cameron's blog for essbase hackers_ fixing planning's filters

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21 JULY 2009

Fixing Planning's Filters

Full disclosure and source code and of course a

disclaimerMuch of the content of this post comes from a ODTUG Kaleidoscope presentation I gave in June of this

year. The presentation (280 Master Essbase with MaxL automation) should be available 90 days after

the conference, so I am guessing some time in September. I will update this post when it is available for

those who want to see more.

This code was sort of the capstone of the presentation and used a variety of MaxL techniques. If you

look at the source code youre probably going to wonder why I used so many different approaches to,

oh say, error checking, for example you will intuit that I was trying to illustrate the different ways it can

be handled. For your sanity I suggest you pick one (like %ERRORLEVEL%) and stick with it.

The source code is available here.

Take a look at the code, laugh at it, admire its genius, use it in anger whatever. If it causes the end of

the world (your Hyperion world, at least), gets you fired because it didnt work, or any other less than

optimal outcome, well, I make no guarantee, warranty, or anything else. Use it at your own risk. It is

worth every penny you spent, which would be exactly zero.

Plannings Filter OddityI seem to be going on and on about Planning, not Essbase, and of course the name of this blog isnt

Camerons Blog For Planning Hackers, so its fair to ask whats going on.

Well, Planning is a wrapper application around Essbase at the end of the day, whether its

dimensions, data, or Business Rules (aka calc scripts on steroids) Essbase is the foundation that

Planning rests on. And Planning drives Essbase, but oddly.

Within Hyperion Planning, metadata is filtered. That is, if you're a Planning user, and security is applied

to a dimension, you can only see the bits of the dimension that you have read or write access to. (If

your read access is greater than your write access, you will see more members in, say, a dimension

drop down, but you will only be able to write to the members you have write access to.)

This makes sense, right? Why would you want to deal with members you can't touch?

Makes sense Here's the administrator's view of the Entity dimension from the Planning reference application:

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The Planning administrator sees all this is appropriate, as he is responsible for all data.

And here is a Planner's view of the world (literally):

See the difference? For a user that can only see Latin America, all is as it should be.

Stop making senseAnd heres that same user looking at the same dimension in SmartView:

The rows highlighted in yellow are not readable/writeable, but are visible. While the planner can select

these members, he cant retrieve their data values. This is inconsistent, and is colloquially known as

Not Good.

Why does it do what it does?Planning performs metadata filtering within the application, but when it writes the filters to the Essbase

id used to query data, it uses a READ, not a METAREAD filter.

Why? This is a mystery. Okay, lots of things in life are mysteries, but the fix from the Planning side

seems so simple (use METAREAD, not READ). Im a fan of Raymond Chandler, but I am not seeing

the plot to The Big Sleep here. Well, maybe someone was snoozing when this was implemented.

The fix (no, not the FIX..ENDFIX, the solution)A few years ago at Solutions in the product lab I asked a Planning product manager (I think) about using

MEATREAD and he said "It can't be done."

Curiouser and curiouser. Why not? Was there something in a METAREAD filter that would cause the

world to stop spinning, the magnetic fields to fade, and result in a cockroach-only world? This did seem

somewhat far-fetched.

There had to be a reason; I suspected I wasnt hearing it. This was (and is) sort of the equivalent of

waving a red cape in front of a bull and it made me curious -- why not? Essbase has had METAREAD

since 6 (I think, it could be earlier). Why not write a METAREAD to Essbase when refreshing security?

There was an easy way to test this roll my own refresh and force METAREAD filters as part of the

Planning refresh.

Dare I? Briefly, I considered Robert Oppenheimers quote of the Bhagavad-Gita at Trinity: I am become

Death, the Shatterer of Worlds, but in the true spirit of all mad scientists, I quickly dismissed such idle

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thoughts. Our future as cockroaches would bring many benefits, anyway.

Diagnosing the diseaseWhat's the problem?

The filter in EAS as written by Planning:

Easy fix in EAS

If only it were this easy -- just copy the READ row and make it a METAREAD. Since METAREAD is

more restrictive (both data AND metadata) it takes precedence, so the READ line doesn't have to be

deleted:

And it looks just right in SmartView (or the Essbase-centric reporting tool of choice).

One tiny problemBut when Planning does a security refresh, it's going to go right back to the bad old ways of yore, and

will strip the METAREAD off the Planner's filter. Bummer.

And if you have 200 users, manually editing their filters in EAS is going to cause your fingers to fall off,

or your eyeballs pop out of your head, or something else equally horrible. I understand that cockroaches

can regenerate limbs, so theres another plus towards the possible end of the world due to

METAREAD.

Back to some kind of solutionBy hacking (okay, I am stretching this, but hey, it's the name of the blog, so bear with me) Essbase, we

can make the user experience the same between Essbase and Planning without . Never say "It can't be

done" to a moderately curious geek.

