XOLAP - Virtual cubes against a Data Warehouse Part 2

As mentioned in my previous blog, "XOLAP - Virtual Cubes Against a Data Warehouse Part 1", I'll address the following in this installment:

• Completing the Time Hierarchy
  
• Developing the rest of the standard dimensions
  
• Developing a measures dimension
  
• Creating the cube schema
  
• Deploying the cube
  
• Querying the data
  
• Showing real time data updates with XOLAP

When we previously left off we had just finished creating new meta data elements within DimTime. The representation of the "Total Time" hierarchy is exhibited below. Create this hierarchy leveraging the steps used to create the "Total Sales Territory" in Part 1.

Leveraging the hierarchy depicted below, create the "Total Currency" hierarchy


Leveraging the hierarchy depicted below, create the "Measures" hierarchy

Leveraging the hierarchy depicted below, create the "Total Customer" hierarchy

To create the "Total Product" hierarchy, a meta data element, "EnglishProductSubcategoryName" needs to be copied from the DimProductSubCategory table to the DimProduct table.

This can be simply accomplished by right clicking on "EnglishProductSubcategoryName" element within the Metadata Navigator window within Essbase Studio and selecting "Copy".

Pasting this element is as equally simple, highlight the DimProduct table, right click and select Paste.

You are now ready to create the "Total Product" hierarchy as shown below.

Create the "Total Promotion" hierarchy as shown below

You are now ready to create the cube schema.

Access the "Cube Schema Wizard" hotlink from the Essbase Studio "Welcome Page."

The "Cube Schema Wizard" should be displayed as shown below.

Within the "Choose Measures and Hierarchies" dialog window specify a name for the cube schema and then select each of the newly created hierarchies from the left panel and move them to the appropriate panel on the right hand side.

After clicking "Next", the "Cube Schema Options" dialog box should be displayed.

Toggle on the "Create Essbase Model" radial button and provide a name for the model.

In this case I have named my model "XOLAP Adventure WorksModel."

After clicking "Next" the Cube Schema Model should be displayed as depicted below

You are now ready to deploy the cube to Essbase.

Access the "Cube Deployment Wizard" hotlink from the Essbase Studio "Welcome Page."

The "Essbase Server Information" dialog box should now be displayed.

Leverage the previously created withing Part 1 of this blog and select this connection name within the Essbase Server Connection drop down box.

Now specify and Essbase Application Name and Database name. These names are restricted to 8 characters and can not be currently used within your Essbase environment.

Ensure that only the "Build Outline" radial box is the only box toggled on at this point and then select the "Model Properties" button from the lower left of the dialog box.

The "View, edit, and save properties" should now be displayed.

With the "XOLAP Adventure WorksModel" highlighted, select the "General" tab and activate the "XOLAP Model" radial button.

With "Total Time" highlighted, select the "Info" tab and set the dimension type to "Time" and dimension storage to "Dense"

With "Measures" highlighted within the "Info" tab, ensures that measures is set to a dimension type to "Accounts" and dimension storage to "Dense"

Select "Close" and then "Finish"

The following image will be displayed while the cube is being deployed

When successfully completed, a notification of successful deployment will be presented.

Navigate to Oracle Essbase Administration Services and review the application and database just created. Your application should look much the image below:

Remember at this point, the outline is the only thing that has been built, no data has been loaded to the application, nor has an calculation been executed.

Leveraging the Hyperion Add-in, connect to the XOLAP database that you have just created, notice data is present and aggregated. Format your query as exhibited, focusing on the following members:

• Customer:Yang, Jon V
• Measure: Unit Price
• Sales Territory: Australia
• Time: Total Time
• Promotion: No Discount
• Currency: Australian Dollar
• Measures: Fenders, Helmets, Jerseys, Mountain Bikes, Tires and Tubes, Touring Bikes

Notice the Unit Price for the data intersection of Mountain Bikes (3399.99)

Now access the underlying relational database, I have leveraged Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio in this instance.

