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Hyperion

PBCS Data Loading Glitch

PBCS Data Loading Glitch

While building out data load automations for PBCS and FCCS recently, I ran into a somewhat annoying issue when loading data to PBCS. Even more surprising is that Oracle claims it works as expected….. This post will explain the issue and provide a really simple work around until this gets properly addressed.

The Problem

Anyone who has worked with FDM Classic, FDMEE, or Data Management for any amount of time has run into at least one failed data load due to invalid dimension member(s) in their exported data. While the data load process should ensure that the target application metadata is current before loading data, this doesn’t always happen. (e.g. last minute source ERP updates that do not get properly communicated to the EPM team)

While a data load failure isn’t optimal, typically this failure is easy enough to identify and fix based off of the feedback provided from FDM/FDMEE/Data Management and the target application.

FDMEE / PBCS Merge Load Failure

FDMEE / Planning Merge Load Failure

cid:image010.png@01D1E6E3.8124EAE0

Data Management / FCCS Merge Load Failure

Unfortunately, when you perform a Replace export to a PBCS target application, under some circumstances you will get a quite unhelpful response:

Data Management / PBCS Replace Load Failure

What Happened?

When performing a Merge export, FDMEE/Data Management simply passes the generated data file to the target application for loading without any pre-processing. When performing a Replace export, a data clear script is dynamically generated based on the members contained in the export data.

The script will clear data for every intersection of Scenario, Year, Period, Entity, and Value dimensions. In the event that one of those members is missing in the target application, the dynamic clear script will contain an invalid member resulting in the error shown above. While the error shown above is completely legitimate, it isn’t meaningful enough to allow you to locate the member easily.

Oddly, if you recreate this scenario when loading to FCCS, you will have a much different result! When performing a replace load to FCCS, invalid members will result in meaningful errors that include the invalid member name(s)! Even more odd, Oracle Support will tell you that both are working as designed. It would seem that PBCS should behave similarly to FCCS to simplify troubleshooting efforts. (Perhaps if enough people raise this as an issue, they will address it?)

Work Around

The easiest way to work around this issue is to perform two data exports to PBCS for Replace operations. The first export should be a Merge load. As the dynamic clear script will not be generated for a Merge, this will result allow you to receive specific errors in the event that there is a data load failure. After have a successful Merge load, then perform the Replace load to ensure that all data gets cleared, etc.

Job Output from Merge/Replace Load Automation Process

Oracle Hyperion EPM Environment Branding Made Easy!

Oracle EPM Branding Made Easy

For IIS and OHS

Overview

A common pain point when working in multiple EPM environments is ensuring that you are working in the right one.  “Out of the box”, each environment visually looks exactly the same.  As no one wants to be the person that accidentally makes a change in the wrong environment, people have tried all sorts of ways to remedy this issue.

Typically, people physically swap out image files for the individual web applications; however, the solutions are problematic for multiple reasons:

  • require manual file system changes
  • require rework since patching / reinstallation / reconfiguration will wipe out the changes
  • updating requires modification to Java WAR/EAR files which could lead to unintended issues
  • does not work properly in all versions of EPM due to content-length limitations
  • does not scale well if branding multiple products

The solution below resolves all of these issues by intercepting image requests at the webserver level via URL Rewriting.   Utilizing URL Rewriting allows us to:

  • use a small number of images, in one central location, for multiple products
  • easily scale and allow for multiple branding options
  • significantly reduces the likelihood of our branding changes being lost due to patching, redeployment, installation, configuration
  • avoids manual manipulation of EPM application files..

The following walk-through will show you have to use URL rewriting to replace the Oracle logo contained in the upper corner of most EPM applications with one shared image.

NOTE: URL Rewriting could also be leveraged for other uses cases such as globally redirecting all EPM users to a maintenance page while allowing admins to access the system via a special URL.

Oracle logo swapping

There are a few images that lend themselves nicely to branding replacement as the images are used globally among all the EPM products. The red Oracle logo (oracleLogo.png) is one such example. The oracleLogo.png file appears in the title bar on many of the pages, such as the initial log on page:

A quick search for this file, on a webserver running most EPM products, reveals how common it is:

As the same file is virtually used in every EPM product, the best way to replace this image is through URL Rewriting. URL Rewriting instructs the web server to replace requests for a given URL with a different URL of our choosing.

For instance, if a user requests http://EPM.COM/EPMA/oracleLogo.png, we can tell the webserver to re-reroute that request to http://EPM.COM/MyCentralLocation/myCoolerLogo.png. Since this functionality supports regular expressions, we can create one rule to replace requests for almost all of the EPM products. (DRM & FDM need additional rules)

Implementing URL Rewriting on IIS

To implement URL Rewriting for the oracleLogo.png file, perform the following steps:
[NOTE: The screen shots below depict IIS 7/7.5; however, this process works for all currently supported versions of IIS]

  1. Create a replacement oracleLogo.png file. As the original file has a height of 25 pixels and a width of 119 pixels, it is imperative that your image is the same size. If you attempt to use an image with a different size, it will be scaled to fit and it may not look how you want it to.Sample images are shown below.

