Friday, December 23, 2016

Another Holiday Season Patch! FDMEE 210

Oh yes, Another Holiday Season Patch! FDMEE 210
 

Oracle, again, so nice, and giving to all of us for this holiday season and heading into the New Year!

This time with,


Patch Set Update for Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management, Enterprise Edition (FDMEE) 11.1.2.4.210 is Available - Patch Number 23041471
 I have to say that now in my recent new role, and being a part of Data Integration, this one is now sparc'ing my interest a little more these days.. my head is a little in the clouds (see what I did there?) :) SPARC, Cloud. If you are not sure, just ask me, and I will tell you all about it!

Well, onto the fun stuff. What is New!?!?

- This is according to the Read Me -
New Features:
  • Text-Based Data Load (All Data Types)
  • Loading Multi-Column Numeric Data
  • Loading Multi-Period in a Single File
  • Hybrid Support for Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud and Fusion GL Cloud Balances
  • Limit Number of Parallel Jobs
  • Executing FDMEE Custom Scripts from a Command Line
  • POV Lock/Unlock Enhancement
  • Support Skip Rows for Delimited Files
  • Using a ~ (Tilde) As a Delimiter
  • Support for Selecting Delimiter for Mapping Export
  • Integrating SAP HANA Based Data Warehouse
So all of those sound exciting. And here is the long list of defects fixed with this patch.. hang on as there are only 59

25191503: An error occurs in the validation step when mappings are missing.
25086656: Support the Skip Row feature for delimited files.
25073281: Uploading the mapping file in merge mode takes 7 hours.
25070982: Locking all (POV) locations, periods and categories is required; documentation shows step as optional.
25058979: The journal description is not loaded correctly in Hyperion Financial Management.
24831061: Intersection Check Report jobs fail.
24790410: Write-back to PeopleSoft Commitment Control fails with an ORA-00904: "GLI"."LOADID": INVALID IDENTIFIER.
24719210: Multi-period loads between EPM sources fail when the archive mode is set to "Move."
24704033: Target application properties are not created for Public Sector Planning.
24696709: Add a method to drill back to EBS using data synchronization.
24660228: The file extension is missing from an Open Source Document in the Data Load Workbench.
24615582: The application takes a long time to export maps to Excel resulting in a time-out error.
24581883: EBS write-back produces multiple lines for a multi-period load.
24581817: Open batch replace load tag in export mode for Essbase does not work.
24507793: The open batch process does not complete before another process starts in serial mode.
24481231: Unable to export data from FDMEE in an Oracle Managed Cloud Service to Planning in an Oracle Public Cloud.
24409145: Unable to save source filters in the data load rule for data synchronization.
24398268: After Batch script executes before batch has completed in parallel mode.
24346113: The name and type of the source system do not show in Chinese.
24334010: Cannot restrict number of batch loads.
23749615: (Mapping) Member Selector screen does refresh properly when dimensions are changed.
23741243: Multi-dimension mapping import removes [ ] (open/closed square brackets) from the dimension value.
23712261: A data synchronization import format error occurs when you add a second source column to the target dimension.
23704903: Batch jobs are deleted when "Maintain Process Tables" job is launched.
23608036: JDE adapter hangs the FDMEE database.
23601294: Data protection does not work correctly when entities have the same string in the entity name.
23570299: Users without access privileges are able to fix mappings.
23570139: Map Monitor reports do not save all changes that are made in a single session.
23569307: Increase length of dimension members to 80 characters when loading data.
23534813: Target member with trailing spaces fails during validation but loads correctly.
23521228: Duplicate data import and export steps occur in an open batch when Archive Mode is enabled.
23332225: Export mode always defaults to “Replace” regardless of the target option setting.
23299982: Unable to unlock periods when selecting the POV.
23244868: FDMEE uses a batch file and not the shell script for the Data Relationship Management (DRM)/FDMEE integration on LINUX.
23236688: Check report fails when a “-1” parameter is used to return the prior year.
23153744: When exporting mappings into Excel, the export works correctly, but no output is written to the Excel file.
23100637: Support Replace by Security with open batch.
23094407: When the Global POV is set to “yes,” users receive an ADF error when executing the data load rule.
23031907: In LifeCycle Management, when the import format has concatenated fields, then the sorted order of the concatenated fields is incorrect in the target environment.
23003251: Users can duplicate explicit data load mappings.
22996594: Data file generated by FDMEE custom application does not have correct order.
22975695: Import from EBS fails with a SQLSYNTAXERROREXCEPTION: INVALID COLUMN NAME 'SEGMENT1' error.
22747940: Check report shows wrong results.
22685686: When concatenating JDE accounts and the sub-account is null, no data is displayed for the source account.
22588695: Import script does not execute the last field when the field is blank.
22219833: Variance reports show zero regardless of the selected time period.
21968085: Unable to change column delimiter in import and export mapping tables.
21928674: Add support for Data View metadata tag (DV) in the Excel Trial Balance.
21910911: The Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) export file shows data for multiple periods in alphabetic order instead of period order.
21746465: Unable to load the date field into FDMEE.
21683139: Need to export string data to Planning application using FDMEE.
21622537: An intermittent failure to show goldfish occurs after the Import, Validate, or Export steps have been executed successfully in the Data Load Workbench.
21611707: In some cases "Recalculate" does not run when the data load rule is executed as scheduled.
20969139: When viewing validation errors in the Data Load Workbench, the full set of errors are not displayed in some cases. 
20892186: Validation errors tab shows one dimension at a time.
20583965: Alternate hierarchies for local dimensions are not marked as shared.
20512084: In multi-dimensional mapping, square brackets are removed for special account values such as [ICP NONE] and [None].
19304596: Add ability to move the source system information in FDMEE using LifeCycle Management.
18550239: The text box for the target value in member mappings does not expand when the column width is increased.
 

