Chapter 3 [ 85 ] 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 8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 79423 Download at Boykma.Com Building the Essbase Outline [ 86 ] 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 specically 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 Download at Boykma.Com Chapter 3 [ 87 ] 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 congured 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 Download at Boykma.Com Chapter 3 [ 89 ] 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 dened 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 . 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 20 09 8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 794 23 Download. 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. 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