Open the table FactInternetSales and go to row 88, it should agree with the information depicted in the exhibit below:

Update the Unit Cost for row 88 from 3399.9900 to 999999.99 and commit this value to the database

Execute a retrieve against the spreadsheet set up just moments ago.

Notice the data has changed in the underlying relational repository and also through your ad hoc query tool.

While some restrictions do exist in structuring a XOLAP model, which were mentioned in Part 1 of this blog, the robustness of delivering an application of this nature is pretty self evident.
When asked previously by customers, "Can I do ad hoc, real time analysis against transactional data in my data warehouse?" I often struggled to provide an answer that really meet each of those criteria. Now with XOLAP a definitive approach can certainly be presented to the customer.

XOLAP - Virtual cubes against a Data Warehouse Part 1

Can it be true? Real time ad hoc analysis against a Data Warehouse using an Essbase cube that contains no data?

Well with XOLAP, these capabilities a being brought together. I have created a brief tutorial within this article to demonstrate to overall concept relating to XOLAP.

In Part 1 of this article, I'll discuss:

• Setup that needs to occur to emulate sample
  
• Background into XOLAP
  
• Current restrictions relating to XOLAP
  
• Creating Data Sources in Essbase Studio
  
• Defining a MiniSchema
  
• Defining Standard Hierarchies

Due to the number of screen shots and the size of this blog article, I have set the image properties to small. While the screens may be difficult to decipher within the article, each can be clicked on to be rendered in a much larger resolution for viewing.

Setup The Needs to Occur to Emulate Sample

The example delivered in this article involves leveraging AdventureWorksBI.msi on SQL Server 2005 as the Data Warehouse. This database can be downloaded from http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/releases/view/4004 . The installer for this download requires you to manually attach the database after installation.

Within the dbo.DimCustomer table add a new column called "ProperName" with a property of "nvarchar(100)."

Update the ProperName column within dbo.DimCustomer using a SQL statement similar to the following :

Update dbo.DimCustomer
Set ProperName = LastName + ', ' + FirstName + ' ' + MiddleName

Within the dbo.DimTime table add 3 new columns called "Month", "Day" and "Year" with each having a property of "nchar(10)."

Update the newly added columns within dbo.DimCustomer using a SQL statement similar to the following :

Update dbo.DimTime
Set Month = DatePart(Month,FullDateAlternateKey)
Set Day = DatePart(Day,FullDateAlternateKey)
Set Year = DatePart(Year,FullDateAlternateKey)

A little background into XOLAP

XOLAP (extended online analytic processing) is a variation on the role of OLAP in business intelligence. Specifically, XOLAP is an Essbase multidimensional database that stores only the outline metadata and retrieves data from a relational database at query time. XOLAP thus integrates a source relational database with an Essbase database, leveraging the scalability of the relational database with the more sophisticated analytic capabilities of a multidimensional database.

OLAP and XOLAP store the metadata outline and the underlying data in different locations:

In OLAP, the metadata and the underlying data are located in the Essbase database.

In XOLAP, the metadata is located in the Essbase database and the underlying data remains in your source relational database.

Restrictions For XOLAP

• No editing of an XOLAP cube is allowed. To modify an outline, you must create a new outline in Essbase Studio. XOLAP operations will not automatically incorporate changes in the structures and the contents of the dimension tables after an outline is created.
  
• When derived text measures are used in cube schemas to build an Essbase model, XOLAP is not available for the model.
  
• XOLAP can be used only with aggregate storage. The database is automatically duplicate-member enabled.
  
• Alternate hierarchies and attribute dimensions are supported; however, attribute hierarchies are not supported.
  
• XOLAP supports dimensions that do not have a corresponding schema-mapping in the catalog; however, in such dimensions, only one member can be a stored member.
  
• A model that is designated as XOLAP-enabled must be deployed to a new Essbase database because incremental builds for XOLAP are not supported.
  

Creating a Data Source

• From the "Essbase Studio - Getting Started" page within Essbase Studio, select the hot link "Data Source Wizard", the "Define Connection" portion of the Connection Wizard is displayed.

