Can an extension object have JUST dimensions?

[#1]

I am making an extension object and for some reason I don't get any data unless I add a measurement in my definition.xml. Here is my file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ExtensionObject Label="NarrativeInput" description="Narrative Input" PageHeight="100000">
  <Dimension Label="Element ID" Initial="ElemID" TargetName="Element ID"/>
  <Dimension Label="Element Name" Initial="WbsNumDesc" TargetName="Element Name"/>
  <Dimension Label="Period ID" Initial="PeriodID" TargetName="Period ID"/>
  <Measurement Label="Expression - Set as sum(1)" Initial="sum(1)"/>
  <Text Label="WSWebSvc Url" Type="Text" Expression="" Initial="vWSWebSvcURL"/>
  <Initiate Name="Caption.Font.Italic" Value="1"/>
  <Initiate Name="Caption.Text" value="Narrative Input"/>
</ExtensionObject>

This gets me 13 rows of data (what I expect. But when I delete the Measurement from my file I always get 0 rows.

I would expect the deletion of the measurement to have no effect. Isn't it just a dummy column? 

[Brian_Munz]

Yes, extensions are basically straight tables so they require a measure.  There's been times where I add a measure and just set it to "=1" or something like that to get the data.

[#3]

Ok, so the answer is no, they can't have JUST dimensions, they require a measure?

Why is that? I mean I can run an SQL statement and just get back a straight table of results, I don't need to add a dummy column, so why do I need to add one for a table in QlikView to work?

I just ask because these extensions will be going out to clients and I want to know how to answer the inevitable question of what the dummy measurement is there for.

[Brian_Munz]

Yes, that's right.

In terms of WHY it is this way, I'm not sure.

[Brian_Munz]

I think there's a way you could set this measure without the user seeing that you're doing so.  So they'd only see the dimension.  Let me check into this, I've seen it before.

[#6]

That would be awesome. Thanks.

[Brian_Munz]

Stefan Walther I feel like you've done this before where you hide the measure.  Am I wrong?

[Stefan_Walther · Accepted solution]

Hi,

no, you need the measure, but what you can do is to modify the .qvpp file then the user will not see that a measure is required.

Regards

Stefan

[#9]

Awesome! That's just the answer I'm looking for.

Now why don't you two help crack my last remaining issue? http://community.qlik.com/message/601281