Can we capture a tenant-based date/time value?

With CloudWorks, we can schedule based on date/time with a selected time zone, but that is not involved in any user-facing functionality.

As I am working through the new Workflow training, I realize that the platform is now providing interactions with end-users based on date/time values in a selected time zone. This has me thinking again about an internal method of providing "current date" in a model. There are a couple of documented ways to do that, but neither rely explicitly on a tenant date/time/time zone value and therefore can fail more easily.

While I understand that a model has no idea what date/time it is in the geographic region the user is accessing Anaplan, I'm considering if there are ways to capture a "current date" based on the date/time stamp of when a CloudWorks action is executed in a tenant, based on the configured time zone for the executed scheduled job. Being able to capture that attribute would satisfy the need to get a "current date" into the model.

Yes, I know. Deep thoughts. 🤓

Accepted answers

alexpavel

@Stacey_Gibbens from what I notice, Workflow or NUX are "tools" developed by Anaplan outside the Anaplan model environment. They are application layers that interact with Anaplan model, but from outside using ultimately REST APIs. Workflow and NUX pages are not like the classic dashboards that are within Anaplan model.

The capture of the timestamp in Workflow it is very easy because it is outside Anaplan model ecosystem. Any programming language has timestamp capabilities.

As we all know, one of the methods to solve the current date/timestamp in Anaplan is using a script (or CloudWorks) something from outside of the Anaplan model, and updating a cell in a module.

I think you are right: with all the REST APIs and all the transactional APIs that Anaplan developed I really do not understand why they did not build the functionality within the Anaplan ecosystem to be able to update a cell in a module from a model in order to gather the timestamp string.

I think the reason is to limit the imports launched into a model, but with CloudWorks this is already happening as Cloudworks can be scheduled to be triggered hourly… I would be very happy to have an hourly timestamp updated in the Anaplan model. :)

All comments

anirudh

Do you mean you want to get the current date specific to a single time zone?

What I usually do is set the date one single time in a line item; let's call this Today and then populate it with the current date in the time zone you want. Create another LI called Today + 1 with the formula of Today + 1

Then an import action from Today + 1 to Today Then schedule this import job in cloudworks to run once a day. That should provide a permanent Current Date!

Stacey_Gibbens

Hello @anirudh

The method you reference is one of the published methods, but not what I'm thinking. I'm thinking there should be a way to access some kind of date/time/timezone value from the tenant to incorporate into the model.

Now that we've got user interaction with date/time/timezone via workflows, it seems like a next step to configure a "standard date/time/timezone" at the tenant level. This would allow a model to use what that date/time/timezone (or at least DATE based on timezone) that is now being used at the tenant level.

Thank you….

Stacey

Dikshant

@Stacey_Gibbens,

Anaplan does not provide a direct system function or method to retrieve the current date, time, or time zone at the tenant level for use within models. Anaplan models typically rely on user input, time-related functions, or manual configuration of date and time parameters.

But with these new releases it's good to think about dynamic/ better ways of storing the today's date based on different time zones but still without a user dimensions we cannot store different dates to different users from multiple time zones.

alexpavel

The capture of the timestamp in Workflow it is very easy because it is outside Anaplan model ecosystem. Any programming language has timestamp capabilities.

As we all know, one of the methods to solve the current date/timestamp in Anaplan is using a script (or CloudWorks) something from outside of the Anaplan model, and updating a cell in a module.

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