Free TM1 tools available now

[Harvey]

Hi all,

The team at Flow OLAP Solutions have been working hard the past year or so to bring you some cool TM1 tools that will hopefully make your lives as TM1 developers easier. We're finally ready to release them to you guys!

Our goal is to support the TM1 community by forming partnerships with TM1 resellers, so all the tools are offered as freeware.

It's not the purpose of this post to plug the business, so here's what free tools are available:

TM1 Server Manager
Create, edit, configure and launch TM1 servers. No more shortcuts, registering services or looking up TM1s.cfg property names in the docs!
Status: stable/freeware

TM1 Window Manager
Capture all the floating TM1 windows and present them as a tabbed multiple document interface.
Status: stable/freeware

Flow Model Packager
Capture TM1 model structures and:

• Generate automatic technical documentation, showing all objects with relationship diagrams & pertinent info
• Compare one server structure with another (say, prod and dev) and show a visual comparison of changes
• Take selected changes and hot-promote them to a live TM1 server

Status: beta/demo/free to Flow partners

Propel Planning Lite Demo
A cut-down demo of our full budgeting and planning application "Propel Planning". This is a great framework to base your TM1 planning implementations on, using best-practice techniques and standards. You can install this demo using the Flow Server Manager, and check it out.
Status: beta/demo

If you want to try them out, the first step is to download Server Manager. You can install the other two apps from the Server Manager toolbar, or our website.

We're just getting started, guys, so we'd love to hear your questions, comments and feedback here.

ADMIN NOTE: Moved to the Useful code, tips and tricks forum so it doesn't get lost in the general forum after a day or two

[Steve Vincent]

Superb stuff, thank you

On the installer though is there a "download file and install locally" option? Most businesses have their machines locked down for security purposes, and our servers don't have internet access for the same reason so even with admin rights on those i couldn't even try this, let alone impliment it in production.

On the face of it though it's just what so many people have been after for a long time

[Paul Segal]

Yes, looks very interesting.

I get the following error when I try to install the Flow Model Packager:

"Unable to install the application. The application requires that assembly XmlDiffPatch Version 1.0.8.28 be installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) first."

Regards

[lotsaram]

Hi Harvey - nice! Or at least I suppose it would be nice, but I concur wholeheartedly with Steve. You need to provide a fully packaged installer. In a corporate environment servers are locked down and fire-walled and connecting to the internet to pull down the full installation is a no go.

I also get the following and progress no further which I guess is an artifact of corporate Windows environments being behind the times (my work station runs XP and our servers are W2003) But that's a fact of life and something you have to bear in mind if designing a product for a corporate market.

FlowInstallErr.jpg (19.46 KiB) Viewed 25617 times

[Olivier]

Hi There,

I was quite keen to give the tools a go but i have problem installing on my dev box.
It fail to download components.

See below the install log :

The following properties have been set:
Property: [AdminUser] = true {boolean}
Property: [InstallMode] = HomeSite {string}
Property: [ProcessorArchitecture] = AMD64 {string}
Property: [VersionNT] = 5.2.2 {version}
Running checks for package 'Windows Installer 3.1', phase BuildList
The following properties have been set for package 'Windows Installer 3.1':
Running checks for command 'WindowsInstaller3_1\WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe'
Result of running operator 'VersionGreaterThanOrEqualTo' on property 'VersionMsi' and value '3.1': true
Result of checks for command 'WindowsInstaller3_1\WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe' is 'Bypass'
'Windows Installer 3.1' RunCheck result: No Install Needed
Running checks for package 'Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (x86 and x64)', phase BuildList
Reading value 'Version' of registry key 'HKLM\Software\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full'
Unable to read registry value
Not setting value for property 'DotNet40Full_TargetVersion'
The following properties have been set for package 'Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (x86 and x64)':
Running checks for command 'DotNetFX40\dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe'
Result of running operator 'ValueEqualTo' on property 'InstallMode' and value 'HomeSite': true
Result of checks for command 'DotNetFX40\dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe' is 'Bypass'
Running checks for command 'DotNetFX40\dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe'
Result of running operator 'ValueNotEqualTo' on property 'InstallMode' and value 'HomeSite': false
Skipping ByPassIf because Property 'DotNet40Full_TargetVersion' was not defined
Result of running operator 'ValueEqualTo' on property 'AdminUser' and value 'false': false
Result of running operator 'VersionLessThan' on property 'VersionNT' and value '5.1.2': false
Result of running operator 'ValueEqualTo' on property 'ProcessorArchitecture' and value 'IA64': false
Result of checks for command 'DotNetFX40\dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe' is 'Install'
'Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (x86 and x64)' RunCheck result: Install Needed
EULA for components 'Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (x86 and x64)' was accepted.
Copying files to temporary directory "C:\DOCUME~1\g371eku\LOCALS~1\Temp\VSD5384.tmp\"
Downloading files to "C:\DOCUME~1\g371eku\LOCALS~1\Temp\VSD5384.tmp\"
(27/07/2012 9:25:58 AM) Downloading 'DotNetFX40\dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe' from 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=182805' to 'C:\DOCUME~1\g371eku\LOCALS~1\Temp\VSD5384.tmp\'
Download completed at 27/07/2012 9:26:19 AM
Downloading failed with HRESULT=-2146697211
(27/07/2012 9:30:07 AM) Downloading 'DotNetFX40\dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe' from 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=182805' to 'C:\DOCUME~1\g371eku\LOCALS~1\Temp\VSD5384.tmp\'
Download completed at 27/07/2012 9:30:28 AM
Downloading failed with HRESULT=-2146697211

