BPC 7.5NW SP08: "unknown MDX error" message for simple dimension formula

Question

Hi everyone!!
We are facing many different issues concerning dimension formulas and
script logic. Maybe it's something related to SP08. For instance,
consider the following:
- there is a dimension named P_Account, with members Price, SalesCost,
and others
- there is a dimension named P_Product, which consists of a hierarchy,
for instance: Prod1 with two children, Prod1A and Prod1B
We want to set the following dimension formula in P_Product for Prod1 member:
IIF([P_Account].CURRENTMEMBER.PROPERTIES("ID") = "Price", Null, 1)
that is, we wanted to try to be able to avoid summing Price, returning
Null for (Price, Prod1). Later we would try to replace "1" with the
appropriate formula to sum children of Prod1 for all other members of
P_Account. The result is an odd error: "MDX statement error: unknown MDX
error" (or something similar, since I get the error message in portuguese).
We have spent almost two days studying alternatives in SDN Forum, blogs,
google, etc, trying to find a reason for the error but couldn't find it.
Could anyone help on this one?
Thanks!
Luigi

Answer 1

Hi everyone!
After contacting SAP, we were asked to try to reproduce the error in APSHELL. I did the following:
1) created another application set, copying APSHELL, named it TESTAPPSET;
2) added two members to dimension P_ACCT (ID, ACCTYPE, SCALING, RATETYPE):
   (PRICE, INC, Y, END)
   (SALESCOST, INC, Y, END)
3) saved to server and processed P_ACCT dimension successfuly
4) added a UD dimension copied from P_Activity, named P_Product
5) deleted all members of P_Product, processed the dimension sucessfuly
6) added FORMULA property to P_Product, with size 200
7) added three members to P_Product (ID, PARENTH1)
   (Prod1, "")
   (Prod1A, Prod1)
   (Prod1B, Prod1)
8) saved to server and processed the dimension successfuly
9) edited P_Product members and added the following as FORMULA for Prod1:
IIF([P_ACCT].CURRENTMEMBER.PROPERTIES("ID") = "PRICE", Null, 1)
Result was sucess!!
10) edit P_Product again and removed the formula, saved to server and processed dimension successfuly;
11) created an Application named SALES, type Financial Report, copied from PLANNING with dimensions
12) edit dimensions, removed P_Activity and added P_Product to the list
13) went back to step (9) and tried to add the formula again, saved to server and processed P_Product dimension. Result was success again!!
So I imagined the issue might be caused by the user I was log in with. I went back to our application set, logged in as BPC_SYSADMIN and tried to set the formula again and it didn't work. User was not the problem.
Since I had tried all the above creating everything with all UPPERCASE, I decided to try the following Formula
IIF([P_ACCOUNT].CURRENTMEMBER.PROPERTIES("ID") = "Price", Null, 1)
that is, P_ACCOUNT instead of P_Account. Result: success in processing dimension!!! And the formula worked as expected when I opened an Input Schedule to test it.
When I check my dimension list in BPC Admin it says P_Account (mixed case), instead of P_ACCOUNT (all uppercase) since it was the way we created it.
So, I spent 1hour to do the whole test, but it worked. I sent two questions/requests for correction or improvement to SAP:
I) which case should be used in formulas? given I see P_Account in Dimension list, how should I know that I should write formulas with P_ACCOUNT, all uppercase?
II) could BPC provide more descriptive error messages when processing dimensions and validating script logic? a simple error message such as "unidentified command or reference at P_Account" or anything similar would have saved us 4,5 days of work! it's a lot!
Thank you guys for your support!!