Datapoint commenting in SAP Analytics Cloud

Datapoint comment on table cell within story based on acquired model in SAP analytics cloud

In SAP Analytics Cloud, you can add comments on the table cell within story. In order to add comment, right click on the selected cell and then select add comment. These comments are associated with the models, which means, if the same model used in different story and has same table cell available then the comment will appear in those stories as well. You can view comment in the comment popup or in table column

Fundamentally, table cell represent a coordinate which get formed based on the dimensions/measures selected in the row, column and filters. Same cell can represent different aggregated value and this can happen for example when filter is applied or there is different data access control on the dimension member for different users.

Datapoint comment behaviour with Filter

In this example, I have a data for California state which consist of 4 cities which are Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, I am adding comment on quantity sold for California (which is aggregated value for the four cities)

This comment will be visible to user as long as they are seeing same table cell value (coordinates formed by all combinations). if I filter the dimension member of California to have 3 cities say Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose (fig 2) then the previously added comments will not be available as the table cell aggregation would change

I can apply filter on another dimension say product (Fig 3) then also the aggregation would change for the cell and the comment made earlier will not be visible

In all three fig 1, fig 2 and fig 3, we see different aggregation and the cell represent like below which makes them unique datapoints

Fig 1: Quantity sold in California for all product (where California consist of all four states)

Fig 2: Quantity sold in California for all product (where California consist of three states)

Fig 3: Quantity sold in California for product alcohol and carbonated drink (where California consist of all four states)

Datapoint comment behaviour with Data access control

On the similar line to filter, In data access control example (not the story/page filter), if we have two users John and Gary and for the state Nevada john has access to all four cities “ Carson city, Las Vegas, Reno and Henderson” however Gary has access to only two cities “ Las Vegas and Reno”.  In this example comment added by

• John on Nevada will not be visible to Gary as the aggregation is different for both users when they see quantity sold for Nevada respectively in the table cell
• Gary will not be visible by default to John however if John does further filter at story level to view only Las Vegas & Reno city within the Nevada then the comment added by Gary will be visible to John as aggregation become same for john as it was for Gary

Data access control applied on a dimension member which is not part of the table

In the below example, Product is not part of the visible dimension in the table. Here Admin has access to all product members, however, Gary has access to limited product members; hence comments added by Admin is not visible to Gary and the comment added by Gary is not visible to Admin. However if admin explicitly filter the product member same as that Gary then the comment added by Gary will be visible to admin.

Datapoint comment behaviour with Data access control applied to leaf node of the dimension member and the access to new member is added and removed

Case 1:Providing access to new dimension member for non admin user (Ganga)

In the below example, ITEMType is not part of the visible dimension in the table. Here Admin has access to all Itemtype members. Ganga, who is Non admin, has access only to Personal Care, Clothes and Cosmetics members of Itemtype and comment is placed on Europe. Provide access to new member Beverages to Ganga. Now user Ganga will not be able to see the comments added by herself as the data aggregation changed. Here, user itself must set the filter(filter out newly added ItemType i.e Beverages) to view the comments placed with older access

Initially, Ganga (Non Admin user) has access to Clothes, Cosmetics, Personal care members of ItemType dimension

Case 2 :Removing access to existing dimension member for non admin user (Ganga)

Remove access to the Clothes dimension member for user Ganga (non Admin, Ganga will not be able to view the comments placed with old access.

Datapoint comment behaviour with Data access control applied to parent node and the impact on the comments when new member added removed under a parent node

Add or remove new member under the parent node, this will give access to the new member to the non admin user as the data access has been applied at the parent node and the user will continue to see previously added comments

Here Ganga (non admin user) has access to parent node Household and household has dimension members Beverages, Clothes, Cosmetics, and personal care.

Ganga has added data point comment for Europe and household (office supplies right now is not under household

New member Office supplies gets added under household, this will give Ganga access to the office supplies by default and the comments added previously (without office supplies under household) will still be visible as the access has been given at the parent node and not the leaf nodes.

Comment is still visible which was added earlier though new member gets added under household as the context for the comments is regenerated with new member

Datapoint comment behaviour with multiple hierarchy

In model there possibility to have multiple hierarchy for the a dimension and there is possibility that two nodes can have same leaf node, for example in below table there is two hierarchy for overall drinks which are “Product type” and “Product Color”

In the below example Juice constitute of five drinks and same five drinks also available in product color hierarchy.

Datapoint comment behaviour privileges

In SAP Analytics cloud, you can control comment privileges at different level such as Role, Model and Story, for user to work on the datapoint comment within the story based on specific model they need to have respective commenting privileges at all the level and privileges denied at any level will ensure user will not be able to perform respective commenting operation.

Datapoint Comment accessible across stories

I have created a table based on model 1 where I can see table cell representing quantity sold for California and in another story having same data cell representing same value then the comment made on the cell will be visible in both story

Comment on a table with different visible dimensions but representing same datapoint

In the below list of table there are different representation within table (visible dimensions in the table) but they represent same datapoint so same comment would be visible in all three tables

• Table 1:  California Gross Margin for product Juice
• Table 2: Juice Gross Margin for Product location California
• Table 3: Gross Margin for Juice for Location California and product Juice