• Enter a Connection Name.
  
• Enter an optional Description.
  
• Select the appropriate Data Source Type. For example, if you are creating a connection to a Microsoft SQL Server data source, select Microsoft SQL Server from the drop-down list.
  
• In Server Name, enter the name of server where the database resides.
  
• To use a port number other than the default, clear the Default check box next to Port and enter the correct port number in the text box.If you are using the default port number, you can skip this step.
  
• Enter the User Name and Password for this database.
  
• In Database Name, select "AdventureWorksDB"
  
• Click Test Connection. If the information you entered in the wizard is correct, a message confirms a successful connection.If you entered incorrect information in the wizard, a message is displayed explaining that invalid credentials have been provided. Correct the errors and retest until the connection is successful.
  
• Clicking Next takes you to the Select Tables page of the wizard

Select the following tables for the Select Tables dialog box and then select "Next":

• dbo.DimCurrency
• dbo.DimCustomer
• dbo.DimProduct
• dbo.DimProductSubCategory
• dbo.DimPromotion
• dbo.DimSalesTerritory
• dbo.DimTime
• dbo.FactInternetSales
  
  

The Select MiniSchema dialog is now presented.

• Select the radial button for "Create a new schema diagram"
• Enter a name for this schema, In this instance I used "XOLAP Adventure Works DWSchema"
• Leave "Skip Schema" and "Use Introspection to Detect Hierarchies" unchecked
• Select Next
  
  
• The "Populate Schema" dilog box is displayed. Each of the tables that were previosly selected should be displayed on the right hand panel.
• Select "Next"
  
  
• The "Create Metadata Element" dialog box should now be displayed.
• Toggle on the radial button next to the "XOLAP Adventure Works DW", this should toggle on all members displayed in this dialog window
• Select "Next"
  
  
• The "XOLAP Adventure Works DWSchema" should now be displayed.
  
  
• Navigate back to the "Welcome" screen
• Highlight the "DimSalesTerritory" within the Metadata Navigator. Once highlighted, select the "Hierarchies" hotlink from the "Welcome" screen.
  
  
• Above is a representation of the contents from the DimSalesTerritory table. This is provided to deliver an understanding of how the hierarchy will be developed from the underlying relational table
  
  
• The hierarchy wizard should now be displayed at this point.
• Specify the "Dimension Head Name", in this case "Total Sales Territory" and then drag the "SalesTerritoryGroup" data element from the Metadata Navigator into the Data grid.
• The grid should should now contain the "SalesTerritoryGroup" element. Highlight this element and click "Add" and select "Child"
  
  
• Within the "Select Entity" dialog box, select "SalesTerritoryCountry" and then "OK"
  
  
• Leveraging the same approach for you used for adding "SalesTerritoryCountry", now add "SalesTerritoryRegion" to deliver a hierarchy as depicted above.
  
  
• By right clicking on the "Total Sales Territory" hierarchy data element in the MetaData Navigator panel and selecting "Preview Hierarchy" the above sampling of data should be displayed
  
  
• 
  
  Next, we will create the Time hierarchy for the model. This step will be slightly different, we will leverage the newly create columns in SQL server to build out a time hierarchy.
• With the DimTime metadata element highlighted in the MetaData Navigator, right click and select "New" and "Dimension Element"
  
  
  
  
• The "Edit Properties" dialog window for the new data element should appear.
• Enter "Month Day Year" in the name window
• Paste the following syntax into the Caption Binding window:
• 'trim'( connection : \'XOLAP Adventure Works DW'::'AdventureWorksDW.dbo.DimTime'.'Month' ) "/" 'trim'( connection : \'XOLAP Adventure Works DW'::'AdventureWorksDW.dbo.DimTime'.'Day' ) "/" 'trim'( connection : \'XOLAP Adventure Works DW'::'AdventureWorksDW.dbo.DimTime'.'Year' )
  
