Monday, September 24, 2012

Dimension Filters in Columns in MR 2012

I came across an interesting issue in Management Reporter 2012 last week with a client.  They had recently upgraded and found that one report did not work.  They would generate it, and receive "An unknown error has occurred while processing report".  So we did some basic troubleshooting, and were able to isolate the issue to the column layout.

While testing with the column layout, we noticed that the error only occurred when we included columns that had a dimension filter that was adding and subtracting dimension sets.  And in contacting Microsoft, we found that it was a recently reported quality report.  The actual issue is with regards to subtracting, it doesn't matter if it is dimensions or dimension sets.  If you use a (-) in a dimension filter in a column layout in MR 2012, you may encounter the error.  There are a couple of workarounds...

1.  Create a dimension set that includes the necessary dimensions and any subtraction you need to include
2.  Create two hidden columns, one with the dimensions you need to add and one with the dimensions you need to subtract. Then use a calculated column to perform the necessary math.

Word from Microsoft is that hopefully this will be fixed in the October update for MR, we will keep our fingers crossed.  Although this may not seem major, it is one of those annoying "quirks" that I am always happy to see fixed :)

Christina Phillips is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Dynamics GP Certified Professional. She is a supervising consultant with BKD Technologies, providing training, support, and project management services to new and existing Microsoft Dynamics customers. This blog represents her views only, not those of her employer.

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