Hyperion Design Flaw ?? (Dynamic Time Series)

Question

Hello,
I've been trying to enable DTS on time dimension in my planning application. However, the time dimension in my planning application is called "Period". I also have another dimension called "Year". When I went ahead with enabling DTS, it gave me an error that "Period" and "Year" are reserved DTS generation names. Rename the dimension or disable DTS to resolve this error.
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hp_admin/frameset.htm?dts_setup.html
My concern is if "Year" and "Period" are reserved keywords, then why Oracle allows applications have a dimension member name as Year and Period? I honestly do not think its a good idea to change my dimension names because that will lead to a ton of rework on the artifacts. If any one of you have faced similar issue, please share your thoughts or any workarounds that you've done to resolve this issue. 
Thanks,
AceBase

Answer 1

Hi,
Sadly, I actually have to agree with you. At least one should be warned that the chosen dimension name will impair certain functionality during creation of the application.
I came across to this exact same issue years ago when we finalized application built with all forms, reports and calculations. Client requested a report that required the usage of DTS. It was not pleasant to go back and change so many things really but we ended up doing it.
If it is too much of a problem to change dimension names, you may  try a very decent workaround though. In many cases, I preferred this over DTS and it worked like a charm. You can create DTS versions or scenarios with member formulas within them. Quite simply an Actual-YTD scenario member fomula will be something like this:
IF(@ISMBR(Jan))
Jan->Actual;
ELSEIF(@ISMBR(Feb))
Jan->Actual+Feb->Actual;
ELSEIF(@ISMBR(Mar))
Jan->Actual+Feb->Actual+Mar->Actual;
Surely you can create QTD, even MTD scenarios in a similar fashion. In my experience, they were easier to use in reports, forms etc.
Cheers,
Alp