Oracle Essbase 9 Implementation Guide- P21 docx

Chapter 3
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The steps on how to add an alias name to the outline member TOTAL NET REVENUE
properties are explained as follows:
1. From EAS, open the Esscar database outline.
2. Drill down to the member name GROSS REVENUE.
3. Right-click on the member name and click on Edit Properties, or click
the button Edit Properties for the selected member in the outline editor.
4. Under Aliases, default alias table, add the code TOTREV as shown in
the screenshot below.
5. Click OK.
6. That's it! You have just added an alias to the GROSS REVENUE member.
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Paul Corcorran on 5th July 2009
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Building the Essbase Outline
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Alias table
Another use of an outline alias table is as a cross-reference table when interfacing
with other systems. Experience has shown that even within the same company,
but in different departmental activities, it is not uncommon for a different system
to use a different name or code for the same model, unit, or part. Just like having a
conversion or cross-reference table in a relational database, you can add a new alias
table to your database outline any time.
A new alias table can contain the product names or codes as they are represented
in another system, yet they are aligned to the correct members in your system. For
example, if your system is part of the marketing activity and you receive data from
the nance activity (who by the way calls everything by a different name than you
do), you can execute a data load that specically calls for and uses the Finance alias
table you have specially created to handle the differences in product names.
Build your rst data rules le

Before we start building a data rules le, let us talk about the purpose of the
Essbase data rules le.
The Essbase data rules le is one of the smartest features available to you as an
Essbase database programmer! Whether you are using data with a rules le to
dynamically add members to your outline (dimension build setting), or loading
data into the database (data load setting), the Essbase data rules le can prove to
be an invaluable tool.
Data rule les can be used to maintain your Essbase database outline or load data
into your Essbase database. In this section, we will talk about using the data rules
le to update the Essbase dimensions. In the next chapter, we will talk about how
to use the data rules le to load data into your database or cube.
You can run your data load or dimension build data rules le with accompanying
data manually from the EAS tool or you can run it by executing an Essbase
Command or Essbase MaxL script.
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Paul Corcorran on 5th July 2009
8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 79423
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Chapter 3
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What are we talking about? Why use an Essbase data load rules le? Because we
want to make input data Essbase-friendly, of course. Here are some the reasons
why we use data rule les:
• Automatically cleanse the input data to lter out any errant values
• Remove the header and trailer from the input les
• Reject invalid data records
• Concatenate two elds into one eld
• Dynamically add new members to the database outline
• Add aliases or update other member properties
• Transform or manipulate data
• Concatenate two elds or any other cleansing operations

• And many more
Data load rules les are something very special as you can see. You can practically
build a complete Essbase database outline from scratch using nothing more than
a properly congured data load rules le and your input data.
Next, we take you through the steps required to create a Dimension Build data
rules le.
Step 1: Start the Data Prep Editor
The Data Prep Editor is the tool with which you will create your custom Essbase
data load rules les. The tool is built right in to the already amazing Essbase
Administration Services tool.
1. In EAS, click on the File menu pick.
2. Select Editors and click on the Data Prep Editor or Click on New, on the
New dialog go to the Scripts tab and select Rules File and click on OK.
3. The Data Prep Editor will open as shown in the following gure.
4. The moment the Data Prep Editor is opened, the menu items in the EAS
will change.
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Paul Corcorran on 5th July 2009
8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 79423
Download at Boykma.Com
Building the Essbase Outline
[ 88 ]
Step 2: Associate the Dimension Build
Rules le
In order for you to successfully validate the rules le, you need to associate the
rules to the database outline. This association of the rules le to the outline is saved,
however, Essbase will ask you to associate the rules le again when you open this
rules le the next time.
To associate an outline, open the Data Prep Editor again using EAS.
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Paul Corcorran on 5th July 2009
8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 79423

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Chapter 3
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Click on Options and click on Associate outline or click on the Associate button in
the Data Prep Editor.
Step 3: Open data load le or the SQL data
source le
To update the database outline using the rules le, we need to have a data source
le. To build a rules le, we need to acquire an exact representative sample of the
actual data in order to map the data to our Essbase database outline.
The data sources can be les like text (
.txt) les, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets,
or from relational database sources using a SQL query dened in the load rule.
To open a data source le or SQL data source in EAS, with the Data Prep Editor open.
After you've clicked on File, you should see the options Open data le or Open SQL
shown as follows:
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by Paul Corcorran on 5th July 2009
8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 79423
Download at Boykma.Com