What would this refresh need to do?

1) Refresh Planning dimensions and security

2) Apply METAREAD access to those filters

Pretty simple, right? It's always easy when the consultant writes it on the whiteboard...

A little more detailWe're going to combine Planning 11x's CubeRefresh.cmd, MaxL, NT Cmd scripts (I am showing my

age), and VBScript (ditto) to put together a scripted approach to Planning that:

1. Refreshes Planning through CubeRefresh.cmd

2. Writes the filters to disk via MaxL

3. Reads them into memory in VBScript

4. Programmatically generates MaxL code to apply a METAREAD to each of those filters

5. Run that new MaxL script

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Fixing Planning'sFilters

Full disclosure andsource code and ofcourse a disclaimer

Much of the content of this postcomes from a ODTUGKaleidoscope presentation I ...

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BTW, I happen to be mildly proficient in VBScript (call me Fred) and NT Cmd scripts. You could use

whatever tools you like, e.g., Powershell, or the Bourne shell, or Rexx (call yourself T. Rex), etc.

Putting it all together

This is where youre going to want to download the source code and follow along. At least thats what I

would do, but I have been called odd (and a few other choice descriptions, but I digress).

Script components

Script name Description

Refresh_Planning.cmd Overall NT Cmd control

script

ModCubeRefresh.cmd Refresh Planning utility

Create_MetaRead_Filters.wsf VBScript to read output from

Write_Filters_To_Disc.mshs

and write METAREAD filters

call_metaread_add_filters.mshs MaxL shell to run

METAREAD filter adds

Metaread_Add_Filters.msh Programmatically generated

METAREAD filters

A note about ModCubeRefresh.cmd

When I ran CubeRefresh from a command line (this was within the C:\Hyperion\products\Planning\bin

directory) it worked just fine. However, when I called it from another batch file it stopped all execution. I

tried every trick I could think of to make it work and finally just added an EXIT to the end of it and saved

it as ModCubeRefresh.cmd.

Refresh_Planning.cmd

To get this all to work, I used the calling script to accept parameters as shown below:

Parameter Value

Planning

encrypted

password

file

c:\tempdir\odtug_2009\password.txt

Planning

application

plansamp

Planning

admin

username

admin

Refresh or

create

/R

Filter

switches

/FS

Essbase

server

%computername%

First half of

private key

316108469

Second

half of

private key

694177571

How do I run it?

refresh_planning.cmd c:\tempdir\odtug_2009\password.txt plansamp admin /R /FS %computername%

316108469,694177571

ModCubeRefresh.cmd

The normal CubeRefresh.cmd script has seven parameters:

Parameter Value

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-f Path to encrypted

password file

/A Planning application

name

/U Username

/C RMI port to bind to

(Extra points if you

tell me who said

This is the sort of

English up with

which I will not put.

And why. And if he

really did. Hint -- His

name isnt Gordon

Broon.)

/R Create or refresh

outline

/D Process database

/F or /FS or /FV or

/FSV or /FVS

Filters, shared or

not, or even

validated

/L Connect to the local

bean (Is this like,

"Splendid work, old

bean."? Again, I

digress.)

/RMIPORT RMI port to bind to

the remote Planning

bean. Use with /-L

option

/DEBUG Print debug

statements

The RMIPORT, Create/Refresh, Process database, Use security filters, Connect to the local bean, and

Debug parameters are optional.

In my world (this is my code, you can follow or get just as explicit as you like/need/want), I chose to

explicitly define: the password file, application name, username, refresh or create, filter switch (what

would be the point otherwise?), and I also passed along a log file I use for error checking.

Write_Filters_To_Disc.mshs

This is simple code that writes all Essbase filters to disc. I dont know why I did this, as the display filter

command can be limited to only one database. It works in the demo world, but in a real environment its

a distinctly lousy idea. Feel free to modify this with a MaxL parameter variable to pass only the Essbase

database filters you want. Yes, this gets trickier with multiple Plan Types.

Create_Metaread_Filters.wsf

This is where the rubber meets the road it reads the output from Write_Filters_To_Disc.mshs,

converts the READ filter to METAREAD, and generates the MaxL script Metaread_Add_Filters.msh.

This file will be used to set the Planners filters to METAREAD.

Call_metaread_add_filters.mshs

Encrypted (username and password) MaxL shell to modify filters to use METAREAD.

Metaread_Add_Filters.msh

This is the code that adds the METAREAD. Its kind of silly to have both a READ and METAREAD in the

same filter, although it works because of METAREADs more restrictive nature. I tried using MaxLs

replace filter command instead of alter filter but I found that it just gave the Planner read access to the

entire dimension in question. It must be (I think) something to do with Shared Services and alter filter

works, so I went with that. I welcome a better approach hint Blogspot has a comment section and I

read them. I will modify this post as required.

