Chapter 2 [ 45 ] Click OK. Hurray! you have now created your rst Essbase application. Now that you have created your Essbase application, let us take a quick look into the Essbase application properties. Essbase Application Properties As the name suggests, Application Properties will allow you to set the properties for an application. You can update the name of your application, set the start up options, and also set the initial security levels. These properties can only be changed using the EAS by any user who at least has an access level of Application Designer to the application being updated and by automated scripts like Essbase command scripts or Essbase MaxL scripts. These scripts are explained completely later in this book. There are two ways to get to the Application Properties: 1. Click on the name of the application to select it, then click on the Action menu on the EAS menu bar. Now, click on the Edit Properties for "Esscar". 2. Click on the name of the application to select it and right-click over the application name. Here, you will also see Edit Properties for "Esscar" as one of your choices. 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 Essbase Data and Design Considerations [ 46 ] Startup section This property is used to tell Essbase how to automatically start the application. There are two ways you can start an Essbase application: • Allow users to start application • Start application when Essbase Server starts By default, Allow users to start application is selected and we advise you to leave it as it is. Only select the second option when it is absolutely necessary for the Essbase server to start your application. As you have previously learned, if an inactive application is started it will unnecessarily consume system memory. One of the only times it may be necessary to have an application start (when the Essbase server is started) is if you have an automated batch process which starts immediately following a server restart. This might be performed during routine server maintenance or housekeeping. Security There are several different types of security commands. They are listed as follows: • Allow commands: If checked, this allows users to run commands on the database in the application. This option is selected by default. • Allow connects: If checked, this allows all users with proper access to connect to the application. When unchecked, only the Application Designer, or higher users, are allowed to connect to the database. This option is selected by default. • Allow updates: If checked, this allows the users with appropriate access to update the data in the databases. This option is selected by default. • Enable security: If this option is unchecked, then Essbase ignores all of the security settings and gives Application Designer access to all of the users. This option is selected by default and we recommend you keep it that way. Minimum access level This setting sets the minimum access level for all databases within an application, and grants this access level to all valid IDs created on the server. The setting can be overridden at the database level, but it's really a good idea to leave it set to none at the application level. This property will be discussed further, in detail, in the database properties section of this chapter. 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 Chapter 2 [ 47 ] Types of Essbase databases Essbase offers two types of databases that can be created. The rst and most important choice is the normal or standard database. This database will be used in 100 percent of the applications you build in Essbase. The normal (non-currency) database The normal non-currency database is the cube you have heard so much about. All data dimensions and members are dened in the outline of this cube. The normal Essbase database is widely used for most data analysis where conversion of currency values is not required. In our Esscar Motor Company example, we could track and forecast vehicle production, sales volumes, trends, stocks, and all quite nicely with a simple to use non-currency database. Essbase currency database The currency conversion database is a great tool for analyzing data across international markets, which employ differing currencies. The currency conversion database stores the currency conversion values for each individual country. When currency data is requested by the user in his local currency, the normal cube will dynamically access the currency cube and convert the data on the y. The symbiotic currency cube can be conceptually thought of as the currency dimension of the primary normal cube. Database components Let's now go through some of the most important components in every database. • The database outline • Linked Reporting Objects • Partitions • Calculation scripts • Report scripts • Rules les 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 Essbase Data and Design Considerations [ 48 ] The database outline The database outline denes the structure of the multi-dimensional database, including its hierarchies, member formulas, and child to parent consolidations (data rollups). Once a database is created, an Essbase outline is also created with the same name. This le is saved on the Essbase server with the .otl extension. In the next chapter, we talk in-depth about the Essbase outline. Linked Reporting Objects Using the Linked Reporting Objects (LRO), you can attach an object to a cell. For instance, you could have a owchart attached to a specic value in a cell alerting the user when the value was requested. This object can be any of the following items: • Cell note • An externally created le like Microsoft Word, an image, or another Microsoft Excel le • URL • Another Essbase database Partitions Simply put, a partition is a slice of information from one database that is shared with another database. There are three options for partitioning data in Essbase. • Transparent partition: Allows the users to access data from the source database as though it were stored in the target database. The source can be another database in another application or even on another Essbase server. • Replicated partition: Is a copy of a slice of data from the source database that is stored in the target database. • Linked partition: A linked partition points users from a cell in one database to a cell in another database. A linked partition can give users a different perspective of the data. We will talk more about Essbase partitions in Chapter 8. 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 Chapter 2 [ 49 ] Unless otherwise specied by you, the user, all Essbase le objects, including calculation scripts, report scripts, data load rules les, database index and page les, and database control les are stored on the Essbase analytic server using the server's own operating system's resident le system and are located in the default %Arborpath%/App/Database path. When you install Oracle Essbase on your server and your client, the installation also creates new environment variables on your machines. The ARBORPATH environment variable is basically the path name all the way down to the Essbase folder itself. In the following screenshot, you can clearly see how the Essbase folder structure is laid out: Calculation scripts Essbase calculation scripts (Essbase le objects with the .csc extension) contain specic calculation instructions, written by you, that Essbase will use to perform specic calculations on the data. Essbase calculation scripts are actually ordinary ASCII text les which can be edited in a simple text editor, like Notepad, or which can be edited using the calculation script editor in the EAS. Essbase database calculation scripts are discussed in full detail in Chapter 4. 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 . have now created your rst Essbase application. Now that you have created your Essbase application, let us take a quick look into the Essbase application properties. Essbase Application Properties As. Corcorran on 5th July 20 09 8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 794 23 Download at Boykma.Com Essbase Data and Design Considerations [ 46 ] Startup section This property is used to tell Essbase how to automatically. the sole use by Paul Corcorran on 5th July 20 09 8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 794 23 Download at Boykma.Com Chapter 2 [ 47 ] Types of Essbase databases Essbase offers two types of databases that can