PM02889: AUTOMATIC CONVERSION OF N LEVEL TO C LEVEL ON INSERT

APAR status

• Closed as suggestion for future release.

Error description

• The issue with the design of the DimensionElementComponentAdd
  function
  could cause data loss from a cube.
  
  The problem can be replicated as follows:
  - Create a new dimension with a single element.
  - Use DimensionElementInsert to insert two new N level elements.
  
  This will give you three N level elements in the dimension.
  - In a second process, use DimensionElementInsert to try to
  insert one
  of the existing elements as a C level element.
  This will cause no change to the dimension, but nor will it
  cause an
  error or a reject. The lack of a reject / error when the element
  is OF
  THE SAME TYPE is a good thing. It means that TI will just ignore
  any
  existing elements if you need to loop through a data source,
  adding all
  of the elements from that source. The lack of a reject / error
  where
  the type DIFFERS is more questionable since it's most likely to
  be
  caused by a programming error by the TI developer or an error in
  the
  source data. However it's still harmless as it makes no change
  to the
  dimension.
  - In a third process, use DimensionElementComponentAdd to add
  one of
  your N level elements as a child of one of the other N level
  elements.
  This will cause the other N level element to be converted from
  an N
  type to a consolidation, blowing away any data that had been
  entered
  against it.
  I believe that it would be more desirable for an attempt to do
  that to
  generate an error, and for either:
  (a) The programmer to have to delete the N level element and
  recreate
  it as a C level element rather than having
  DimensionElementComponentAdd
  do an implicit conversion; or
  (b) Create functions which have to be explicitly called to do a
  conversion.
  
  At the very least, the documentation should be changed to warn
  users
  that they could lose data if they accidentally add an element as
  a
  child of another N level element."
  

Local fix

Problem summary

Problem conclusion

Temporary fix

Comments

• Unfortunately this has been the behavior of this call since the
  beginning.  We can't introduce new error events, or even the beh
  avior of the return (which currently always returns a 1) -- this
   will impact existing applications.
  
  An enhancement has been logged for this issue.
  

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

Applicable component levels