What is the easiest way to check connectivity between Models

Question

If you create 3 Models, what is the easiest way to check which Dimensions, Metrics from one Model are used in another?

Case: a copy has been made of a working Model and updated. Too many updates have been made and we want to make the copied Model the new Model, but we need to check which Blocks to reconnect. What is the best way to do that? Dependency Diagram in combination with Settings > Libraries? Or is there a quicker way?

Gawain · Accepted Answer

Hi Jan,I just came across your question on the Community. From a product point of view, if you want to understand how the data flows between your applicationsyou can use:The “Library & usage” at block level will let you know where your block is referenced and/or used. It provides a digest information, but it’s a one by one analysis that can be tedious and time consumingThe “Dependancy diagram”: will display one data flux and all it’s dependancies. Very useful to understand and audit a specific calculation, but not necessary the best to have a full view of allyour applicationsdependanciesThe “Library” view in the application settings: my personal favorite way to audit your workspace. You will see in this view all the blocks from other applications in your workspace that are shared and used in this particular application. The limitation here is that you can’t see the usage of the application you are in. To do that you will have to go in the otherapplications of your workspaceandperform the same analysisHowever from a modelling perspective you can also, by applying some best practices when sharing blocks, build a model where you can see more clearly the interactions within your applications. You can read this article about how to use “Library” folder for your shared Metrics. If you apply the best practices presented in this article you will have for each of your applications, a folder with the list of Metrics that are inputs and outputs of this application. With a proper naming convention, you can instantly know what are the inputs your application is using and what are the outputs that are used elsewhere.Hope it make sense and will help you!

Benoit · Answer

Hi Jan,Exploring this with the dependency diagram can be long and fastidious. You can also open a block’s “Library & Usage” settings to know where it’s used. Shared application would be displayed.But again, depending how large is your app, you might have plenty of blocks to share.In the case you’d like to get rid of your source app and keep only your copy, I would say:In your copy, check your Libraries, verify all the shared metrics coming from the source app, if there are, it would be good to recreate them to stop the dependencies.Do the opposite, in your source application, verify there is no connection with your copy.This is the best way to know if your application rely on others. Additionnally you can:Compare the block explorers to spot any additionnal/missing metrics between both applications, note that you can select all items’ text in the block explorer and copy paste it in a document to compare more accurately.ensure your dimensions are either shared by a general hub or in your target copy application.I hope it helps.If you have ideas in mind to better solve this case, please have it shared on our Ideas Portal.Let me know how it goes.Thanks