7-20 Metadata Repository Builders Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
Viewing Members in Physical Cube Tables
You can view members of hierarchies or levels in the Physical layer of repositories. To view members, the repository must be open in online mode. The list of members by
level in the hierarchy can help you determine if the connection pool is set up properly. You might want to reduce the time it takes to return data or the size of the returned
data by specifying a starting point Starting from option and the number of rows you want returned Show option.
To view members: 1.
Open the Administration Tool in online mode.
2.
In the Physical layer, right-click a hierarchy or level.
3. Select View Members.
A window opens showing the number of members in the hierarchy and a list of the levels. You might need to enlarge the window and the columns to view all the
returned data.
4. Click Query to display results.
5. When finished, click Close.
Entry Type Indicates whether replacing variables is optional or mandatory.
Entry types include:
■
SAP_VAR_INPUT_TYPE_OPTIONAL: Specifying a value is optional for this variable.
■
SAP_VAR_INPUT_TYPE_MANDATORY: You must specify a value for this variable.
■
SAP_VAR_INPUT_TYPE_MANDATORY_NOT_INITIAL: You must specify a value for this variable. An initial field is
not a valid entry. Reference Dimension
This column contains a DIMENSION_UNIQUE_NAME for the parameter type SAP_VAR_TYPE_HIERARCHY.
Reference Hierarchy This column contains a HIERARCHY_UNIQUE_NAME for the
variable type SAP_VAR_TYPE_MEMBER. Default Low
This property contains a default value for the variable or is zero. Default High
This property contains a default value for the variable or is zero. This property is only important for variables with the selection
type SAP_VAR_SEL_TYPE_INTERVAL and SAP_VAR_SEL_ TYPE_SELECTION.
Override Default Low Provide a default value for the cube variable in this field if the
Default Low is zero. You must specify a value for this property for mandatory
variables that do not specify a default value. Override Default High
Provide a default value for the cube variable in this field if the Default High is zero.
You must specify a value for this property for mandatory variables that do not specify a default value.
Table 7–5 Cont. Cube Variable Properties
Property Description
Working with Physical Tables, Cubes, and Joins 7-21
Working with Essbase Data Sources
This section describes how Essbase data is modeled by default in the Physical layer of the Oracle BI repository, and describes the tasks you can perform to model the data in
different ways.
This section contains the following topics:
■
About Using Essbase Data Sources with Oracle Business Intelligence
■
Working with Essbase Alias Tables
■
Associating Member Attributes to Dimensions and Levels
■
Modeling Alternate Hierarchies
■
Modeling Measure Hierarchies
■
Improving Performance by Using Unqualified Member Names
About Using Essbase Data Sources with Oracle Business Intelligence
When you import metadata from Essbase data sources, the cube metadata is mapped to the Physical layer in a way that supports the Oracle Business Intelligence logical
model. Metadata that applies to all members of the dimension, such as aliases, are modeled as dimension properties by default. Level-based properties, such as outline
sortmemnor information, are mapped as separate physical cube columns in the dimension.
The following physical column types are used for Essbase metadata:
■
Member Alias: Indicates an Alias column.
■
UDA: Indicates the column is a User Defined Attribute UDA.
■
Outline Sort: Indicates the column is of memnor type, used for outline sorts in the
logical layer. Imported at the lowest level of each dimension.
■
Attribute: Indicates the column is of attribute type, for attribute dimensions.
■
Other: The type is different than those listed, or unknown.
■
Ancestor Reference: References the ancestor of a dimension.
■
Member Key: Indicates the column is a member key.
■
Leaf: Indicates that the column is the lowest member of the hierarchy.
■
Root: Indicates that the column is the root member of the hierarchy.
■
Parent Reference: References the parent of a dimension.
The column types Outline Sort, Ancestor Reference, Member Key, Leaf, Root, and Parent Reference are used internally by the system and should not be changed.
Figure 7–2 shows Essbase data that has been imported into the Physical layer.
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Figure 7–2 Essbase Data Modeled in the Physical Layer
There are different options in the Physical layer that let you control how you want to model certain types of metadata. Choose the option that best meets the needs of your
user base. For example, many types of Essbase metadata are modeled as dimension properties by default in the Physical layer. This multidimensional structure works best
with the new hierarchical reporting style introduced in the current release.
Alternatively, you can choose to flatten the Essbase metadata in the Physical layer for ease of use with the attribute-style reporting supported in previous releases of Oracle
Business Intelligence.
The following list summarizes some of these modeling options:
■
Aliases. Aliases are modeled as dimension properties by default, but you can also
choose to flatten them using the Create Columns for Alias Table feature. See
Working with Essbase Alias Tables for more information.