  
• Repeat the following steps for "Month Year" and place the following syntax in the caption binding window for "Month Year":
• trim'( connection : \'XOLAP Adventure Works DW'::'AdventureWorksDW.dbo.DimTime'.'Month' ) "/" 'trim'( connection : \'XOLAP Adventure Works DW'::'AdventureWorksDW.dbo.DimTime'.'Year' )
  
  
• Repeat the following steps for "Year" and place the following syntax in the caption binding window for "Year":
• 'trim'( connection : \'XOLAP Adventure Works DW'::'AdventureWorksDW.dbo.DimTime'.'Year' )
  

In my next blog, which should be published shortly I'll address the following:

• Completing the Time Hierarchy
• Developing the rest of the standard dimensions
• Developing a measures dimension
• Creating the cube schema
• Deploying the cube
• Querying the data
• Showing real time data updates
  

Annotation Service in Hyperion Workspace – Providing collaborative commentary

A significant enhancement that was delivered with the release of Hyperion Reporting and Analysis Release 11.1.1 was annotations. Annotations provides a comprehensive set of annotation functionality that enables users to freely collaborate, save facts and findings in their reports, and access tools to readily manage annotations across their systems. This commentary is available interactively through the Hyperion Workspace, is equally accessible through printed output, and provides a unified read-only mechanism for the Hyperion Financial Management and Hyperion Planning commentary (for example, Cell Text, Cell File Attachments, and so on).

The Annotation Service, used with Financial Reporting reports, provides a collaborative tool that captures collective information that can be shared on particular documents and data. It provides a range of flexibility from simple notations to full-fledged threaded discussions, laying the foundation for collaboration, compliance reporting, and business process analysis. Authorized users have the ability to create, remove, and respond to annotations. Annotations can be attached to a report object (grid object, text object, chart object, and image object), and can reference a full or partial POV. Annotations included in reports can be viewed when selected for books and snapshot books.

The screen shots below demonstrate the application of an annotation to a grid object for a specific full POV.

After rendering the report through WorkSpace, right click on the cell that is specific to the annotation

Select new Annotation, the following dialog box is displayed:

The annotation tab captures the title, description and a predefined category. Predefined categories exist describing the nature of the annotation. Categories are Comment, Assessment, FYI, Misc (Miscellaneous), Other, Performance, or Target.

The Context tab captures the Object and Dimension information. Object information can be a datasource or any object on the report. For example: for a data source, the annotation is attached to any Financial Reporting report using the specified data source. For a Grid:data source, the annotation is attached to the specified grid and data source. For Text, Charts, or Grids, the annotation is attached the specified object with no dimensions on the object.

Attachments tab — Link attachments to an annotation. Attachments can be a file on your local drive, any object in the repository, or a URL.

When OK has been selected and the annotation has been applied a visual indicator, a paper-clipped document appears within the upper left-hand corner of the cell

By hovering over this icon, the description of the annotation appears, included within this dialog box are links to showing details, a reply capability, open attachment and closing the dialog box

When show details has been selected, the following is displayed:

You can close the details dialog box by selecting the down arrow between the grid and details window

You can also use the View menu to enable or showing or hiding annotations. To view annotations select View > Show Annotation. To hide annotations, select View > Hide Annotations.

Users with the Modify or Full Control permissions can respond to annotations through the annotations bubble or the Annotation List Panel in a Financial Reporting report. While replying, one can change the category and also add attachments like EPM Workspace documents, local documents on your computer, or URLs.

To respond to annotations:

In a report that contains annotations, do one of the following:

1. Click an annotation icon, then click the Reply icon and respond to the annotation.
   




2. Locate the Annotation List Panel at the bottom of the screen, hover over the Show panel and click it. Then click the Reply icon and respond to the annotation.
   

You can render this report in the PDF format by selecting Open in PDF as shown belown:

The report is rendered in the Adobe PDF format. The annotation is evident with a footnote number 1.

When printed, the annotations and reply threads will be displayed on a separate footnotes page