Oracle Essbase 9 Implementation Guide- P29 pdf

Without the time or expense of writing complicated interfacing programs, Essbase allows you to create a data load rule that automatically connects directly to an external relational data

Relational databases

We have saved the best for last! Without the time or expense of writing complicated interfacing programs, Essbase allows you to create a data load rule that automatically connects directly to an external relational database such as, Teradata or SQL Server, just to name a few Using a load rule with connection information specified, you

actually write an SQL query using the source database's own Structured Query

Language (SQL) commands You can use this data source to build the outline itself

or to load the data values

By now, you should be telling yourself just how cool you think Essbase is and what did you ever do before you learned about it

Data load methods

We have discussed the types of data you can load into your Essbase database

We have also discussed how these types of data can be loaded as just the data

values themselves, or that they can be used to build your Essbase database outline

by dynamically adding dimension members and then loading the data values

Here, we will discuss some of the various methods you can use to load data into

your Essbase database

Data file freeform (no load rule)

This method is quite possibly the most worry free and easy way to load data into an Essbase database When you have a properly formatted (Essbase-friendly) data file, all you need to do is drag-and-drop the file onto the EssCmd/MaxL executable files

or their desktop shortcuts Essbase will automatically determine what delimiter you are using and correctly load the data

Here are just a few words of caution on using this data load method The reason it is

so easy at the load step is because the harder work has already been done at the front

of this process to create an Essbase-friendly data source If you were to create such a program, it would need to construct your data source file in such a way as to match the structure of the database outline Each field, in every row of data in the file,

would need to contain a representative member from every dimension in the Essbase database outline The data in the file would also need to be ordered in the same order

as the members in the outline from top to bottom

of the desired data from the database.

Upon selecting the Export… option, you will be presented with a small Export

Database screen (seen in the next screenshot) On this screen, you have options

on how you want to export your data from the database There are many reasons

why you will need to export data from your Essbase database (backup, send

downstream) However, in this case, the data is exported so that you can import

the data into another database or even into the same database at a later date

Because of this reason, you will do the following:

1 Give a name to your export file including an extension When loading the

data, Essbase will only look for a file with a txt extension, so it is always

best to add it now Also, when exporting your data, Essbase will only

build files upto 2GB each If your database is larger than 2GB, Essbase will

automatically create new files with the name you have chosen and append

the number of the file to each one, for example, EssCar01.txt, EssCar02

txt, EssCar03.txt, and so on Finally, very important, remember that

Essbase object names must be upto 8 characters This means your file name

in this example must be upto 6 characters before Essbase appends the

number to it

2 Next, your export options are self explanatory Select the level of the data

you wish to export If you are exporting the data for a complete restore,

then obviously you will select the All data option.

3 Finally, the Export in column format option is very important If you

select this option, Essbase will export the data in a format compatible

with spreadsheet applications using field delimiters If you do not select

this option, Essbase will export your data into a format that it will easily

recognize and will be able to load back into the database without a rules

file The Export in column format is not supported in ASO cubes.

3 To load your newly exported data files, simply select the Data files radio

button, then select the Load data and Interactive checkboxes.

4 Next, click on the Find Data File button which will open a file selection

dialog box (seen in the following screenshot) Along the top, you will see

tabs that allow you to choose from locating your file in the server file system

or the analytic server file system The data files can be on your local machine

or on the Essbase server If your file is on the server and it is stored in the

Application|Database path, you should see this file in the Essbase Server

tab If the file is on your local PC, you need to click on the File System

tab and search for the data file Even if your data files are loaded onto the

Analytic server (Essbase server), it is best to use the File System tab and

select your data files through the operating systems file system

5 Once you have located and selected your file(s), you can click OK to return

to the previous screen

If you hold down the Ctrl key, you can select

multiple data files in one operation

6 In this case, we are not using a rules file, so there is no need to select the

Use rules checkbox If you were to use a rules file (and this is a great method

to manually test load rules files), you would check the Use rules checkbox

This in turn would allow you to click on the Find Rules File button, which

will open another file selection dialog box exactly like the one for data files

including the same choices and actions You can add one or more data files

at the same time Simply click on the Insert button to add another row like

the one shown here: