Time Hierarchies Do Not Show on X Axis and Category Axis for External Data Tables

Time Hierarchies Do Not Show on X Axis and Category Axis for External Data Tables

When your data table is kept external (in an SQL database), and when you try to add TIME columns on the X Axis or Category Axis of a visualization, you will find that time hierarchies are not available for such columns. See the screenshot below for an example.
This behavior is by design. The only possible workaround to have a slider on the X Axis or Category Axis would be to manually create the hierarchy first from Insert > Hierarchy, and then select that new Hierarchy on your X Axis or Category Axis

The custom expression for a column with time hierarchy slider is something like below. Since "BinByDateTime" is not a supported function in SQL, manually typing in the same custom expression for an external data table will not work:

BinByDateTime([DATE_JOINED],"Year.Quarter.Month",1)

If a slider is not required, you can also use a custom expression like: 

<Year([DATE_JOINED]) NEST Month([DATE_JOINED])>

• https://docs.tibco.com/pub/sfire-analyst/7.11.0/doc/html/en-US/TIB_sfire-analyst_UsersGuide/data/data_working_with_in-database_data.htm