■
UDAs. UDAs are modeled as dimension properties by default, but you can also
choose to flatten them using the Create Columns for UDA feature. See Modeling
User-Defined Attributes for more information.
■
Alternate Hierarchies. Alternate hierarchies are modeled as separate hierarchies
by default, but you can choose to view them in as a single hierarchy using the Convert to single hierarchy view
feature. See Modeling Alternate Hierarchies
for more information.
■
Measure Hierarchies. By default, measures are imported as a single measure
column that represents all the measures, but you can also choose to view each measure as an individual column using the Convert measure dimension to flat
measures feature. See
Modeling Measure Hierarchies for more information.
Note the following additional information about using Essbase data sources with Oracle Business Intelligence:
■
Substitution variables. Essbase substitution variables are automatically retrieved
and populated into corresponding Oracle BI Server session variables. Depending
Working with Physical Tables, Cubes, and Joins 7-23
on the scope of the Essbase variable, the naming convention for the Oracle BI Server variable is as follows:
Server instance scope: server_name:var_name
Application scope: server_name:app_name:var_name
Cube scope: server_name:app_name:cube_name:var_name
A single initialization block is also created in the repository for the Essbase variables. Set the appropriate refresh interval in the initialization block to reflect
anticipated update cycles for Essbase variables.
■
Essbase Generations. Essbase Generations are mapped to physical level objects.
■
Time series functions. The Oracle BI Server time series functions AGO, TODATE,
and PERIODROLLING are pushed down to Essbase to take advantage of the native capabilities of the Essbase server.
■
Database functions. You can use the database SQL functions EVALUATE and
EVALUATE_AGGREGATE to leverage functions specific to Essbase data sources. See Examples Using EVALUATE_AGGREGATE and EVALUATE to Leverage Unique
Essbase Functions for more information.
Note that EVALUATE_PREDICATE is not supported for use with Essbase data sources.
■
Gen 1 levels. By default, Gen 1 levels are included when you drag and drop an
Essbase cube or dimension from the Physical layer to the Business Model and Mapping layer. However, because Gen 1 levels are not usually needed for
analysis, you can choose to exclude Gen 1 levels when you drag and drop Essbase objects to your business model. To do this, select Skip Gen 1 levels in Essbase
drag and drop actions
in the General tab of the Options dialog. See Setting
Preferences for more information.
■
Hierarchy types. For Essbase data sources, all hierarchies are imported as
Unbalanced by default. Review the Hierarchy Type property for each physical hierarchy and change the value if necessary. Supported hierarchy types for
Essbase are Unbalanced, Fully balanced, and Value.
About Incremental Import
You can choose to incrementally import Essbase metadata. In other words, you can perform an initial import, and then import again. You might want to import
incrementally when information in the data source has changed, or when your first import only included a subset of the metadata. Note the following about incremental
import:
■
When you re-import metadata that already exists in the Physical layer, a message appears, warning you that your Physical objects will be overwritten.
■
If you delete data in the source, re-importing the metadata does not automatically perform the deletion in the Physical layer. Instead, you must manually delete the
corresponding Physical objects.
■
If you rename an object in the source, the renamed object is imported as a new object. In this case, both the old object and the new renamed object are displayed
in the Physical layer.
■
In general, customizations that you have performed on the Physical layer data, such as determining the alias column to use for display, are retained after an
incremental import. If you want to revert to the default imported view, you must delete the existing Physical layer objects and then re-import the metadata.
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Working with Essbase Alias Tables
Essbase cubes support the concept of aliases, which are alternate names for members or shared members. For example, the member name might be a product code 100,
with a default alias for the product name Cola and an additional alias for the long name Cherry Cola. Often, members have separate aliases for each user language to
enable users to view member names in their own language.
In the Essbase cube, aliases are stored in alias tables that map a specific set of alias names to member names. Typically, a Default alias table exists for each cube.
This section contains the following topics:
■
Determining the Value to Use for Display
■
Explicitly Defining Columns for Each Alias
Determining the Value to Use for Display
When you import metadata from Essbase into the Oracle BI repository, the Essbase cube table object in the Physical layer has a property that determines which value to
display for members: the member name, the default alias name, or some other alias name. By default, the columns display the default alias name.
To change the value to display for members: 1.
In the Physical layer of the Administration Tool, double-click an Essbase cube table.
2.
In the General tab of the Cube Table dialog, choose the appropriate value for Display Column
. You can select Member Name, or you can select Alias and then
choose an alias table name from the list.
3. Click OK.