I managed to download this component "DotNetFX40\dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe" and install it manually but need a server restart to try the main install again.

[Harvey]

Hi all,

Apologies for the installation problems.

I should have stated, the tools require the latest .NET framework (version 4) to be installed on the target machine. These are primarily development tools, so I would recommend installing on your personal laptop or desktop before trying in any corporate environment.

You can get the .NET framework here.

There is also a dependency on the XmlDiffPatch component from Microsoft, although I wasn't aware it would need to be separately installed. You can find a download link here, at the top of the article.

For those of you who cannot install due to not having admin rights, this should be no issue. The install is per-user, so you only need rights to your own user profile. This is, of course, in theory, so I'm curious to hear about your individual experiences.

I chose this deployment model because I want to be able to update the tools frequently, at least in the early stages, and will need to release patches. Hence, internet access on the target computer is also a requirement, at least for now.

If any of you would like to get personal support, send me a personal message via this board (preferably with your email address, so we can use regular email) and I'll try to assist you with your installation issues.

[Harvey]

I'm curious about this error: "Unable to install the application. The application requires that assembly XmlDiffPatch Version 1.0.8.28 be installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) first."

Firstly, has anyone installed successfully without getting this message?

Secondly, for those who do, can you give me some information about the OS you're installing on?

I tried it on my desktop machine here, which has never had XmlDiffPatch installed, and it ran successfully, so perhaps it's OS specific?

[Olivier]

Server OS :
Win Server 2003 x64

My key issue is my dev server box does not have internet connection...

I have downloaded and installed manually :
dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe
xmldiffpatch.exe
FlowServerManager.application

I am now stuck with the execution of "FlowServerManager.application" as it goes and try to download additional components.
No sure I can work around this step to finalise the install.

[hardstep]

I get the same error:
OS : Windows 7 64 bit

[Paul Segal]

Hi Howard,

On the XmlDiff error, I was running XP SP3.

Loading .Net and the patch fixed the error, and the Window Manager now works (and it looks very good, most useful).

A few things on the Windows Manager.

When I start it I get this error:

wm1.PNG (23.28 KiB) Viewed 25556 times

and after pressing OK this screen (which doesn't seem to have any user-configurable options?)

wm2.PNG (43.5 KiB) Viewed 25556 times

and after pressing OK gives me the Windows Manager screen which works fine.

TM1 9.5.2 and Windows 7.

[Paul Segal]

One more:

On Windows Manager, the Window menu option doesn't display the names of the windows you have open, just a tick against a grey blank where the name of the window should be.

[lotsaram]

OK. After installing the .Net 4 framework I can run the rest of the install process for 2 out of the 3 apps.

I get all the same errors on initial launch of window manager as Paul, but then the application works fine (except for the window menu dropdown being as Paul described with just blank rows one of then with a tick).

As for the window manager itself, I like it, in fact I like it a lot. Except that the windows only seem dockable with no floating option. I think it's essential to be able to pop a window or tab out and float it as sometimes for the sake of screen real estate or just juggling multiple windows that can still be the best way to manage multiple views, rule tracer etc and see the whole picture. I don't know whether it is programmatically possible but an option to "disolve" the window manager and release the windows back to "standard" perspectives or architect configuration and a "re-gather" option would be a nice little addition.

I haven't tried the server manager yet other than to verify that I can launch it but to me it seems that unless I can install and run on a server then what is the practical use unless you're in pre-sales and prone to setting up lots of servers on your laptop.

The model packager install fails with the error already mentioned "Unable to install the application. The application requires that assembly XmlDiffPatch Version 1.0.8.28 be installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) first."

[Harvey]

Hi all, thanks for trying out the tools. I'll try to deal with all your queries in this post.

1) Flow Window Manager. When you begin, the program starts by asking you for the "Main Executable Program". This is actually asking for the path to tm1a.exe. You have to click the Browse button next to the first textbox labelled "Main Executable Program", browse to the TM1 bin folder, and select tm1a.exe.