Wow, that is fun!

And onto other news, the Known Issues in this patch :(

25264060 -- On the Source Mapping screen in Period Mapping, the Source Application dropdown does not show EPMA applications when the source is EPM.
25261166 -- Process Details shows an incorrect timestamp when running the import task.
25213479 -- In LifeCycle Management, the concatenation character for an import format is imported as "Y" INSTEAD OF "_".
25204666 -- Check Report returns “LookUp Error” for every rule when the amount format is set to European in Hyperion Financial Management. For example, when the decimal separator is a comma (,) and thousands separator is a decimal/point (.).
25205450 -- Removing the timeout period of an open batch rule run in parallel mode causes a null point exception error (NPE).
Workaround: If you need to change the timeout period for an open batch rule run in parallel mode, first change it to serial mode and then save the change.

25176762 -- Data load to hybrid Planning application fails when the load method to the on-premise application is SQL.
Workaround: In a Hybrid deployment, SQL is not a valid load method.

25172218 -- Multi-period load Check Reports fail. When run separately; they are successful.
Workaround: A Check Report runs for a single period whether it passes or fails.  When run for multi-period loads, they all run if they all pass. If one fails, the subsequent check reports do not run.

25165162 -- Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud (FCCS) application artifacts show under the Application\data folder for Planning applications.
24827903 -- FDMEE extracts duplicate values from Planning when the data load is for multiple years.
24697455 -- Adding a global mapping in FDMEE returns an ADF_FACES-60097 error.
24508223 -- Validation Errors screen shows inconsistent results after validating data.
24299055 -- When adding a logic group to a location, user receives an ORA-01790 error.

23717925 -- When importing data using the open interface or the Universal Data Adapter (UDA), the space around member name is not trimmed.
Workaround: Create a view and then trim the column in the view definition.

23565292 -- When target members have trailing white spaces, and the check process is run, it fails because the dimension member from FDMEE uses trailing spaces, and the dimension member in the target application does not.
Workaround: Trim any trailing spaces from the dimension member before performing the check process.

23484375 - Entering multiple calculation scripts in the target application returns a null point exception.
23339351 -- Validate should run on entire data in the POV, and not just for data imported from the current file.
22569856 -- You cannot load metadata from Peoplesoft to Data Relationship Management using the loadmetadata batch script.
22903056 -- Concatenation of Peoplesoft chartfields is not supported when exporting to Data Relationship Management.