    (NOTE: We will use the QA file for the rest of the IIS walkthrough)
  2. Copy your replacement logo to a location accessible by the web server and the end users. (HINT: The IIS WWWROOT folder is typically available to all users and is a good common spot)
  3. Confirm that you can access this file via Web Browser
  4. Confirm that IIS Rewrite is installed on the Web Server.
    (If it is not, follow the steps in Appendix A)
  5. Start Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
  6. In the connections panel (on the left), expand the Server, Sites, and then Default Web Site.
  7. In the right window, click on Features View and then double click on the URL Rewrite button.
  8. In the Actions panel (on the right), click on Add Rule(s)
  9. Click on Blank rule
  10. Complete the Inbound Rule Screen as follows
    1. Name: oracleLogo Replace
    2. Match URL
      1. Requested URL: Matches Pattern
      2. Using: Regular Expressions
      3. Pattern: (.*)/oracleLogo.png
      4. Ignore Case: [Checked]
    3. Conditions – Skip, No changes required.
    4. Server Variables – Skip, No changes required.
    5. Action
      1. Action Type: Redirect
      2. Redirect URL: http://<Web Server Name Here>/oracleLogo_qa.png
      3. Append query string: Checked
      4. Redirect type: 302 Found

  1. Click Apply
  3. Confirm changes were saved successfully
  4. Test a page
  5. For FDM add a rule as follows:
    1. Name: FDM Logo
    2. Match URL
      1. Requested URL: Matches Pattern
      2. Using: Regular Expressions
      3. Pattern: (.*)/logo.gif
      4. Ignore Case: [Checked]
    3. Conditions – Skip, No changes required.
    4. Server Variables – Skip, No changes required.
    5. Action
      1. Action Type: Redirect
      2. Redirect URL: http://<Web Server Name Here>/logo_qa.gif
      3. Append query string: Checked
      4. Redirect type: 302 Found

 

 

Implementing URL Rewriting on OHS

URL Rewriting in OHS is relatively simple as the capability is activated out of the box in the version that is installed with EPM products. To redirect oracleLogo.png in OHS, perform the following steps:

  1. Copy your replace image to the OHS Root folder.
    cp /oracleLogo-TRN.png /Oracle/Middleware/user_projects/epmsystem1/httpConfig/ohs/config/OHS/ohs_component/htdocs/
  2. Update the epm_rewrite_rules.conf configuration file for the redirect actions
    NOTE: For each file above, create a RedirectMatch entry similar to below:RedirectMatch (.*)\oracleLogo.png$ https://<ServerNameHere>/oracleLogo-TRN.png

  1. Restart OHS
    cid:image004.png@01CFB70C.BCE74F40
    cid:image005.png@01CFB70C.BCE74F40
  2. Open a Web Browser (after clearing all caches / temporary files) to confirm update has taken place

Appendix A – Install URL Rewrite on IIS

If your IIS server does not already have URL Rewrite installed, perform the following steps to acquire / install it from Microsoft.

  • Download URL Rewrite

 

Kscope2015 – Smart View

This past year at Kscope15, I presented a session all about the technical side of Smart View.  While I intended on spending equal time between infrastructure and API/programming  topics, I ended up focusing a bit more on the API/programming side.  There are so many ways to improve your Smart View documents by understanding some basic Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code and leveraging the Smart View API, I simply couldn’t resist!

For those more interested in the infrastructure side of Smart View deployments, do not fear!  While the session itself didn’t spend as much time on it, the Power Point includes a fair amount of slides which provide information on how to automate Smart View deployment, automatically set user defaults, and deploy preconfigured Private and Shared Connections.

The sessions, and slide deck below, provide oodles of information on the following topics:

  • Improving Robustness of Smart View Documents
    • Excel Add-In Failure Detection  (e.g. Disabled Add-In / Missing Smart View)
    • Proactive Connection Monitoring
  • Deployment Simplification / Initial Configuration
    • Automated Installation Guidance
    • Automated Default Preferences Push
    • Automated Shared / Private Connection Push
  • Essbase Add-In / Smart View Conversions
  • VBA Important Tips / Tricks
  • Smart View API Important Tips / Tricks

As with all of my presentations, you will find a plethora of working examples such as:

  • Excel Performance Improvements ( Screen Updating / Enable Events / Calculation Mode )
  • Invalid Cell Data Identification ( Catch Non-Numeric data before it wrecks your formulas! )
  • Add-In Presence & Status Detection
  • Broken Link Detection & Correction
  • Planning Cell Note Editor
  • Working with Excel & VBA (Workbooks / Worksheets / Ranges / Events )
  • Working with Smart View API ( Refreshing Data / Creating, Establishing, Disconnecting, Deleting Connections )

Download the presentation here!