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September 5, 2025
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Dynamic Time Filter in Data Management Export Step

  • September 5, 2025
  • 2 replies
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I'm building a Data Management step to export data, and I need to set the time filter dynamically.

For example, if the scenario is Budget_Final_FY26, the export should include 5 years of data: the current year, plus current year +1 through current year +4.

The challenge is that I don’t see a way to directly use “current year” in the time filter. My idea is to substitute the time filter with an XFBR string that pulls the current year and applies it dynamically.

Has anyone implemented something similar, or is there a recommended approach for handling this?

Best answer by chul

In your example, the Scenario name determines "current year". Your XFBR idea will work for that. But what if your scenario name doesn't contain an indicator of "current year"? You can anchor on WF Time, Global POV Time or POV Time.

Will the job be scheduled? If so, they system won't have a POV Time or WF Time so you can't use those. If the admin isn't diligent about updating the Global POV, then the extract won't contain the data you're expecting.

Will the job be triggered by a user from a dashboard? If so, you can pass that parameter into the step's Time Filter.

Once you determine the logic for what determines "current year", you have options to make the job dynamic.

2 replies

chulAnswer
September 5, 2025

In your example, the Scenario name determines "current year". Your XFBR idea will work for that. But what if your scenario name doesn't contain an indicator of "current year"? You can anchor on WF Time, Global POV Time or POV Time.

Will the job be scheduled? If so, they system won't have a POV Time or WF Time so you can't use those. If the admin isn't diligent about updating the Global POV, then the extract won't contain the data you're expecting.

Will the job be triggered by a user from a dashboard? If so, you can pass that parameter into the step's Time Filter.

Once you determine the logic for what determines "current year", you have options to make the job dynamic.

amritp02Author
September 8, 2025

Hi, the scenario also has to be determined dynamically, which I should have included too. Yes, this job will be scheduled as the exports have to go out automatically on a scheduled basis. You have perfectly explained the issue here that I can't leverage POV time or WF Time. Global POV seems to be the answer for the Time filter if the admin is going to properly maintain it. But the Scenario can't be maintained through the Global POV as I am exporting data from multiple scenarios.

Currently it looks like XFBR would be the ideal option, but I can't find any examples or proper documents to implement it. 

September 6, 2025

If you haven't already, you may want to consider adding Range criteria to your Budget scenario setup e.g.

  • Range: To define a custom range that is displayed as a one-time period including the start and end time, such as 2023M12-2024M11. As data loads, each period displays this range.
    • Workflow Time, Workflow Start Time, and Workflow End Time become selectable when Range is chosen. Click the ellipsis to choose a time for each. Year or year and month can be defined.


If this is the case, there are some BRApi's to help you retrieve these variables and derive the time range that is applicable for the Scenario selected



Hope this helps

amritp02Author
September 8, 2025

Thank you for your suggestion. This would be ideal if I only had to define the time filter, but the issue is scenario also has to be dynamically selected which I forgot to mention in my question.