21936206 -- Extracting a journal from Hyperion Financial Management for multiple periods fails.
Workaround: Only a single period journal extract is supported.

20320597 -- After write-back, export fails and the Check Report displays an error message.
Workaround: When the Check Rule is assigned to a location before upgrading, then after the write-back, the location is assigned to the check rule incorrectly. This causes the check step to fail.

20320474 -- Write-back fails for a Peoplesoft application using period mappings.

20310919 -- Refresh members for a Financial Management application fail when intercompany partner (ICP) transactions have been enabled.
Workaround: First, run the refresh members feature before enabling ICP transactions for the application. Then, if ICP transactions have been enabled, run refresh members for individual dimensions in Data Load Mapping.

20235842 -- When you specify metadata for Hyperion Financial Management, the currency attribute is not updated in member properties when you deselect the Use System Default feature and enter the currency manually.
20205391 -- Data synchronization and write-back fail when multiple periods are loaded to Hyperion Financial Management and one period has no data.
20013531 -- French and French-Canadian translations of some messages may show missing apostrophes (').

19986647 -- Write-back only recognizes the underscore (_) character as a concatenation operator in segment mapping.
Workaround: Segment operators only work when the separator is an underscore (_). If the separator is not an underscore, then the separator acts like * and brings over the entire field contents.

19769234 -- Error occurs when exporting TDATASEG table to Excel interface.
Workaround: When exporting large tables, use Reports.

19681915 -- Concatenating ledger segment during metadata load fails.
19625362 -- Target option LOVs for write-back do not show filtered values.
19453738 -- Running a Check Report fails for Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management applications.
 


Getting back to the New Features. There are a few that I will be VERY interested in trying out to see how they work. One specifically being the Hybrid support for Fusion GL Cloud Balances!

This is the detail to the feature: Hybrid Support for Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud and Fusion GL Cloud Balances

FDMEE can be used as a primary gateway to integrate data between on-premise and the cloud based Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud (FCCS) and the Fusion GL Cloud Balances applications. This feature allows EPM customers to adapt FCCS and Fusion GL Cloud Balances deployments into their existing EPM portfolio. You might use the integration to import data from existing on-premise ERP applications, or synchronize data between FCCS applications or Fusion GL Cloud Balances and on-premise applications.

One last note, when will there be another update to my little friend Smart View?
Curious what new MAJOR features will be added for the next version?!?!?

A Holiday Season Patch! HFR Web Studio 704

Oracle is so nice and giving for this holiday season and heading into the New Year!

Patches! Patches!

Patch Set Update for Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting 11.1.2.4.704 is Available- Patch 24466619

This is an interesting read for the 'new features' added to the Web Studio to get to parity with the Windows client version and a little note-suggestion to move over to the Web Studio sooner than later.. as Oracle is NOT going to distribute the desktop client planned sometime mid-2017!

New Features in 11.1.2.4.704:Financial Reporting Web Studio enhancements to achieve more parity with the Windows Studio functionality:
  • Conditional formatting and suppression
  • Auto-Calculation
  • Ability to Save Objects
  • Related Content
  • Row/Column templates
 
Removal of Support for Financial Reporting Studio Desktop Client:
Oracle is committed to providing a simple and intuitive experience to the users of the service. To achieve this goal, Financial Reporting Web Studio, a component available since the 11.1.2.4.701 release, will be established as the only tool for designing and building reports. As a result, Financial Reporting Studio desktop client support will be fully transitioned to Financial Reporting Web Studio, tentatively in mid-2017. With a planned mid-2017 update, Financial Reporting Studio desktop client is planned to no longer be distributed.

Starting with the 11.1.2.4.704 release, Financial Reporting Web Studio will achieve functional parity with most of the capabilities provided with Financial Reporting Studio desktop client. You will be able to create new reports and modify existing reports using Financial Reporting Web Studio.