2) The reason this is a bit ambiguous, and that there are greyed out options in the settings screen, is that the Window Manager was designed to work with any program. For example, I actually used to use it with Microsoft Messenger years ago, when I used to chat to lots of people while procrastinating doing my real work! For this release, I simply included the TM1 configuration and removed all the options to keep it simple.

3) Lotsaram, good idea about the float option, and I'm happy to code that into the next release. I also want to be able to run it in Perspectives mode (with Excel loaded), so will be working on that too.

4) Installing Server Manager on production/client dev servers might be useful in some cases, but the tools are really developer tools and meant to be used on company or personal laptops. You're right about Server Manager not being useful if you don't start a lot of servers, but I always have in my development. The first thing I do when I am on a client site is work out a way to work locally on my personal laptop, so I don't have to deal with all the restriction imposed on-site, and can work off-site if required. Perhaps this is a rare way to work, but that's always how I do it, so Server Manager is invaluable to me. One feature I have on my list for the Server Manager is support for running as a Windows Service.

5) I have been considering making a "production" version of Server Manager, which could be installed in a prod server. It would support features like bringing down the server on a schedule, notifying an email list if it crashes and other things. If there is interest in this kind of functionality, let me know.

6) Flow Model Packager is in beta and I wouldn't recommend using it on production sites for now. This release is supposed to give you a taste for how it will work and what it can do. We give the full version to Flow Partners, but I would expect there to be bugs in the initial release and will be setting up a way for users to report these online.

7) If you install the .NET Framework and the XmlDiffPatch tool, the Model Packager should run. If anyone is able to install these prerequisites and it still won't install correctly, please let me know.

8) The installers use Microsoft ClickOnce technology, which was a platform deliberately chosen to make updates and releases easier. It does require internet access to install, but can be run offline from that point onwards. We want to form a community of TM1 developers, and it seemed to be a nice collaborative way to keep the applications updated and fresh.

9) Running the FlowServerManager.application file locally will still try to download the rest of the content from the internet. This file is just an application manifest and tells the ClickOnce installer where to find the files. I may be able to generate a locally-installable package, and will look into doing so this weekend.

10) I will take all feature requests seriously and try to get them all into the applications over time. My goal is to continually develop the tools for you guys and keep adding value. So keep the suggestions coming!

11) I'm looking into making a bug tracking/feature request website available soon and will let you guys know if I get something going.

[olapuser]

Hi Harvey,

Thanks for the tools.

No problem with installation, all working properly.

I am using TM1 9.4 running on Windows XP SP 3

[lotsaram]

4) Installing Server Manager on production/client dev servers might be useful in some cases, but the tools are really developer tools and meant to be used on company or personal laptops. You're right about Server Manager not being useful if you don't start a lot of servers, but I always have in my development. The first thing I do when I am on a client site is work out a way to work locally on my personal laptop, so I don't have to deal with all the restriction imposed on-site, and can work off-site if required. Perhaps this is a rare way to work, but that's always how I do it, so Server Manager is invaluable to me. One feature I have on my list for the Server Manager is support for running as a Windows Service.

5) I have been considering making a "production" version of Server Manager, which could be installed in a prod server. It would support features like bringing down the server on a schedule, notifying an email list if it crashes and other things. If there is interest in this kind of functionality, let me know.

I would make a big distinction between the development activities you are talking about vs. "development" in the context of a large corporate and/or larger project where data volume might be huge and there are probably multiple developers. In a true server environment the once off task of setting up a tm1 service is neither here nor there. I actually think the best use case for this product is more in pre-sales to manage lots of demos on the desktop (as opposed to lots of shortcuts to tm1s.exe) and for PoCs where you don't want to be typing some code into cmd prompt with a potential customer. But in the world I live in now development doesn't happen on laptops it is exclusively server based (and corporate servers as already noted seldom have a connection to da internet). Anyway as of 10.1 we finally have Cognos Configuration manager for TM1 where all that is needed to set up a tm1 service is to point to a folder holding the tm1s.cfg file and you're away, no more cmd prompt.

I think the "production" version of server manager that you're talking about would actually more logically be another product. A monitoring product that
could send alerts when a service went down and had some top monitoring to also sends alerts for example if users were in wait for to long would certainly be interesting for the larger scale corporate market. Others have talked about this in the past and I for one remain interested but as yet I am yet to see anything of substance.

[Harvey]

Lotsaram, yeah, a production version of Server Manager would be a separate product and would support the kinds of features you mention in your post (and hopefully more!).

That would most likely be a commercial product. However, it's worth noting that our business model at Flow is to never charge developers and TM1 resellers for anything, but to provide products free and to allow the partner to on-sell to the product to their client sites. We don't mind if you add a margin and will never make prices for commercial products publicly available, nor will we ever sell directly to a customer site.

