Using your Essbase Cube [ 220 ] The Essbase Report Script Just like other Essbase le objects, Essbase database report scripts are actually ASCII text le objects with an extension of .rep. As with other similar Essbase le objects, they must also follow the same naming convention of upto 8 characters, and the directory path must not contain any spaces. An Essbase report script may be stored anywhere in the le system, but is considered to be in its default location when saved into the database folder on the analytic server, much the same as a database calculation script. The benet of storing the report script le objects in their default location comes when you are coding an API or EssCmd function, you only need to mention the name of the report script and not the fully qualied path to that particular object. Okay, so what exactly is an Essbase report script? Well, an Essbase report script is an ASCII text le that contains commands or instructions for data retrieval, formatting, and output that Essbase uses to extract data from an Essbase cube into either a formatted report or an ASCII text at le that can be sent to downstream systems as a data feed. While report scripts are certainly capable of creating reports, hence the name, an Essbase report script is more than likely used to extract data into at les. Most Essbase users seem to prefer reports created in Microsoft Excel as opposed to free standing plain paper reports. Although most report scripts are created to extract data from a database for export to other systems, a properly written Essbase report script can be pasted into a blank Microsoft Excel worksheet and then retrieved. Essbase will interpret the commands and dump the data into the worksheet. 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 6 [ 221 ] How to create an Essbase Report Script There are three ways to create an Essbase report script. Because a report script is really an ASCII text le with a .rep extension, the rst way to create one would be to open a new text le in any text editor and begin typing the report script commands. We really do not recommend this method as you would have to be highly skilled in the Essbase report script area. A text editor like Notepad that is included with Windows, is best suited for editing an already existing report script. To access a complete listing of all available Report Writer commands, get to your EAS screen and click Help | Information Map | Technical Reference | Report Writer Commands. Here you will nd an overview as well as each report writer command function explained with coding examples. This information is included with your EAS installation. The second way to create an Essbase report script is to use the Essbase report script editor supplied with the EAS. The report script editor can be accessed in much the same way as accessing the calculation script editor. You should know this drill by now. In EAS, drill-down to the database for which you wish to create an Essbase report script. Double-click on the database name to expand the selections and right-click on the report scripts heading. The set of options displayed will offer you the choice of editing an existing report script or creating a new one. Selecting either choice will open the Essbase report script editor. 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 Using your Essbase Cube [ 222 ] The use of the built-in Report Script Editor is exactly like the Calculation Script Editor described in detail in Chapter 5. As shown in the following screenshot, the Report Script Editor window is divided into three basic sections: Just like the Calculation Script Editor, the upper left section of the Report Script Editor contains a smaller version of the outline editor. This section allows you to drill-down to desired members. When you click on a desired member in the outline representation, the member name will automatically be pasted into the script editor where you have the cursor placed. This reduces typing effort and also the potential for typographical errors in your script caused by misspelled command or function names. The lower left section of the editor contains a listing of all of the report script commands and functions. Just like the Calculation script editor, when you click a desired command or function, it is pasted into your script at the position of the cursor. Finally, the third and best method of creating an Essbase report script is to use the Essbase Query Designer function contained in the Essbase Add-in for Microsoft Excel. 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 6 [ 223 ] We actually recommend this as the primary method of report script creation while keeping the other two methods for editing existing scripts. We will discuss the Essbase Query Designer in-depth in the next chapter. So, for now, we will go over just briey why we like this method. For starters, the Essbase Query Designer allows you to visually select database outline members you wish to include in your report or extract. It also allows you to decide the placement of the column members and the row members. While the resultant query is designed to be used with a Microsoft Excel worksheet, when you save the query, you also have the option of having Query Designer create an Essbase report script from the parameters and selection criteria you specied in your query. With very little modication, an automatically generated Essbase report script can be executed from EssCmd scripts, API calls, or MaxL command scripts. Another benet of using the Query Designer to generate a report script is that it will properly code complex functionality for you. Therefore, there are no elusive syntax errors for you to debug. Report script commands and functions Well, just like the calculation scripts, there are several different categories of Essbase report script commands and instructions. Unlike the calculation commands and functions, the report script commands and instructions basically deal with data selection and formatting. As we said earlier, the arsenal of data selection commands and instructions is perhaps not the most robust when compared to the specic commands available to a user of SQL for instance. This can occasionally result in more data than is required being returned. This is hardly an issue that is worth fretting over. We will list for you here the complete report script command and instruction categories. For each category, we will give examples of a couple of the most commonly used commands or instructions. For a complete list of all Essbase report script commands and instructions, please refer to the EAS Online Help that is supplied with each installation of 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 Using your Essbase Cube [ 224 ] Report layout commands The report layout commands tell Essbase how you are setting up your report page with regards to what members will be row members and what members will be column members. Some members will also be page members, where their attribute applies to all of the data selected and does not need to be represented in either a row or column. The syntax of these members is discussed below: • COLUMN Syntax: <COLUMN(comma separated dimension list) Example: <COLUMN("Calendar Periods", "Scenario") This example will place members from the Calendar Periods and Scenario dimensions into the report output as column members. • ROW Syntax: <ROW(comma separated dimension list) 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 . Using your Essbase Cube [ 220 ] The Essbase Report Script Just like other Essbase le objects, Essbase database report scripts are actually ASCII text. Corcorran on 5th July 20 09 8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 794 23 Download at Boykma.Com Chapter 6 [ 221 ] How to create an Essbase Report Script There are three ways to create an Essbase report script Corcorran on 5th July 20 09 8601 ave. p #1, , lubbock, , 794 23 Download at Boykma.Com Using your Essbase Cube [ 224 ] Report layout commands The report layout commands tell Essbase how you are setting