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Hi Ashok, Glad to hear that you found the near real-time integration approach to be helpful.   As for the roadmap around future development of the API, I'm not sure how much is supposed to be shared here since nothing is publicly launched yet (I believe there may be some announcements upcoming at Hub).  My high-level understanding is that there are some overhauls being done on the API in general, including potentially outputting actual metadata, which would result in a change to the current structure of the REST API.  There may also be changes to data accessibility through the API (for example, not requiring import/export actions), but again all of these are potential roadmap items that may or may not ever happen.   The general takeaway here is that based on this information I would avoid custom building an integration based on the REST API until the roadmap around this functionality is clarified and officially published. Hope that helps! -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Chris, Thanks for your insights, I believe that we will continue with using the scheduler tool to set up frequent jobs (every 15 minutes) so that it would be like a near real time system. I would be interested to know the roadmap of the REST API though! Thanks, Ashok ... View more

Hi Ashok, For requirements like that, in the past we've built ETL integrations that run "near real-time", and only integrate on data that the user has indicated to be included.  We would schedule the integration to run every 5-15 minutes (depending on requirements and performance testing), and filter the data to wherever a boolean evaluated to TRUE based on any given business logic, or user-entered checkboxes.  This way the user still decides when the data is included in any jobs, but the user does not need to manually trigger the integration. As an aside, I would rarely recommend building an integration through the REST API for several reasons, especially considering some roadmap developments around the APIs in general. Happy to provide more details if you think this would be of interest to you, otherwise it sounds like you're on the right track! -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Chris and Jaakko, Thanks for getting back to me. We do have an ETL tool in place, but I was wondering if it would be possible to provide control to the user to trigger loads - so that if he/she wants to perform any adhoc actions, they could do so. But I think I get what you guys are saying, that we should stick to a scheduler. Would you recommend using the REST API over connect if the requirement is to specifically let users decide when to load data? Also, if we do use the REST API, does it mean that the user can trigger data loads (imports from SQL and exports into CSV) through action buttons in the front end? Thanks for sending me the MAKELINK function, that seems to be straight forward to implement. Once again, thanks for all your help and looking forward to your inputs on the above. Thanks, Ashok ... View more

Great point Jaako, depending on the location of the files Ashok will likely need to build a web service URL (for example locally-mounted folders may work but FTP/server locations will not work).  But at the point of building web services, it might be better to just custom develop a real integration using the REST API (https://community.anaplan.com/anapedia/integrations/data-integration/anaplan-api-guide), which also would likely not be the best solution depending on the circumstances (i.e. do you have an ETL tool, would it be cheaper for you to buy ETL licenses vs. training existing developers to build an integration, etc.). Ashok, you may want to test this approach using local files on your computer and then decide how to proceed.  But realistically you would likely be best off using a desktop/server scheduler software or ETL tool to solve your problem in the most sustainable and scalable way. Also, to answer your other question, here are the details on the MAKELINK function which you would use to build this out: https://community.anaplan.com/anapedia/calculation-functions/makelink?inheritRedirect=true.  Let us know if you would like any other details on anything we're discussing, I'm sure we'd all be happy to point you towards the Anapedia articles that provide the details of what we're discussing here. -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Chris, Thanks for getting back to me! Yes, I would definitely like to try your approach out. Are there more details that you could provide on it please? Meanwhile, I will try to investigate on how to proceed with the MAKELINK function. Thanks, Ashok ... View more

Hi Ashok, Another thought here.. If you create the Anaplan Connect batch files in a standardized location, you might be able to create a hyperlink to those files using the MAKELINK function, and include those links on a dashboard to open the batch files directly through Anaplan.  I'm not sure if that will actually work, and I also think this might violate some best practices so I probably wouldn't recommend it as a scalable enterprise solution to your problem, but it might be something worth trying out as a temporary patch solution.  Let me know if you'd like more details on this, I'd be interested to see if it actually works... -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Ashok, You're correct, this would either be manual or done through a scheduler.  You can use something like Windows' Task Scheduler, or a more enterprise-level solution like Informatica Cloud Services.   Also, if your SQL batch file is created automatically within SQL and saved to a fixed location, a user can manually click a button in Anaplan to import that data through an Import Action.  As for the loading data into SQL, this button approach (via Export Action) would only go as far as extracting the data from Anaplan and saving the file the standard download location. Hope that helps! -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Rumi, Does the ID always fall the exact number of characters within the concatenated string?  Or is there always a fixed number of underscores before the ID appears?  If not, is the ID always numeric with the rest of the concatenated string always alphabet letters?  Basically just looking for any structure to the concatenated string, we can help you create your FIND string based on any of those rules if you can provide any more details around the structure.    Also, something that may help you troubleshoot in the meantime would be to separate out the FIND part of the formula into a separate line item until you know you have it working (mainly to answer the question, is the FIND function causing the problem or the FINDITEM function?).   Hope that helps, looking forward to more details here! -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Peter, Thanks for the advise! I tried this formula and it goes through, however it returns a blank value. The code that I want to retrieve from the account list (1234) in the concatenated string is actually in the middle of the concatenated string like below. Example of the concatenated string: ABC_DEF_GHI_1234_JKL_MN The account ID on the Account List: 12345 I tried to change the last "-1" to "-3" to lookup to the third underscore, but it still does not work. FINDITEM(Account, LEFT(Concatenated String, FIND("_", Concatenated String) - 3)) Your kind help will be appreciated! Thanks, Rumi ... View more