Oracle recommends that you transition to using Financial Reporting Web Studio at the earliest opportunity.


Another word to point out, 'most'. Why most? Why not all? I guess that is why it is being stated as 'functional parity' and not 'full parity' or even 'parity plus lots of other fun stuff that never existed and you always wished was there or thought would be great to add, etc. etc. etc.'

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Selected to Present at KScope17!

I am honored to be selected as a speaker-presenter at KScope17!

KScope will once again be back in San Antonio Texas this year! Yee-Haw!
Last time Kscope was in there was back in 2012 ... wow, has it been that long ago?!?!
 


According to the ODTUG communication, there were more than 1,100 abstracts submitted!



This is my presentation title and can't wait to attend and be a speaker at the conference next year in 2017!!

Presentation Title: Data Train, ALL ABOARD! -- Essbase Drill, OBI & Big Data


Saturday, December 10, 2016

All Base Dimensions are NOT Required in Smart View



You read the blog post title correctly.

Yes, if you didn't know or just were not aware, all of the base dimensions of an Essbase cube are NOT required on the Smart View grid. Let's take a look ..


Sample Basic: Base Dimensions {Attributes}

Application: Sample
Database: Basic
  • Year
  • Measures
  • Product {Caffeinated, Intro Date, Ounces, Pkg Type}
  • Market {Population}
  • Scenario
  • Caffeinated Attribute
  • Ounces Attribute
  • Pkg Type Attribute
  • Population Attribute
  • Intro Date Attribute


Smart View Grid WITH all Base Dimensions:




Smart View Grid WITHOUT all of the Base Dimensions:


Population; Not Market



Ounces; Not Product



ℹKeep in mind that this tip applies to Essbase/Planning when there is/are attribute dimension(s). Otherwise, yes, you do need all of the base dimensions on the Smart View reporting grid to make it a 'valid reporting grid'.






Friday, December 9, 2016

QUERYRESULTLIMIT and its journey to-date

This setting started to appear in version 11.1.2.4.007 and has been making an appearance in a few releases, PSUs, or both for Essbase server and APS, let's take a look

Oracle Essbase - Release 11.1.2.4.000 Patch Set Update (PSU): 11.1.2.4.007
Defects Fixed in this Patch:

21881863 - When running large MDX queries against an Aggregate Storage Database can result in running out of memory. In this case, use this essbase.cfg setting:

Name of setting: QUERYRESULTLIMIT

Syntax: QUERYRESULTLIMIT [appname [dbname]] n

Where n is an integer value specifying the maximum number of query result cells.

See the "QUERYRESULTLIMIT Configuration Setting" topic in the "Documentation Updates in this Patch" section in this Readme.

>>>
Documentation Updates in this Patch

QUERYRESULTLIMIT Configuration Setting

Sets the maximum number of cells returned by an MDX query. This configuration setting applies to block storage, aggregate storage and hybrid aggregation databases.

Syntax

QUERYRESULTLIMIT [appname [dbname]] n
  • appname—Optional. Applies the query result limit to the application specified. If you specify appname, you must also specify a value for n, or Essbase Server ignores QUERYRESULTLIMIT. If you do not specify an application, you cannot specify a database, and the query result limit applies to all applications and databases on the server. If you specify a value for appname and do not specify a value for dbname, the query time limit applies to all databases in the specified application.
  • dbname—Optional. Must be used with appname and n, or the server ignores QUERYRESULTLIMIT. If you specify dbname, appname, and n, the query result limit is applied only to the specified database.
  • n—Integer value of n specifies the number of query result cells that the server allows a query to return. You must specify this parameter or the server ignores QUERYRESULTLIMIT. If you do not specify appname or dbname, the query result limit applies to the entire server.
Description

QUERYRESULTLIMIT specifies the maximum number of result cells that an MDX query can retrieve before Essbase Server terminates that query. You can apply this setting to an entire server, to all the databases in a single application, or to a single database.

If no limit is defined in essbase.cfg, there is no results limit.

When the number of returned cells for a query exceeds the result limit, an error message is returned.

