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The new functions READMETADATA() and PLACEMETADATA() offer a range of quite new possibilities to the arcplan designer. As shown in the arcCorporation Demo, data queries can be dynamically set up and modified via drag & drop.

The set-up of such a query is described below.

arcplan is a tool which poses few limits for the developer. Due to its structure, the developer is very flexible in designing his reports. This is a major advantage, as the reports can thus be very flexibly adjusted to the users' needs. However, it may quickly turn into a disadvantage, as well, as reports may contain many hundreds of objects with correspondingly many links. Without guidelines for the development, an application quickly becomes confusing and hard to maintain. In particular, this holds true for third parties or new team members, who often find it difficult to initially adapt to an application. Even the developer himself may lose the overview.

In case of arcplan applications, it is quite common that the relational data source from which the framework data for navigation, user administration, comments etc. are extracted are located on one server for the development, test and/or production version. This complicates the switch between these databases, as almost all metadata apart from the server connection is placed in the arcplan repository. In particular, this includes the database name, which now complicates the simple switch between various databases on the same server.

Database queries are defined by multiple objects in arcplan. Apart from the object with the query itself, other objects define the columns, rows and filter settings. In so doing, they are able to influence themselves, as well (performance arrows, selection-based filters…)
Linking the objects for a database query is defined by the connection of the objects in the connection mode. Arrows are drawn. Even though the objects are frequently set up together, the place or the order of the objects is irrelevant for the function. These objects may even be located on various reporting levels.

With the new function REPLACEEXPRESSION, arcplan 7 affords the possibility to influence the automatically generated SQL and MDX statement. This has the benefit that a design can continue to be made with “arrows” and that one is not limited to formulas. Currently, only simple adjustments of the query are possible with this tool; however, there is a large impact on the resulting possibilities.

arcplan offers a number of possibilities to set up a classic V-Lookup, as it is often used in Excel. One of these possibilities can be found under the blog entry Tips & Tricks: The Repeat Loop as Performance Killer.

The method described here works via the cross product of two tables and, as bulk operation,  constitutes a “Left Outer Join”, while the intersection constitutes an “Inner Join”.

In order to ensure performant reporting based on SAP BW, it is necessary to avoid redundant requests. An important element in this context is the optimized master data request. This can be implemented particularly easily and effectively for hierarchy objects (especially menu hierarchies).

In any application, there are always central functions which control a generic process. These functions request reporting-specific functions from the central area. If, for example, a report only requests data when needed, but is supposed to be directly updated when a favorite is activated, the update must be triggered by the central document.

Here, the problem arises that there may also be reports which are always up to date. In this case, the central function must not activate the button for manual update because this would not exist in this report. Thus, there would be an error report.

As in MS Word 2010, older versions than arcplan Enterprise 5 required shutting down via the menu, comparable to MS Word 2010 via “File” and “Exit”, in order to fully terminate the connections to the data base. If this is not done, objects may be locked in SAP or be unnecessarily blocked in other resources.

Since, however, this is no longer necessary as from arcplan Enterprise 5 and more recent, it is only a cosmetic process now.

When working with arcplan, there are different methods to generate a list without duplicates from a list of data with double entries. In many cases, a database consultation grouped accordingly may perform this task. Time and again, however, there are cases in which it is necessary to remove the duplicates with the assistance of arcplan functions.

A small but interesting function is available in arcplan Administrator as from Version 7.

In the previous versions, all files from the local directory were always transferred to the server when an application was updated by the administrator. This may take quite a long time, in particular in case of large applications and the use of xml file format: because in this case, both the transfer to the server and the conversion into the binary file format is done for all files. And this applies even if only one single file was modified in the development.

The repeat loop is principally a quick function which only becomes noticeably slower after a few thousand processes. The current arcplan realization at allocation (as mandatory with the numerator [OBJx] := [OBJx] +1), however, results in the increase of the running time upon allocation of values  in relation to the aggregate amount of the objects of the opened documents. (This is a problem of the fundamental programming of arcplan Enterprise when identifying the object in the object stack which contains all objects of all open documents). In case of complex applications, the running time of the repeat loop is therefore much higher so that it may be running for seconds, rather than milliseconds, even in case of only few entries. Therefore, if possible, all functionalities should be implemented without repeat loop in order to ensure a good performance.

Subsequently, we provide an example which is frequently realized with the repeat loop even though there is an implementation option with other formulas.