Admin - Managing your Models

The QUBEdocs Manager interface is used to administer the QUBEdocs solution and to generate new documentation versions.  Within the QUBEdocs Manager interface the following capabilities are available:

• Manage Connections – Add, modify and delete connections, generate documentation and remove old versions.
• Manage Profiles – Add, modify and delete different documentation profiles for different user groups.
• Browse Profiles and Documentation – Browse generated QUBEdocs versions and see what profile settings have been applied (i.e. what areas of the documentation have been turned on and off)

These are described in more detail in the following sections.

Accessing Administrator Profile

QUBEdocs Manager can be accessed via the following URL:          

http://localhost/QUBEdocs/#!/administrator

Note:

• The default port number is 80, therefore the port number does not normally need to be given.

You can also change profiles by using the dropdown selector at the top of the page.

Managing Models

The managing model area is used for adding, removing and editing models.  It can be navigated to by selecting the “Manage Models” item in the left-hand pane.

Once selected, this will bring up the following screen which is used for managing both models and the generated versions of the QUBEdocs documentation.

Select the “Add Model” button to establish a new connection between QUBEdocs and a TM1 model.

Creating a new connection

To create a new connection, a name for the connection must be defined along with the appropriate configuration and database directories. These fields are explained below:

Name

This is a unique name used to identify the connection. This normally reflects the Cognos TM1 server instance name and environment (e.g. QUBEdocs_Dev).

Environment

The environment field is used to group connections on the main page.  For example, you may want to put all of your non-production models in a “Development” environment grouping and all of your production servers under a “Production” heading. Alternatively, you may want to group models based on their purpose, audience or some other logical grouping.

Configuration Directory

This directory should be mapped to the location of the “tm1s.cfg” file for the Cognos TM1 model being documented. In some cases this will be the same as the database directory.  Local, UNC & FTP/FTPS paths are all supported.

Note: UNC paths will require access from the application pool running QUBEdocs to the the servers being documented by QUBEdocs. You can validate that connections have been established correctly by selecting the “Validate” button.

Database Directory

This directory should be mapped to the location of the data directory for the Cognos TM1 model being documented, i.e. the directory where the TM1 model files are stored.

Directory Credentials

The user name and password fields should only be supplied when connecting to a remote data source Access to local and UNC paths are controlled through the application pool identity configured in IIS or the credentials set against the model itself. 

Use Transfer Package option

The “Use Transfer Package” option can be used to significantly improve performance times when connecting over a network.  This option does however require that the “QUBEdocs Create Package” process is run prior.  

Note:

• UNC paths should be specified for directories when documenting models on another server. E.g.         \\devcx\c$\Program Files\IBM\Cognos Express\Xcelerator\Custom\TM1Data\CXMD
• The directory credential fields are optional as they are dependent on your connection type.
• Models can be added and deleted and file paths can be browsed to by selecting the appropriate menu to the right of the Generate

Advanced Settings Tab

The advanced settings tab provides control over what TM1 objects are processed during the generation process.  Only objects which have a tick against them will be available in QUBEdocs.

Generating a documentation version

To generate documentation for a TM1 model, select the appropriate connection name from the list. 

This will expand the connection group to reveal all of the previously saved version snapshots. Once the connection has been selected, click Generate and the documentation will be generated.

Note: The “Documentation Generating” notification will display in the right-hand corner of the screen to advise that the documentation is generating and once completed another notification, “Generation Complete” will be displayed.

Monitoring generation progress

You can monitor progress while the documentation is being generated by selecting the “Current Activity” tab. This will display a list of activities that QUBEdocs goes through while generating the documentation.  Generation errors will also be displayed here.

Selecting the newly generated version

Once the documentation is has been generated the latest version will be available by selecting the appropriate connection name in the home page.  

It will also be available for selection in the Model and Versions Selection screen which is accessed by clicking on the following selector.