Use QUERYRESULTLIMIT to limit the result volume of MDX queries and prevent a query from freezing when a very large number of result cells are returned.

Examples

QUERYRESULTLIMIT Sample Basic 100000

Sets 100,000 cells as the maximum number of results cells returned in a query to the Basic database for the Sample application.

QUERYRESULTLIMIT 150000

Sets 150,000 cells as the maximum number of cells that a query can return before being terminated. The query result limit applies to all applications and databases on Essbase Server that correspond to the essbase.cfg file containing this setting.

>>>

Oracle Hyperion Provider Services - Release 11.1.2.4.000 Patch Set Update (PSU): 11.1.2.4.008

Defects Fixed in this Patch

22822213 - Provider Services support for Essbase Server update for QUERYRESULTLIMIT configuration setting in the essbase.cfg file.

See the Essbase 11.1.2.3.508_22314799 PSE Readme for more information.

22976584 - Essbase properties service.olap.dataQuery.grid.maxRows and service.olap.dataQuery.grid.maxColumns in the essbase.properties file are deprecated in this release. The results of the grid are now controlled by the QUERYRESULTLIMIT configuration setting in the essbase.cfg file on Essbase Server.

See the "Deprecated Essbase Properties in the essbase.properties File" topic in the "Documentation Updates in this Patch" section in this Readme.

>>>

Documentation Updates in this Patch

Deprecated Essbase Properties in the essbase.properties File

Essbase properties service.olap.dataQuery.grid.maxRows and service.olap.dataQuery.grid.maxColumns in the essbase.properties file are deprecated.

These properties, if defined in essbase.properties, do not have any effect on the grid result.

The results of the grid are controlled by the QUERYRESULTLIMIT configuration setting in the essbase.cfg file on Essbase Server.

With these changes, existing use cases that expect an error for the previous lower row and column limits set in JAPI will not get an error unless the QUERYRESULTLIMIT limit is exceeded.

With these changes, Provider Services JAPI does not apply any limits against a previous version of Essbase. Essbase has to be upgraded to use the QUERYRESULTLIMIT configuration setting.

>>>


Oracle Essbase - Release 11.1.2.4.000 Patch Set Update (PSU): 11.1.2.4.009

Known Issues in this Patch

QUERYRESULTLIMIT configuration setting does not honor all values in this patch.

This version of the QUERYRESULTLIMIT configuration setting documentation replaces the content in the Essbase 11.1.2.4.008 Readme. The default value is 1,000,000 and can be increased to 100,000,000 but no other value will be honored.


Oracle Essbase - Release 11.1.2.4.000 Patch Set Update (PSU): 11.1.2.4.010

Defects Fixed in this Patch:

22953962, 22999617 - QUERYRESULTLIMIT setting has an upper limit of 2^31 and when the limit is set to a greater value it is treated as the value 0.

22863123, 22861985 - When using QUERYRESULTLIMIT setting and pivoting a member from column to row or when you have particular spreadsheet layout while staying within the limit setting can result in a terminated query.


Patch Set Updates for Hyperion Essbase 11.1.2.4.011 – NONE


Patch Set Updates for Hyperion Essbase 11.1.2.4.012 – NONE


Oracle Hyperion Provider Services - Release 11.1.2.4.000 Patch Set Update (PSU): 11.1.2.4.013

Defects Fixed in this Patch:

23666602, 23149351 - Drill Through reports can exceed the limit of the QueryResultLimit Function and an error message is returned:

Error executing report \'EEGL'\'DT_REports'\'EEPL' in the Essbase Studio, message: Runtime error. Line =671.


