Note: There is an updated version of this article, which applies to the next generation of TimeXtender.

Documentation

Audits, regulatory compliance and similar purposes can require printable documentation of your project. Fortunately, TimeXtender lets you create full documentation of a data warehouse, a business unit or an entire project with a few clicks.

The documentation comes in two flavors:

• Full documentation: Documents everything in the project so you would, in principle, be able to recreate the project from the documentation. This includes names, settings and descriptions for every object - databases, tables, fields, security roles, etc. - in the project as well as code where applicable.
• Data Impact documentation: Documents the impact of fields with a specific tag, i.e. where data from the fields are used in the project.

You can customize the documentation in different ways. Content options - type of documentation, title, subtitle, logo - are saved in templates in the repository. Style options - colors, font, page orientation - are saved in the repository to be used for all templates.

Adding or Editing a Template

Before you generation your first documentation, you might want to add a new template with your custom settings. TimeXtender contains a default template that you are free to edit or delete as well. You cannot, however, delete your last template since TimeXtender needs at least one template.

To add or edit a template, follow the steps below.

1. Click Generate Project Documentation in the Tools menu to open the Documentation window.
2. Click Manage... next to the Template list.
   
3. In the window that opens, click Add or click on the template you want to edit in the list.
4. In the Name box, type a name for the template.
5. In the Title box, type a title for the documentation
6. (Optional) In the Subtitle box, type a short text to use as a subtitle for the documentation. The text will be displayed on the front page of the documentation.
7. (Optional) In the Logo box, enter the path to the logo you want to use. This will be displayed on the front page and in the header of the documentation.
8. In the Type list, click the type of documentation, Full or Data Impact you want the template to be.
9. If you have selected Full, the following options are available:
   • Include descriptions: Include the descriptions of objects.
     • As plain text: Descriptions will be included in the documentation as plain text without any formatting.
     • As rich text in attached RTF files: Descriptions will be included in RTF files attached to the PDF with all formatting retained.
   • Include project tree: include a rendering of the project tree in the document.
   • Include diagram of relations on tables: Include a diagram for each table that show the table's relations to other tables.
10. If you have selected Data Impact you should enter the tags you want the template to cover. Type a tag name in the box and click Add to add it to the list of included tags.
11. Click OK to close the window. To save your template without generating documentation, click Apply and then close the Documentation window.

Note: If you have chosen to include descriptions in attached RTF files, they can be found under Attachments in Adobe Acrobat Reader. A link to the relevant file is included with the documentation of the object it belongs to.

Generating Documentation

The documentation will always cover the project as it looks when the documentation is generated, even if it has not been deployed or even saved yet.

To generate documentation of a part of or your entire project, follow the steps below.

1. Right click on the object you want to create documentation for and click Documentation. Documentation is available on the project level, data warehouses, business units, SSAS Multidimensional servers, data exports and Qlik models.
   
   The Documentation window appears.
   
2. In the File type list, click the file format you want to use.
3. In the Template list, click on the template you want to use.
4. Select Open file after save to view the document when TimeXtender has generated it. TimeXtender shows the document using external viewers that needs to be present on the machine.
5. Under Style, you can configure the look of the documentation. The settings are saved in the repository and used for documentation as well as the files generated by Export Deployment Steps.
6. Click Change font... to choose a font for the documentation. A preview is displayed under Font.
7. Click the color preview next to the different color details to choose a color.
8. Under Page Orientation, select the page orientation you want the documentation to use.
9. Click Preview Style... to generate and open a sample file with the colors you have chosen.
10. Click Reset to Defaults to reset the style settings to their defaults
11. Click OK. In the window that appears, choose a file name and location for the documentation and click Save. The default name is the project name followed by "documentation" and a timestamp.

Generating Documentation on a Remote Environment

In addition to the local project, you can also generate documentation for a project on a remote environment in a multiple environments setup. The documentation will contain information on the last deployed version on the environment.

• To generate documentation for a project on a remote environment, right click on the project, click on Multiple Environment Transfer, right click the remote environment and click Project Documentation.

Adding a Description to an Object

You can add an description to most objects in your project. This description can then be included in the documentation you generate. To add a description to an object

• Right click the object and click Description.

Per default, objects with a description have a bolded name in the user interface. However, this can be disabled if you find it distracting. To toggle the display of objects with a description in a bold font

• Click on Highlight descriptions in the View menu.