Hide past months dropdown

Hi,

I have created a module where the user can input costs manually based on a line item formatted by Time Period (Month). They are now asking if I can hide the past months as they go forward to always only show future months. What would be the most convenient way to go about that? I understand that I could create a list with months, but I suppose that would require an import action every month to keep the list updated?

Best regards,

Johan

Accepted answers

chris_hall

Hi Johan

Understood. There's no native way to filter Time Periods in a Line Item selector (though see various posts on the Ideas Exchange on this very topic) but @DavidSmith posted a very helpful explainer on how to get around this very problem a while back (see https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Anaplan-Platform/filter-time-periods-in-list-drop-down/m-p/41373#M4339). It does require a 'dummy' timescale list, but to your original point you could limit the amount of admin required by only running updates to create new 'dummy' periods when you change the model calendar range (or applicable time range), which I'd imagine would only be once a year at most?

If you are using more future years in your calendar/time ranges than are useful for your users then of course you could add an additional filter to the dummy timescale which only showed them the remaining months in the current year/next year/whatever is appropriate.

Chris

chris_hall

Hi Johan

Do you have the property set up in the Timescale list and formatted with the 'Future?' list item (per step 6 of David's guide)? That should then allow the 'Dependant' option to be selected in the format for the Months line item.

I did just quickly re-create this setup in a blank model to check nothing was missing and it worked fine so it may just be a case of checking each step one more time.

Chris

All comments

chris_hall

Hi Johan

Assuming you have Time as a page selector for the grid the simplest way would be to set a filter which updates based on the latest period. Create a boolean line item against Time (at Month level) with the formula 'start() >= currentperiodstart()' and that will return TRUE for all months going forward starting with the Current Period in Time Settings - you can then apply this filter to the grid. Obviously you can vary the formula to exclude the current month if needed.

If you aren't using the Current Period setting in Time Settings then an alternative would be to have an input line item set by a central admin to select the 'current' period, but the principle is the same.

Chris

AlecWainberg

Hi Johan,

Per Chris's response, if you are not using the Current Period in the Time Settings an alternative would be to have an admin identify the 'current period' in a line item formatted as month. For the Admin entry, the admin module should not be dimensionalized by time. This will enable the Admin to only have to identify the current period one time.

To set up this type of filter in the user module, the formula would be:
Format: Boolean
Formula: Item(Time) >= Admin Identified Current Period

johan.marketoft

I didn't manage to do it. I forgot to mention but the module that I'm using does not have the time dimension. It looks as the following:

Dimensions: Input Numbered List, Cost Centre, Accont Codes

Line Items: Cost (Text), Start (Month), End (Month), Amount (Number).

So I want the dorpdowns for Start and End, with month as format, to only show current+upcoming months. I do have a filter formula for this in my Time Settings module. So I do not want to hide/show/filter specific rows but the actual format dropdown.

Best regards,

Johan

chris_hall

Hi Johan

Chris

johan.marketoft

Hi @chris_hall ,

Thanks for reply. I ticked that you solved my problem before I completed it but now got stuck on the points 7 and 8 of the solution you linked to. Can you please explain what he means with "no dimensionality" for the Future? line item in point 7, and also how it is connected to the "Months" line item in the target module in point 8?

Best regards,

Johan

chris_hall

Hi Johan

I certainly can't claim credit for the original post but I think the confusion is probably around the multiple uses of the same label 'Future?' which is being used for a list, a list member, a couple of line items, a format, and a list property...

To explain points 7 and 8:

- in point 7 you create a line item with Format being the 'Future?' list and the Formula being fixed to the 'Future?' member of that list (hence the formula 'Future?.Future?'). You need to have no lists in the 'Applies to' column and the Timescale set to 'Not Applicable' (which is what is meant by 'no dimensionality' in David's original article).

- in point 8 when you set the Format for the line item 'Months' you select the 'Timescale' list and then check the 'Dependent' box underneath - you should see something like the image below which indicates that only the items in the 'Timescale' list where the Future property is set to 'Future?' will be available for selection.

Because the items in the Timescale list where 'Future' is applied to the list property will dynamically update from your Time Settings module (steps 1-5) the drop-down options will change as your current period changes over time.

Hope this clarifies

Chris

johan.marketoft

Hi @chris_hall ,

I beleive I followed all your steps but I cannot populate the checkbox for making the Months line item with Timescale list as format to be dependent to anything. It's simply greyed out. I don't have any dimensions, time or versions in the module. And I have mapped the above Future? line item to the list Future? and the item of that list: Future?.Future?

Best regards,

Johan

chris_hall

Hi Johan

I did just quickly re-create this setup in a blank model to check nothing was missing and it worked fine so it may just be a case of checking each step one more time.

Chris

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