approach with properties as well. One warning regarding hiding the code on a dimension I discovered a while back that you can see here: Summarise dimension hierarchy without nest mode

I think based on past discussions if you cannot see it nor I, I will move this topic to feature requests and change it to be more generic to cover off both options.

Regards,

Jon

4

Actually @StuartH,

You beat me to switching it to product suggestions :slight_smile:

5

Hmm, I can see that having a hidden property that is actual data would break the grouping as it forces it to be always active but hidden (e.g. can’t un-tick it as it’s not even there)

To be honest, I’m not sure I can think of many reasons why (other than the example you’ve given above with the hyperlink) why actual dimension/properties would be hidden as it may at some point be useful to the user. Where will the hyperlink you’re building be used in a Phocas if it’s never shown?

The sort order on my example doesn’t need to be seen, but needs to be able to be selected for sorting - maybe I’ll create a new suggestion for being able to sort by a property that’s not visible (could be set via the Advanced Find function).