Locking and Unlocking Elements in PAW

I have recently run into an instance at a client where they had inadvertently and accidently locked a specific element of a dimension causing access to be blocked for this element (a version dimension) for all users across the server - in this case there were many version specific inputs blocked for a Forecast element disrupting business. After doing some research I found this helpful IBM article on identifying and then addressing said locking issue.

https://community.ibm.com/community/user/businessanalytics/blogs/wim-gielis/2023/10/01/locking-functionality-guide

The concerning part of this article references the limited functionality for the Element specific locking mechanisms - specifically when you consider the deprecation of the Rich-Tier for users in the future. It states - there is NO functionality in PAW to remedy this, and via TI Process - it leverages an undocumented function, that is not recognized by PAW but still runs. The only realistic option at the time is to go into Architect and remove the lock via Subset Editor.

Coming back to the Rich Tier deprecation - this should be a high priority item to be included in the PAW UI by the time of deprecation if it is not already (this article was written at the end of 2023), and if has been included in recent releases, should be better documented as it took me many hours to find the right solution and article. Without this functionality, clients would not be able to fix this issue themselves without doing extensive article research and reading to find this.

Below is the specific Element section I am referencing.

Locking/unlocking an element in a hierarchy of a dimension ( this locks/unlocks all cubes that use this dimension, on the specified element )

No data changes are possible on this element

also, attributes for a locked element cannot be set or changed

Our options include:

- in Turbo Integrator:

* DimensionElementSetLockStatus( <vDim>, <vElement>, <1=lock|0=unlock> ); (this appears to be an undocumented function, it is not recognized in PAW but the process saves and runs)

* When a chore runs this process, the username in the }CubeProperties cube becomes 'Admin'

* CubeLockOverride( 1 );

CellPutS( <vUser (TM1User() typically) to lock|'' to unlock>, '}ElementProperties_<vDim>', vElement, 'LOCK' );

CubeLockOverride( 0 );

- manually, in PAW:

* currently this is not possible (September 2023, probably implemented by the end of 2023)

* editing the cell in the }ElementProperties cube has never worked

- manually, in Architect/Perspectives:

* right-click an element in the Subset Editor > Security > Lock (if it is currently unlocked) / Unlock (if it is currently locked)

* editing the cell in the }ElementProperties cube has never worked

- in the TM1 REST API:

* Not possible with a POST query towards Dimensions('<vDim>')/Hierarchies('<vHier>')/Elements('<vElement>') and then tm1.Lock|tm1.Unlock

* Possible via:

to lock:

POST /api/v1/Cubes('}ElementProperties_vDim')/tm1.Update

{"Cells": [{"Tuple@odata.bind": ["Dimensions('}ElementProperties')/Hierarchies('}ElementProperties')/Elements('LOCK')",

"Dimensions('vDim')/Hierarchies('vDim')/Elements('vElement')"]}],"Value":"Admin"}

to unlock:

POST /api/v1/ExecuteMDX?$expand=Cells,Axes($expand=Tuples($expand=Members))

{"MDX":"SELECT {[}ElementProperties].[}ElementProperties].[LOCK]} ON 0, {[vDim].[vDim].[vElement]} ON 1 FROM [}ElementProperties_vDim]"}

DELETE /api/v1/Cellsets('...')