Distributing Structures from Administrator Workstations

When to distribute

The following list outlines some of the conditions under which you would need to distribute structures to the shared database and to the users that you support:

• You have created a new database object for one or more of your users.

• You have modified an existing database object, to which one or more of your users currently has access.

• You need to delete an object from the shared database and remove access to it from one or more users.

• One or more new users needs access to objects in the shared database.

• You need to provide one or more users with access to additional objects, to which they previously did not have access.

Selecting structures, actions, and users

You choose Distribution, Data Structure from the Manage menu to distribute structures. This opens the Data Structure dialog box, where you fill in a selection grid that specifies the structures and their values, the distribution action, and the users who will receive the distribution.

Selecting distribution items

As you complete the Data Structure dialog box, you select the structure items that you want to distribute. You can choose one or more of the following:

• Dimensions

• Dimension values

• Financial data items

• Hierarchies

• Documents (reports, graphs, worksheets, and data entry forms)

• Models

• Attributes

• Folders

• Solves and group solves

• Profiles for submit, refresh, and copy data

• Custom (Add-In) Menu

• Saved selections

Selecting distribution actions

As you complete the Data Structure dialog box, you choose a distribution action for each structure. You can choose one of the following:

• Add -- Adds the structure to the personal databases of users specified in the Users column.

• Delete from Users -- Deletes the structure from the personal databases of users specified in the Users column.

• Delete from System -- Deletes the structure from the shared database and from the personal databases of all users in lower levels of the reporting hierarchy. This option effectively removes the structure from use, because lower-level users can no longer submit data for the deleted structure into the shared database.

• Redistribute -- Distributes the values of a structure to each selected user according to the values of that structure that are currently resident in each user's personal database.

Selecting users

As you complete the Data Structure dialog box, you select the users who will receive the distribution.

Example: Distributing structures

The following example illustrates a completed Distribute Structures dialog box. In this example, the selected structures will be distributed to eight users.

Limits on document distribution

Do not distribute more than 3000 documents. Also, bear in mind that distributing an extremely large number of documents, such as 1000, might degrade system performance.

Using distribution profiles

You can save the information that you enter in the Distribute Structure dialog box as a distribution profile. A distribution profile captures the information in the selection grid and saves it for reuse. You can apply the profile at a later time -- either exactly as is, or as a template for defining similar distributions.

To name and save a distribution profile, complete the grid in the Distribute Structure Dialog box and choose Save Profile.

To retrieve a list of saved profiles, choose Profiles.

Note: Distributing structures for new dimension values

If you distribute new dimension values to your users, you must also redistribute the dimensions with which the values are associated. If you do not redistribute the dimensions along with the new dimension values, users may have trouble contributing data associated with those values back to the shared database.

Note: When structures have the same name

If you distribute a structure to a user who has already created a structure with the same name in their personal database, the new structure will appear in the "DBA Items to Overwrite Personal" column when the user performs a Refresh Preview. When the refresh is performed, the current structure in the user's personal database will be overwritten by the newly distributed structure.

Submitting structure distributions to the Task Processor

After you specify structures for distribution, you must submit the distribution. Submitting a distribution sends it to the Task Processor.

If your system is not set up to continually run the Task Processor as a separate workstation or in the background, you must manually start the Task Processor so that the task will run.

Related information

For more information about distributing structures, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:

"Creating a Distribution Profile"

"Distributing Structures"

"Using a Distribution Profile"