Forum Discussion

miked's avatar
miked
Contributor
11 months ago

v8.0+ Workspaces

Hi All, Does anyone have any good advice on what Workspaces should be created in the application dashboards screen beyond Default?  In reading the guide, workspaces seem to have a lot of focus on s...
Methodology
  • Henning's avatar
    Henning
    11 months ago

    Hi, the bigger picture is the building software on software part. This is to enable the community (partners and customers) to create their own solutions based on the OneStream platform. As Mike G pointed out, one important element of that is to isolate each component in a different Workspace. On WAVE in Orlando 2023, this was laid out by the developers. Dynamic Dashboards are also a part of that push.

    For the community that means - IMHO - that one should start structuring one's Workspaces in exactly that way. Think about how you can leverage that new functionality going forward. How does this help you implement faster and leverage what you build better with less effort? What solutions / modules do you think would meet most market demand? How can those be set up to be sold as a package, or individual solutions? Maybe something "simple" such as an advanced metadata builder? Or a solution in anticipation of new regulations such as Pillar Two (Global Minimum Tax)? IFRS 16 is a role model example for that in my view where Workspaces are extremely valuable, though plenty of solutions exist in OneStream for that one already. Nevertheless, I do see a lot of value also in "small" solutions, not everything needs to address bigger challenges customers face such as ESG, Pillar Two, IFRS 16, etc. 

    I do recommend considering attending WAVE 2024 as I presume that the focus will be on that overarching theme there. (Wave North America - OneStream Software)

    As for the rules, I think I expressed myself a bit ambiguously. I meant I would add each rule to the Workspace it is used for. Only for overarching (e.g.) solution helpers that I re-use throughout different workspaces, I would create a dedicated workspace for that. Note that Finance Rules are not included in Workspaces (as of today).

    With regards to the Default Workspace, this is mainly there to hold legacy dashboards (I.e. before Workspaces were introduced). I recommend to create all new solutions in a dedicated Workspace and not using Default anymore. That is at least how I do it.

    In terms of Cube Views and reporting parameters that do not per se belong to a "solution" but may be more functionally oriented, one might consider splitting those up by reporting process (consolidation, planning, etc). Or a dedicated "Reporting" Workspace could also be used. I have not made up my mind on that one yet. But I would personally not use the Cube Views outside of Workspaces anymore, as this is where the Cube Views are stored pre-Workspaces. Going forward, Workspaces should be regarded as the central point for building those items, and that includes Data Management items as well. This is similar to the Default Workspace, which holds the pre-Workspace dashboards.

  • Henning's avatar
    Henning
    11 months ago

    Yes, sorry for not being clear, I am talking about Assemblies. This is where the rules are stored in a Workspace. Just start small, add your rule(s), split them up and sort them using the Assembly folders and reference them like you are used to from when it was in Business Rules. I.e. you created your own helper functions pre-Workspaces and called then (within or across rules), now you can use assemblies to structure this properly instead of doing this in Business Rules.

miked's avatar
miked
Contributor

Thx Mike.  Understood.  In light of the unique name issue in past versions, we also adopted the 3 letter suffix to every object in our Dashboard Maintenance Units so our standard already accounts for this.  We are just trying to figure out the bigger picture of what Workspace strategy to use to come up with the best recipe.

Henning's avatar
Henning
Valued Contributor II
11 months ago

Hi, the bigger picture is the building software on software part. This is to enable the community (partners and customers) to create their own solutions based on the OneStream platform. As Mike G pointed out, one important element of that is to isolate each component in a different Workspace. On WAVE in Orlando 2023, this was laid out by the developers. Dynamic Dashboards are also a part of that push.

For the community that means - IMHO - that one should start structuring one's Workspaces in exactly that way. Think about how you can leverage that new functionality going forward. How does this help you implement faster and leverage what you build better with less effort? What solutions / modules do you think would meet most market demand? How can those be set up to be sold as a package, or individual solutions? Maybe something "simple" such as an advanced metadata builder? Or a solution in anticipation of new regulations such as Pillar Two (Global Minimum Tax)? IFRS 16 is a role model example for that in my view where Workspaces are extremely valuable, though plenty of solutions exist in OneStream for that one already. Nevertheless, I do see a lot of value also in "small" solutions, not everything needs to address bigger challenges customers face such as ESG, Pillar Two, IFRS 16, etc. 

I do recommend considering attending WAVE 2024 as I presume that the focus will be on that overarching theme there. (Wave North America - OneStream Software)

As for the rules, I think I expressed myself a bit ambiguously. I meant I would add each rule to the Workspace it is used for. Only for overarching (e.g.) solution helpers that I re-use throughout different workspaces, I would create a dedicated workspace for that. Note that Finance Rules are not included in Workspaces (as of today).

With regards to the Default Workspace, this is mainly there to hold legacy dashboards (I.e. before Workspaces were introduced). I recommend to create all new solutions in a dedicated Workspace and not using Default anymore. That is at least how I do it.

In terms of Cube Views and reporting parameters that do not per se belong to a "solution" but may be more functionally oriented, one might consider splitting those up by reporting process (consolidation, planning, etc). Or a dedicated "Reporting" Workspace could also be used. I have not made up my mind on that one yet. But I would personally not use the Cube Views outside of Workspaces anymore, as this is where the Cube Views are stored pre-Workspaces. Going forward, Workspaces should be regarded as the central point for building those items, and that includes Data Management items as well. This is similar to the Default Workspace, which holds the pre-Workspace dashboards.

  • miked's avatar
    miked
    Contributor
    11 months ago

    Thx Henning.  This is very helpful.  I was going to ask if the default workspace location for cubeviews / dashboards held any value beyond being where the pre-workspace artifacts go but you have answered that...and I will go with that as we kick off into v8.  When you mention rules being added to each workspace, we haven't done too much exploring of Assemblies yet.  Are you talking about Assemblies above or are you just talking about old-school dashboard extenders that we uniquely assign to each dashboard maintenance unit?  We always just have a DE rule (with open and change logic) assigned to each maintenance unit...but I suspect the Assemblies are going to replace or create another for how to handle that setup.  The DE rules cannot live within a maintenance unit without being written in the Assembly file right?

    • Henning's avatar
      Henning
      Valued Contributor II
      11 months ago

      Yes, sorry for not being clear, I am talking about Assemblies. This is where the rules are stored in a Workspace. Just start small, add your rule(s), split them up and sort them using the Assembly folders and reference them like you are used to from when it was in Business Rules. I.e. you created your own helper functions pre-Workspaces and called then (within or across rules), now you can use assemblies to structure this properly instead of doing this in Business Rules.