No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. The grid lines don’t align with the row headers. It is very slight on smaller forms, but forms with hundreds of rows compounds the issue. The further down the grid, the more of an issue the offset is.
Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.1.600 offers a welcome utility
If you have ever tried to automate the state of a Hyperion Planning applications’ Application Maintenance Mode, you found it difficult. The only way to accomplish this was to run a SQL Update on the repository table, and for this to take effect, the Planning service had to be restarted.
If you are unfamiliar with the Application Maintenance Mode setting, Read more
Josh Forrest and I presented at last year’s Collaborate conference. Along with that presentation, we wrote a white paper on the implementation of Hyperion Planning. This paper included process of selecting a vendor, the project goals, requirements gathering, project methodology, and even the lessons learned once the implementation was completed.
The editors of OAUG asked us if they could publish the article in the summer edition, which was released this week. The article was written closely with Abercrombie & Fitch and represents the process from the business, not from the consulting services, point of view.
The article can be downloaded here at www.oaug.org. Access to the article requires free registration.
Oracle has confirmed a bug related to the deployment of security with a planning application maintained in EPMA in version 11.1.2.x. When the Shared Members checkbox is selected in an EPMA deployment of a Planning application, it ignores this option. Even if the Shared Members box is checked, the user still only gets access to Ohio Region, and not the children, in the example below. Oracle is currently working on a patch. Read more
The introduction of Hyperion 11.1.2 has some fantastic improvements. Many of these have been long awaited. The next few articles on In2Hyperion will describe some of the enhancements to Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Essbase, and Hyperion SmartView.
XREF Background
If you have been developing Planning applications, you are probably very familiar with the XREF function. This function is used in business rules, calculation scripts, and member formulas. It provides a method to move data from one plan type (Essbase database) to another plan type. It is executed from the target database and pulls the data from the source. XWRITE was actually introduced in later versions of 11.1.1.x, but is very stable in 11.1.2.x. XWRITE is executed from the source and pushes data to the target. This function is a huge improvement over XREF. Read more
Although implied shares can improve performance by not storing the same data multiple times, it has many negative impacts. For example, implied shares cause problems in Hyperion Planning at the load level (level 0). A parent with a storage property of Stored that has one child (or only one child that consolidates) will create an implied share. This results in level 0 members being locked, preventing web form data entry. In Essbase/Planning, the storage method of any parent with one child has to be changed to Never Share to allow user input.
For those of you who have been snake bitten by this, you will welcome a relatively unknown Essbase configuration setting in the Essbase configuration file (essbase.cfg). Read more
KScope12 is the premier conference for Hyperion techies and up-and-comers. Whether you are looking to brush up on your skills, learn new skills, or see how others overcome challenges, you will want to participate in this event. If your organization values your development and has a budget for these growth opportunities, mark your calendar for June 24th through the 28th. Registration is open, and as more information is available, it will be published at In2Hyperion.
Presenting a topic is a great way to reduce the cost of the trip. It’s a great way to get your name out in the community as well. If you have something that you think would be valuable for other experts to hear about, submit an abstract.
We hope to see you there. Visit www.kscope12.com for all travel details and abstract submissions.
There are times when planning and forecasting databases grow for apparently no reason at all. The static data (YTD actuals) that is loaded hasn’t changed and the users say they aren’t doing anything different.
If you load budgets or forecasts to Essbase, you probably do what I’m about to tell you. If you are a systems administrator and have never seen how finance does a budget or forecast, this might be an education.
The culprit? Read more
There are several ways to export data from Essbase on a large scale. Pulling it via Excel (Smart View or the Essbase Add-In) is not the best way to get large amounts of data when the goal is to move the data somewhere else, so this option will not be covered.
Database Export
The easiest method is to export all the data from a database by exporting the database. This can be done in EAS. This method is easy to automate with Maxl, but has little flexibility with formatting and the only option is to export all the data. It can be exported in column format so the data can easily be loaded into another data repository. If the data needs to be queried, or manipulated, this is a good option. Read more
Goodbye to the days of JavaScript in order to enforce data input policies and rules to Planning web forms. With Planning version 11.1.2 and newer, Oracle has introduced a powerful set of tools for data validation within the Planning Data Form Designer itself. Let’s walk through a scenario of how this works.
Say that we have a product mix form that will be used to input percentages as drivers for a revenue allocation. Here’s what the form looks like:
We should expect that the sum of these percentages to be 100% at the “Electronics” parent member. If this is not the case, the revenue allocation will incorrectly allocate data across products. So how do we enforce this rule? Simple… let’s take a look at the data form design.
As a row definition we’ve included two member selections; 1) Descendants(Seg01) or Descendants(Electronics) and 2) Seg01 or Electronics. We are going to add a validation rule to row 2 of the data form. To do this, highlight row 2 and click the sign to add a new validation rule. Notice that in the validation rules section, it now says ‘Validation Rules: Row 2’.
The Data Validation Rule Builder will then be launched. Let’s fill in the rule. We should ensure the Location is set to ‘Row 2’. We’ve filled in a name and quick description, then ensured that the ‘Enable validation rule’ check box is checked.
For the rule we’ve defined some simple if logic:
IF [Current Cell Value] != [Value = 1] THEN [Process Cell] ;
To define what occurs if this condition is met we choose the ‘Process Cell’ action defined by the small gear with a letter A next to it. Here we will highlight the cell red and notify the user with a validation message.
We click through to save the Process Cell definition and the Validation Rule itself and should now see the rule in the data form definition.
So let’s take a look at how the end user will interact with this form. Percentages are entered by product for each month. Upon save, notice that all months for Electronics that equal 100% appear normal. December only sums to 90% and is highlighted in red as we specified in the data validation rule. We cannot limit the user’s ability to save the form until the cell equals 100%; we can only notify them of the issue, and explain the cause and potential resolutions.
Of course, this is a simple example of what can be done using Planning’s Data Validation Rules. The possibilities are endless. Oracle has more scenario walkthroughs in the Planning Administrator’s Guide. View them here: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hp_admin/ch08.html