Allocating Measures

The Allocation feature distributes data, specified at a summary level of a dimension, to lower levels. For example, actual sales revenue may be tracked daily, while sales revenue is forecast quarterly. Allocation is a useful way of distributing quarterly forecasts to the month and day levels.

You can select from the following allocation types:

  • From Level

    With this type, allocation is typically based on values directly derived from a data source.

  • Do Not Allocate
  • Constant

    This type allocates a single, constant measure value to all descendant categories.

  • By Measure

    This type allocates values to descendant categories in proportion to a specific measure.

You can allocate measures to dimensions or levels that lack them in the following ways:

  • over entire dimensions, when the measure appears in a data source that does not reference the dimension
  • over levels in a dimension, when the measure is already specified at a level in that dimension
  • over categories in levels, when the measure is specified for the particular level

To allocate measures, you must

  • Have a model with two or more data sources.
  • Define the measures for that model.
  • Create the Dimension Map.

When you have completed the allocation process, you can check the relationships between dimensions and a measure by using the Show Scope command.

You cannot allocate a calculated measure. However, you can allocate a regular measure in proportion to a calculated measure.

To prevent the automatic rollup of constantly allocated measures, you must set a special variable so that the totals in your summary reports are the same as the constants specified for each individual member of a subset.

To do this on Windows, locate the ppds_cfg.xml file in the installation_location/configuration directory, open it in any text editor, and add the DisableConstantAllocationRollup parameter with a value of 1 to the PowerPlay DataServer section in the following way:

<Section value=PowerPlay DataServer>
     . . . 
     <DisableConstantAllocationRollup value=1/>
</Section>

You can use the ppds_cfg.xml.sample file, also located in installation_location/configuration directory, as a reference. However, this file does not contain the DisableConstantAllocationRollup parameter.

If you are adjusting your model on UNIX or Linux®, create an environment variable called PPDS_DISABLE_CONSTANT_ALLOCATION_ROLLUP and set its value to 1. In Bourne shell, add the line export PPDS_DISABLE_CONSTANT_ALLOCATION_ROLLUP.

Note: This change will affect other features and functions in your model or resulting reports, including calculated expressions, alternate or special drill-down paths, and custom subsets.