Patch Set Update for Oracle Hyperion Essbase 11.1.2.4.014 – NONE

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 
AND, with all of that I think that there might be a few other points to note.
  • Default value is 1000000
  • The maximum value of 2^31 is equal to 2147483648 (or 2,147,483,648) that is over 2 billion, why?! Really, WHY?!?! What do you do with that many cells of data in Excel anyway?! Please don't share as I already know the answer, it starts with PI and ends with VOT table, please stop the insanity!
  • QUERYRESULTLIMIT does NOT have an 'unlimited' setting
  • Make sure that your Smart View client is updated to version 11.1.2.5.610 :)
  • 'unpublished bug' - huh?!? BUG 16005347 (MULTIPLE MEMBER SELECTION- ZOOM IN CAUSES "ESSBASE ERROR (1013295)" IN SMARTVIEW [UNPUBLISHED & INTERNAL]) ... but glad to hear it was fixed here with
    • Smart View v11.1.2.5.610, Patch 24711736
 
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

MaxL Grammar Changes

Oh my, it has been a while since my last post .. and feel that there may be more than one in addition to this one.

So recently I was working with a Planning application that SPARC'ed me to write this post ;)

Not sure how many know, but in version 11.1.2.4 there was change made to the MaxL grammar that now allows for the export of data to be made anonymous!

The MaxL export data statement includes grammar you can use to make exported data anonymous, wherein real data is replaced with generated values. This removes the risk of sensitive data disclosure, and can be used in case a model needs to be provided to technical support for reproduction of certain issues.

Here is the 11.1.2.4 Technical reference: link

ASO/BSO keyword:
export database <dbs-name> ... data anonymous

Description: Export data in anonymized format. Anonymization removes the risk of sensitive data disclosure, and can be used in case sample data needs to be provided for technical support. Essbase replaces real data values with 1, for each value in the block.

These are the railroad diagram for each ASO & BSO, and enjoy exporting data for analysis, support, performance testing, etc.



Monday, October 24, 2016

SV ++ Utility update

There is a new update to the SV ++ Utility!! version 8.6.4 now available!

Check out the downloads or SV ++ blog sections

Monday, October 10, 2016

Oracle Smart View for Office 11.1.2.5.610 - Patch Set Update (Patch 24711736)

Oracle Smart View 11.1.2.5.610 GA build is now available!

The download and install from My Oracle Support: download

Or search for patch# 24711736


New Features in this version

New VBA Functions

Several new VBA functions are introduced in this release. At this time, these functions are supported by Essbase only.
  • HypCreateRangeGrid enables users to refresh multiple selected or named ranges of cells in a multiple-grid worksheet. You can also use it to add a grid in the selected range if there is not already a grid in the particular location, thus creating a multiple-grid sheet. If the ranges specified for this function contain more rows or columns than the actual grid has, the additional rows and columns are treated as comments and are thus part of the grid.
  • HypSubmitSelectedRangeWithoutRefresh updates the database with data, as is, from the selected data range; it ignores cells outside the selected range and does not overwrite (or refresh) them. The selected range does not automatically get refreshed after submit; the user must manually refresh the grid to retrieve the updated data. For a successful submit, the user must select a range which constitutes a valid grid.
    This function requires Oracle Hyperion Provider Services release 11.1.2.4.13.
  • HypSubmitSelectedDataCells allows the selected data cells to be submitted. For free-form grids, this VBA function allows selected blank cells to be submitted as #Missing.
These VBA functions are described in detail in the Oracle Smart View for Office Developer's Guide.

Drop-down Member Selection on Row Dimensions in Forms

In forms, Planning administrators and form designers can set up easy-to-use drop-down member selectors on row dimensions. When these drop-down selectors are enabled, the form users can directly select a member from the drop-down list on the row dimension in the form. The drop-down member selector also allows users to add data to member rows that may have otherwise been suppressed.
For the Smart View user, keep in mind the following:
  • There is no visual notification as to which members have drop-downs enabled; you must click a dimension cell and, if a down arrow appears next to the cell, then there is a drop-down list enabled.
  • The drop-down content (list of members) is controlled by the form definition for the corresponding segment.
  • Selections are not retained. The drop-down selection will be lost on refresh. If you perform a Refresh after selecting a member from the drop-down, the selection is lost and the form returns to its original state.
  • The drop-down selection will be lost on saving data. Modifying data cells and saving the Excel worksheet will not retain modified drop-down selections.
To use this feature in Smart View requires configuration in the Form Designer in the Planning web interface. The Planning administrator or form designer specifies the drop-down selectors as segment properties for particular dimensions. For example, suppose there are two dimensions placed on row axes, Entities and Line item; the member selector drop-down may be enabled for the Entity dimension members, for the Line item dimension members, or for both. Configuration is described in Administering Planning for Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud.