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Posted by Cameron Lackpour at 10:05 AM

Labels: automation, Essbase, filters, MaxL, Planning

What does it look like?

Magic Essbase filters that come from Planning are now METAREAD filters.

ConculsionI believe that the Earth still rotates on its axis. All is well. I do not scuttle sideways across the floor, and

my trusty prismatic compass still works, so apparently TEOTWAWKI did not occur.

NB You will have to perform all filter refreshes through this utility. Unfortunately, for

ModCubeRefresh.cmd to work, this will require Planning server access, or at least remote access.

There are a number of ways to do this Google is your friend.

The futureAt the conclusion of the presentation, I heard that METAREAD functionality is now in the pipeline for

Planning.

However, if youre on Planning 9x (the Planning refresh utility is a little different), or up to 11.1.2, you

may want to use this code base to give your Planning users the same metadata filtering in Essbase as

they get in Planning.

Another chapter in hacking Essbase under the belt.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cameron,

Very nice blogs! thank you! However, I tried to dl your source code but I can't extract your zip

file.

21 July, 2009 13:53

Cameron Lackpour said...

Anon,

You're very welcome. Thank you for your kind comment.

Re the download -- I was able to go the link and download the zip file to my desktop and extract

it.

Could it be that your workplace blocks zip files?

I am a paying FileDropper customer so that file will remain (as long as I pay my $0.99/month).

Regards,



Caneron Lackpour

22 July, 2009 06:58

Elevation58 said...

Hi Cameron,

Very interesting approach, thanks for sharing this. Is the source code still available? There's

nothing on FileDropper?

Thanks

Mark

16 August, 2009 16:33


Mark,

Thanks for pointing the bad link out.

Try it now -- it should be fixed.

Regards,

Cameron Lackpour

23 August, 2009 08:03

Elevation58 said...

Hi Cameron,

Thanks for the update.

Mark

23 August, 2009 12:15

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I too am not able to unzip the file Automating_Essbase_with_MaxL_code.zip which I

downloaded from FileDropper. I even tried using WinRAR to unzip it, but it did not work. My

windows XP 2002 is able to see the files in your zip file, but not able to extract them.

13 January, 2010 13:19

Anonymous said...

Looks like the download works. I can then look at the files inside. but when you try to unzip it.

The program fails for all files.

04 March, 2010 09:26

Alp Burak Beder said...

Hi Cameron,

Thanks a lot for the post. Is it possible to re-upload the file? I tried many ways but I couldn't

extract the zip file. I think I am not the only one facing the same issue.

Cheers,

Alp

12 April, 2010 22:48




Sorry for the tardiness -- I have to figure out how to get emails when comments get posted. I've

been monitoring my more recent posts, not these older ones.

Anyway, I rezipped the files, uploaded them, changed the HTML to point to the new file name

(FileDropper assigns it, not me), saved the post, opened it, downloaded the files to my hard

drive, unzipped the files, and edited one or two of those files.

Whew, what I do for you. :)

It should be good to go.

Ping me on LinkedIn in future if something I'm providing goes tits up and I'll do my best.

Thanks for reading.

Cameron Lackpour

15 April, 2010 08:28

Anonymous said...

Cameron, I still can't extract the zip files to edit them. Any chance you can take a look at this

again?

18 December, 2010 15:21

Jeff said...

Wow, really well done, the scripts are well documented with comments, easy to follow, very

complete.

Thanks for this!

24 May, 2011 16:05

Adella said...

Hi Cameron,

I am not sure if you will check this comment or not as you might not be keeping a track of your

older posts but still I wanted to post my comment.

Very very nice post! It is really very informative. Infact, I learned as well as enjoyed reading it.

Not all can write like this I guess. I hope to read more and more of such posts from you.

Please do continue sharing your immense knowledge. It would really help us a lot !

Thank you so much.

~ Adella

15 September, 2011 16:37

Joachim1111 said...

Great blogs Cameron. Bought your DEA book too. :) Regarding:

"At the conclusion of the presentation, I heard that METAREAD functionality is now in the

pipeline for Planning.", do you have an update on the timing of this? If we can hack it, it

shouldn't be so difficult to add, should it?

25 September, 2012 10:01


Joachim,

I asked this question at Kscope12's EPM symposium -- it is STILL not fixed.



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Sorry,but now you have a chance to write a script. :)

Regards,

Cameron Lackpour

23 October, 2012 14:48

Anonymous said...

Hi Cameron,

Any chance of getting a link for the source files? If there's a download on here somewhere, I

cannot for the life of me find it.

Thanks!

Bill

11 April, 2013 17:51

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