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PlaidCloud

TM1 Connector

Connect PlaidCloud to an IBM TM1 / Planning Analytics server over its published OData v4 REST API — no JVM bridge, no PAOlap driver. Read cube data with TM1: Query Cube or a TM1 dimension hierarchy with TM1: Read Dimension, both cloud-direct; for a TM1 server only reachable from inside your own network, TM1: Query Cube (Agent) dispatches the same read through an installed PlaidLink agent instead.

The connection kind appears in the connection picker as IBM Planning Analytics (TM1).

How Authentication Works

Section titled “How Authentication Works”

Two authentication modes, matching TM1’s own REST login schemes:

  • Native — HTTP Basic authentication with a TM1 username and password.
  • CAM — IBM Cognos Access Manager single sign-on, scoped to a namespace. The request carries an Authorization: CAMNamespace header built from the username, password, and namespace together, distinct from plain Basic.

There is no PlanningAnalytics-as-a-Service (PAaaS) bearer-token login yet — only the two REST login schemes above.

Configuration

Section titled “Configuration”
Field Required Description
Name Yes Display name for this connection.
Host Yes The TM1 REST API host, e.g. https://tm1-prod.example.com:8010 or a PAaaS URL.
Default Database No A convenience prefill for a TM1: Query Cube step’s Database field. Each step can override it.
Authentication Mode Yes Native (TM1 user/password) or CAM (Cognos Access Manager SSO). Defaults to Native.
Username Yes The TM1 account to authenticate with.
Password Yes Stored encrypted.
CAM Namespace Only with CAM The Cognos Access Manager namespace to authenticate against. Unused in Native mode.
Verify SSL Certificate No On by default. Turn off only for a known self-signed certificate on a test server.
Timeout (seconds) No Defaults to 30.

Testing the Connection

Section titled “Testing the Connection”

Test Connection probes the server’s Configuration singleton (GET {host}/api/v1/Configuration) — the cheapest authenticated call TM1 exposes, and one that needs no database or cube context. A successful test reports the server’s ProductVersion, confirming both that the host is reachable and that the credentials authenticate.

Read-Only

Section titled “Read-Only”

This connector is read-only. It reads cube data and dimension hierarchies out of TM1; it does not write, post, or run TI processes back into TM1.

What You Can Do With the Connection

Section titled “What You Can Do With the Connection”
  • Read cube data by saved view or MDX. The TM1: Query Cube step runs a named cube view or a raw MDX query, applies an optional point-of-view slice, and lands the result as a table.
  • Load a TM1 hierarchy as a PlaidCloud dimension. The TM1: Read Dimension step reads a dimension’s elements, parent/child edges, and attributes, and builds a PlaidCloud dimension from them.
  • Slice by period for an incremental extract. TM1 has no built-in change tracking, so a workflow that only needs new data narrows the query by period or version — see the step reference for the pattern.
  • Discover cubes, views, and dimensions live, cloud-direct. The step form’s Cube, View, and Dimension pickers query the connected server directly, so you pick real names instead of typing them blind.
  • Read a TM1 server the cloud cannot reach, through an on-premises agent. See Reading TM1 Behind a Firewall below.

Reading TM1 Behind a Firewall

Section titled “Reading TM1 Behind a Firewall”

A TM1 server that is only reachable from inside your own network — no public endpoint, no allowlisted IP, no VPN into PlaidCloud — is reached through an installed PlaidLink agent instead of cloud-direct. The TM1: Query Cube (Agent) workflow step runs the same view/MDX/point-of-view query as TM1: Query Cube, but dispatches it to the agent, which reaches TM1 on your network and returns the result.

This path requires:

  • An installed PlaidLink agent on a machine with network access to the TM1 server. See Install PlaidLink.
  • A build of that agent that includes the TM1 handler. PlaidCloud checks an agent’s advertised capabilities before dispatching a query to it, so an older agent build cannot serve TM1 requests until it’s rebuilt and reinstalled — PlaidLink does not auto-update. See Upgrade PlaidLink.
  • This TM1 connection shared with that agent, in addition to whatever member/group access it already has, from the connection’s Actions > Agents list. See Security Model.

TM1: Query Cube (Agent) has no live discovery — an agent is only reachable during a run, not while the step’s form is open — so cube, view, and MDX are typed by hand and validated when the step runs. TM1: Read Dimension is cloud-direct only; it has no on-premises path yet.

Known Limitations

Section titled “Known Limitations”
Limitation What it means
Read-only No write-back, no TI process execution.
On-prem reach is query-only The on-premises PlaidLink agent path covers cube reads (TM1: Query Cube (Agent)). TM1: Read Dimension has no on-premises path yet — it needs a network path PlaidCloud can reach directly.
Dimension read is single-hierarchy, single-parent A TM1 hierarchy with an element under more than one parent cannot be loaded as a PlaidCloud dimension, and a consolidation weight’s magnitude (0.5, 2.0) is not representable — only its sign. See TM1: Read Dimension.
No PAaaS bearer auth Only Native (Basic) and CAM authentication are supported.
Section titled “Related”