About
This article provides an overview of creating outline using Outline Editor. For information about Outline Editor, see the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
All examples in this chapter are based on the Sample.Basic database shipped with Essbase.
You can also perform a dimension build to automate the creation of the outline
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Steps
To design an outline:
Create an outline
When a Essbase - Database (cube) is created, Essbase creates a blank outline for that database automatically : Essbase - Creating / Copying a database
The outline has the same name as the database (dbname.otl). For example, when the Basic database is created within the Sample application, an outline is created in the following directory: ARBORPATH/app/sample/basic/basic.otl
Tools
To create or copy an outline or open an existing outline, use one of this tool:
Tool | Topic | Documentation Location |
---|---|---|
Essbase - Administration Service (EAS) | Opening and Editing Outlines Copying Outlines | Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help |
Essbase - MaxL | create database create database as | Oracle Essbase Technical Reference |
Essbase - EssCmd | CREATEDB COPYDB | Oracle Essbase Technical Reference |
When a Essbase database is created, Essbase creates an Essbase - Outline (Database Outline) for that database automatically.
Open the outline
You can create content in the new outline in the following ways:
- In Essbase - Outline Editor, open the empty outline created by default when you create a database and add content manually.
See “Opening and Editing Outlines” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
- Copy an existing outline to the current database and change the existing outline.
- Create content using data sources and rules files. See Understanding Data Loading and Dimension Building.
If you open the same outline with two instances of the Essbase - Administration Services Console using the same login ID, each save overwrites the changes of the other instance. Oracle does not recommend this practice, as it can be difficult to keep track of the changes that are saved or overwritten.
Add dimensions and members to the outline
You can add dimensions and member hierarchies to an outline in several ways:
- Manually, using Essbase - Outline Editor
See “Adding Dimensions to Outlines” and “Adding Members to Dimensions” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
- Using a rules file from Essbase - Outline Editor,
see “Updating an Outline Dynamically Using a Rules File” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
See “Creating a Dimension Build Rules File” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
Set each dimension as dense or sparse
When you create dimensions and save an outline, Essbase automatically sets the new dimensions in the outline as sparse.
You can change the dimension storage type according to the optimal configuration for the database : Essbase - Dense and Sparse Selection Effect on the data storage (performance)
Set as sparse any Essbase - Standard dimensions with which you plan to associate Essbase - Attribute dimensions.
To set data storage properties using Essbase - Outline Editor, see “Setting Dimensions as Dense or Sparse” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
Position dimensions and members in the outline
Essbase - Dimension are the highest level of organization in an outline.
Dimensions contain Essbase - Members, which you can nest inside of other members in a Essbase - Hierarchies.
The following sections describe how to position dimensions and members in the outline.
The relative locations of dimensions in an outline can affect Essbase - Calculations and retrieval performance times. See Essbase - Designing an Outline to Optimize Query or Calculations Performance.
Moving Dimensions and Members
After you create dimensions and members, you can rearrange them within the outline. Before moving members and dimensions in an outline, consider the following information:
- The positions of dimensions and members in an outline can affect performance. See Optimizing Outline Performance.
- Moving dimensions and members can affect the performance of calculations and retrievals. See Essbase - Designing an Outline to Optimize Query or Calculations Performance.
- Moving members could move a Essbase - Shared Members before the actual member in the outline (which is not recommend).
- If you add, delete, or move nonattribute dimensions or members, Essbase restructures the database, and you must recalculate the data.
To position dimensions and members using Outline Editor, see “Manipulating Dimensions and Members in an Outline” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
Sorting Dimensions and Members
You can have Essbase arrange dimensions within an outline or members within a dimension in alphabetical order (A–Z) or reverse alphabetical order (Z–A).
You cannot sort Boolean attribute dimensions. See Understanding Attribute Types.
To sort members using Outline Editor, see “Sorting Members” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
Set dimension and member properties
Create attribute dimensions
If necessary, create attribute dimensions and associate them with the appropriate base dimensions. See Working with Attributes.
Verify the outline
You can verify an outline automatically when you save it, or you can verify the outline manually anytime. When verifying an outline, Essbase checks the following items:
- All member and alias names are valid. Members and aliases cannot have the same name as other members, aliases, generations, or levels. See Naming Restrictions for Applications and Databases.
- Only one dimension is tagged as accounts, time, currency type, or country.
- Essbase - Shared Members are valid as described in Understanding the Rules for Shared Members.
- Level 0 members are not tagged as label only.
- Label-only members have not been assigned formulas.
- The currency category and currency name are valid for the currency outline.
- Dynamic Calc members in sparse dimensions do not have more than 100 children.
- If a parent member has one child, and if that child is a Dynamic Calc member, the parent member must also be Dynamic Calc.
- If a parent member has one child, and if that child is a Dynamic Calc, two-pass member, the parent member must also be Dynamic Calc, two-pass.
- The two names of members of Boolean attribute dimensions are the same as the two Boolean attribute dimension member names defined for the outline.
- The level 0 member name of a date attribute dimension must match the date format name setting (mm-dd-yyyy or dd-mm-yyyy). If the dimension has no members, because the dimension name is the level 0 member, the dimension name must match the setting.
- The level 0 member name of a numeric attribute dimension is a numeric value. If the dimension has no members, because the dimension name is the level 0 member, the dimension name must be a numeric value.
- Attribute dimensions are located at the end of the outline, following all standard dimensions.
- Level 0 Dynamic Calc members of standard dimensions have a formula.
- Essbase - Formulas for members are valid.
- In a Hybrid Analysis outline, only the level 0 members of a dimension can be Hybrid Analysis-enabled.
During outline verify, Essbase also performs the following conversions to appropriate numeric attribute dimension member names and displays them in the outline:
- It moves minus signs in member names from the front to the end of the name; for example, –1 becomes 1–.
- It strips out leading or trailing zeroes in member names; for example, 1.0 becomes 1, and 00.1 becomes 0.1.
See Understanding Attribute Types.
> To verify an outline, see “Verifying Outlines” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
Saving Outlines
You can save outlines to the Essbase Server or to a client computer or network. By default, Essbase saves outlines to the database directory on Essbase Server. If you are saving changes to an outline, Essbase may restructure the outline. For example, if you change a member name from Market to Region, Essbase moves data stored in reference to Market to Region. Each time that you save an outline, Essbase verifies the outline to ensure that it is correct.
To save an outline, see “Saving Outlines” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
Saving an Outline with Added Standard Dimensions
If you add one or more new standard (nonattribute) dimensions, any data that existed previously in the database must be mapped to a member of each new dimension before the outline can be saved. For example, adding a dimension called Channel to the Sample.Basic outline implies that all previous data in Sample.Basic is associated with a particular channel or the sum of all channels.
Saving an Outline with One or More Deleted Standard Dimensions
If you delete one or more standard (nonattribute) dimensions, the data associated with only one member of each deleted dimension must be retained and associated with a member of one of the other dimensions. For example, removing a dimension called Market from the outline implies that all of the data that remains in the database after the restructure operation is associated with a single, specified member of the Market dimension.
If you delete an attribute dimension, Essbase deletes the associations to its base dimension. See Working with Attributes.