The current Server Manager is just a "power toy" to make life easier for those who find value in it. I agree, it would have little value in an on-site environment, where all the work is carried out on a nominated development server.

I've made the changes you suggested to the Flow Window Manager, and have also added functionality to display an icon based on the type of the Window (ie CubeViews have a different icon from the Dimension Editor, etc), and fixed up some of the confusion surrounding the "Main Executable Path" prompts.

I'm just testing and cleaning that up now and should be able to push it out early next week.

[lotsaram]

Hi Harvey - I have noticed some, dare I say it, bugs in the window manager.
- Subset Editor: windows aren't collected
- TM1 Security Assignments: windows aren't collected
- Clients/Groups: window isn't collected
- (Advanced) Rules Editor: the horizontal and vertical scroll bars are all screwy and don't work (although mouse wheel does) and if there is another window pinned on whatever side of a rules editor tab the window doesn't re-adjust the R, L, T, B etc. it just seems to orient from top left of the window manager container as a whole

Also - how to make it work without the path to tm1a.exe? I usually work with Perspectives not Architect and it is annoying that architect launches with the window manager. Why not be able to select tm1p.xla as the root application (or why need this setting at all since all that seems to matter is the captions of the windows themselves?)

Enhancements?
- it would be good if when closing the window manager there was an option to either close all the collected windows OR to release them back to whatever their state would be without the window manager. (this wouldn't need to be in an annoying msgbox popup everytime you closed the app, it could be an additional option preference)
- like the ability to float windows it would be a nice feature to be able to dynamically select/deselect which types of TM1 windows were grouped in the window manager. e.g. Say I want to pop out all views or all rule tracer windows then just untick that option from a "managed windows" drop down menu.

[Harvey]

I have noticed some, dare I say it, bugs in the window manager.
- Subset Editor: windows aren't collected
- TM1 Security Assignments: windows aren't collected
- Clients/Groups: window isn't collected
- (Advanced) Rules Editor: the horizontal and vertical scroll bars are all screwy and don't work (although mouse wheel does) and if there is another window pinned on whatever side of a rules editor tab the window doesn't re-adjust the R, L, T, B etc. it just seems to orient from top left of the window manager container as a whole

Those Windows were left out on purpose, but I suppose that's just personal preference. For instance, I didn't like it when I double-clicked a dimension in a cubeview and had the resulting subset window dock -- and I couldn't figure out a way to determine how the window had been launched to treat the two cases differently.

However, your suggestion below of allowing the user to select particular window type is a good one, and will allow me to keep us both happy!

I do not use the advanced rule editor, but I do recall it having some strange quirks when I looked at it. It actually seems to render in some non-standard ways and does not behave well as a regular window. I will fire it up and see if there's anything I can do.

Also - how to make it work without the path to tm1a.exe? I usually work with Perspectives not Architect and it is annoying that architect launches with the window manager. Why not be able to select tm1p.xla as the root application (or why need this setting at all since all that seems to matter is the captions of the windows themselves?)

Yes, this is a known bug at the moment. I am fixing this so that if you start Window Manager when Perspectives is loaded, it will suck that window in instead of starting up a new instance of architect.

Enhancements?
- it would be good if when closing the window manager there was an option to either close all the collected windows OR to release them back to whatever their state would be without the window manager. (this wouldn't need to be in an annoying msgbox popup everytime you closed the app, it could be an additional option preference)
- like the ability to float windows it would be a nice feature to be able to dynamically select/deselect which types of TM1 windows were grouped in the window manager. e.g. Say I want to pop out all views or all rule tracer windows then just untick that option from a "managed windows" drop down menu.

Noted, and I'll try to get all that included in the next release.

Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas. I've gotta get an issue tracker online soon!

[Mems]

Very Nice tool,

Love both the Server Manager and the Window Manager. It is a GREAT addition!! Though there are some bugs as a first release I believe you really do have something special.

I am struggling to install the Flow Model Packager.

I have installed .Net FM 4 and I know I have to download\install XMldiffPatch, the download location does not work:

There is also a dependency on the XmlDiffPatch component from Microsoft, although I wasn't aware it would need to be separately installed. You can find a download link here, at the top of the article.

I have tried searching the web for the XmlDiffPatch but all I am getting are registry cleaners

Any other locations you know of?

Regards

[Harvey]

Hi Mems,

Thanks, glad you like the tools.

Yeah, it seems that link seems to has died, thanks for the heads up!

I was able to locate a new one here, but if that fails in the future, you can also now download it from the flowolap.com site.

It's also worth noting that I will be releasing a new version of the Model Packager, which will be the official beta version, early next week. This one should not have the dependency on XmlDiffPatch, and will be fully functional for partners who have signed up on our site.

Let me know if this doesn't get you over the line, and I'll find an alternative way to get the file to you.