Jaakko, Thanks for your feedback. Seems good idea. By your method, it seems I don't need to import any unique number in advance. I'll try. Yoshi ... View more

Hi Ahmed and Jaako, Seems like the area where my scenario is failing is in the actual filtering, looks like the dashboard only evaluates the filter criteria on dashboard load/refresh, sorry for the confusion.  In past models where we've had something like this work truly real-time we focus on using the driver selections being used to modify existing data on the screen (applying different seasonality curves, for example).   There has to be a way to use the same approach to filter data, one way or another, definitely interested to see if we can figure something out here... -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Chriss and Jaakko,    First of all, many thanks for your answers and insights.    After testing the methods mentioned, I face also the same issue as Jaakko, meaning no automatic refresh and necessity to have it done manually.    Chriss, did you actually implement this way and tested it in a test model ?    I added an action button to my Dashboard for this but this was a bit disapointing for customers to have no automatic refresh. Thank you again and have a great day. Ahmed ... View more

Hi Jaako, Very interested to see what you find!  If the boolean option does in fact require a dashboard refresh (which I agree with you would not be ideal), another option would be to have the filter run on a different formula.  So, instead of filtering the view on Industry Filter = TRUE, use a second Industry list-formatted line item called Use Industry, with a formula like this: IF Industry = Filter Drivers.Industry THEN Industry ELSE BLANK This might enable more real-time filtering than the boolean option, if you are in fact correct about the dashboard refresh.   Interested to hear your thoughts on this! -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Jaako, You're absolutely right, and just wanted to clarify 2 quick points. First, with driver selection modules, we typically include the list of users as a dimension, with selective access to only allow each user to set their specific drivers.  This enables dynamic filtering across many users simultaneously using the same dashboard. Second, the dashboard does not need to be refreshed following this approach, since the boolean updates are located within the formula, so the content changes directly in front of the user once the new driver is manually saved.  Perhaps we have different definitions of what we're both looking for in real-time though, so happy to be corrected if there's a different requirement. Hope that helps to clarify, great point Jaako. -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Ahmed, I'll give you an example from a Territory Management use-case.  If I have a dashboard that shows all territories (which could be an overwhelmingly large dashboard), I may want to have the ability to filter to only show territories within a certain industry within the dashboard, which wouldn't be part of the actual territory hierarchy.   Here's the configuration I would use to enable that filter.  I would have a module called Territories and a module called Filter Drivers.  In my Filter Drivers module I would have a user-entered line item called Industry, which would be based on the Industry list.  I would publish that line item on the dashboard with my all my Territories.   In my Territories module, I would have a line item called Industry, based on the Industry list.  I would also have a boolean-formatted line item called Industry Filter, with the following formula: Industry = Filter Drivers.Industry Then on my Territories dashboard, I would filter any displayed modules where Territories.Industry Filter = TRUE.  The result would be, on the Territories dashboard, if I select Healthcare from the Industry dropdown line item from the Filter Drivers module, only the Territories where Industry = Healthcare will be displayed on the dashboard. You can make it as complicated or simple as you like from there (for example, a second boolean line iten in the Filter Drivers module to indicate whether or not to enable the filter, and updating the Territories.Industry Filter boolean accordingly), but this the basic structure. Let me know if there's anything unclear here, happy to help as much as possible, hope that helps! -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Chriss,   Thank you for your reply, this looks great.    Can you pleasedetail more the way you include the filter criteria in all displayed line items ? Thanks again Ahmed ... View more

Hi Ahmed, We also do our real-time dashboard filtering through driver modules.  So for example, we'll have a module called Driver Selection, where the only dimension is Line Items.  Then, in our modules where we are displaying data on dashboards, we include the filter criteria in all displayed line items, so that the only data displayed correlates to the filters selected from the driver modules.  This can work for lists or any other data type. Happy to provide more details if you'd like, otherwise hope this helps point you in the right direction! -Chris Weiss ... View more

Hi Jaako,   Thank you for your answer.   The point indeed is the real time filtering in the Dashboard.   The module filtering could be a solution indeed, but you have each time in the Dashboard to press a Refresh Button you created before.   Those line Items are not a list but could be as they can have for each one 10 Different values. But I don't want to have them as Dimensions in my module. Thank you. Ahmed ... View more

RE: Import raw data of transaction ... View more

A related issue is that I can't define the start or end day of my weeks.  In this case Anaplan's definition of starting on Sunday matches mine but other companies I have worked for that would not have been the case.  Retailers often start on Saturday or Monday. ... View more