Change in Accessing the User Preferences Dialog Box

This release changes the way you access the User Preferences dialog box from the Smart View Panel. Instead of accessing the dialog box from the plan level, you access User Preferences from the application level.
Additionally, you will no longer be prompted to select a plan type. Instead, the preferences you set will apply to all plan types.

Locating New Features Information for Past Releases

  • For Smart View Release 11.1.2.5.600, see the Oracle Smart View for Office New Features available in the Smart View 11.1.2.5.600 library available on the Oracle Help Center.
    https://docs.oracle.com/en/applications/?tab=8
  • For new features relating to Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System installation, architecture, and deployment changes in this release, see “New Features in this Release” in the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Readme.
  • Use the Cumulative Feature Overview tool to review the list of new features added between earlier releases for Smart View and other EPM System products. This tool enables you to identify your current products, your current release version, and your target implementation release version. With a single click, the tool quickly produces a customized set of high-level descriptions of the product features developed between your current and target releases. This tool is available here:
    https://support.oracle.com/oip/faces/secure/km/DocumentDisplay.jspx?id=1092114.1
 

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Smart View Tips & Options

Not to take away anyone's Thunder & Lightning from Oracle Open World this year, I was not in attendance, but it seems from all of the emails, posts, tweets and other social media outlets that, well, there is a push for all things Cloud?!?!

But in other news, for those of you that still need to use Smart View, here are a few tips, options, settings etc. for you to keep in mind to help in your data retrieval journey while you are not cloud surfing.

First, when you install Smart View, this link can be a great tool to read over for both Admins and Users alike: Oracle Smart View for Office Release 11.1.2.5.600 Installation and Configuration Guide

There are a few great sections:
 Let us focus on the Tips and Troubleshooting section!


I hope that the links, tips and options help all users easliy hurdle some of the more common questions that I get from users and also see on many blogs and forums.

In preparation for soon to be submitted KScope 17 abstracts, the deadline is quickly approaching, Oct-14th!, I hope that you are able to Wrangle some more data via Smart View .. or in my case, maybe not Smart View, stay tuned!

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Information Regarding NEW Smart View Installs (Doc ID 2174747.1)



posted by Oracle yesterday, Sep-06-2016

Information Regarding NEW Smart View Installs: New Installs Displays Certificate Message: "Warning: The digital signature on the application add-in is invalid and cannot be trusted. Application add-in is disabled.The following new My Oracle Support Knowledge Article is available:


Doc ID 2174747.1

per the document:

Applies to:

  • Hyperion Essbase - Version 11.1.2.4.000 and later
  • Hyperion Planning - Version 11.1.2.4.000 and later
  • Hyperion Financial Management - Version 11.1.2.4.000 and later
  • Generic Windows
  • This issue applies to all versions of Smart View

Symptoms

After installing Smart View and opening Excel, a Microsoft Office Security Options window opens with:

"Warning: The digital signature on the application add-in is invalid and cannot be trusted. Application add-in is disabled."

This affects all new installations of Smart View. Existing installations are not impacted.


Changes

New installation of Smart View.


Cause

The certificate for the "Digital Signature" for the HsTbar.xla has expired. This is used for Spreading and VBA's.


Solution

To workaround the certificate warning:


  1. Install Smart View ("Run as Administrator"). Do not launch Excel prior to performing the next step. 
  2. Rename the HsTBar.xla file to HsTBar.xla_badcert.  This file is located in the \SmartView\bin folder. 
  3. Launch Smart View.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Not Just Any Essbase Studio Drill-Through!

It has been a long time coming to finally enable Essbase Drill-Through reports!

But not just any Essbase Drill-Through reports. These are reports against an OBIEE Subject Area. And again, not just any ole' Subject Area. The Subject Area is a Pivotal Greenplum data source!

For the last plus year, I have been wanting to enable Drill-Through reports using Essbase Studio (build Essbase ASO cube model(s) plus create reports). The main and only reason that I was interested in using Studio for the cube build and deploy was for the ability to provide Drill-Through reports using the SQL-type reports!

Why? If you are not familiar, SQL-type Drill-Through reports run the SQL and 'spawn' a new worksheet of the SQL results in that worksheet in the current workbook! Truly an amazing, brilliant and mind blowing feature!


If you are not familiar to what the drill-through report feature is, a brief explanation is this... Once you create your cube (model) in Essbase Studio, hierarchies, dimensions, Alias, etc. and finally cube deployment, you can also create Drill-Through reports.

 













In creating reports, there are 3-options (types) in the Essbase Studio client:

 



1 - Relational-type (SQL)
2 - URL-type
3 - Java Method-type

I am going to go over the URL-type and only mention that I have not been able to wrangle up any viable examples and/or documentation on how/why/where/who of the 3rd, Java-type is being used or is in use.

URL-type drill through reports. These are pretty much as you would think. When creating the report, you define the grid (POV) context for the report.

In the screen captures (below), I am passing 2 contexts;
for Time (Period & Year).



















This is pretty straight forward.

In short, you are defining the intersections to be enabled by Smart View for drill-through. The intersections can be defined by either Levels or Generations in the cube model.

You can either click the 'Add' button or simply drag and drop the desired hierarchy from Metadata Navigator into the 'Intersections' window.


 









The "Advanced Settings..." is where you can, in addition, define the hierarchy Generation or Level for each dimension context.
In this case, both hierarchies are set at Level-0. 


You then go to the next tab, 'Report Contents', select the URL-type radio button.




















In this example, I am using the Sample URL Template (Google search). This is actually a good way to validate that the drill report contexts are getting passed properly to the report being executed.

You can see from the syntax, created for you, that the 2 contexts on the previous tab where placed directly into the URL drill path as needed plus in the proper syntax format just the same.


The context, as stated in the Essbase Studio guide is as follows:
$$Period-VALUE$$
$$Year-VALUE$$

By using this, the drill-through report will run against these members from your Smart View reporting grid (POV) and the specific intersection of data that is being called on for the drill-though report.

Now, the last and final step, is to associate the drill-through report to the desired cube (model).




















Simply make sure that the checkbox is checked for the cube or cubes that make sense to enable the desired drill-through report.

Click 'Save'.



Now, that might still leave you without seeing your drill-through report in Smart View! Don't get frustrated. I will try and save you the time, as I was able to breakthrough and find this workaround that worked for me.

The workaround:
## Note you do NOT have to re-deploy the entire cube ##
Only for the hierachy(s) that you have used as a context.

You can use the Cube Deployment Wizard to do a partial cube build. While retaining all of the data already loaded.

 














From the Metadata Navigation window, Expand the Cube Schema and Right click on the Essbase Model.

You should now see a menu list.
Select "Cube Deployment Wizard"

Make the selections accordingly:

Server, Application, Database

Click Next
 


Build outline
Check the box "Incremental load"




Click Next














This is important assuming that you don't want to rebuild the entire cube and redeploy again.

Make sure to select the radio button:

"Update or rebuild selected hierarchies"

Choose the dimensions that are associated contexts in which the drill through report(s) were created.

Make sure if you want to retain any data already loaded in the cube that you 'Preserve: All Existing Data'. Update or Rebuild, click-one of the buttons; your choice.

Click 'Finish'



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Going back and a little bit of background on the setup.
  1. The Subject Area was created first (Pivotal Greenplum)
  2. The report/analysis was created in OBIEE to be able to launch the Drill-Through report as either 1-SQL or 2-URL based report but also passing the proper context(s) from Smart View
  3. The Essbase cube (model) was built & deployed, verified, validated, etc.
  4. Then create the drill-through reports in Essbase Studio were created
  5. Workaround: Redeploy hierarchy-dimensions as needed to 'enable' reports in context