FDMEE PSU1 released (11.1.2.3.100)

Last week FDMEE PSU1 (11.1.2.3.100) was released by Oracle

For those who were afraid about scripting capabilities not being shipped... you are in your lucky day!

Although the new admin guide has not been published yet (surely next week) I´m going to take you through new features. The new admin guide was published yesterday (updated on 19/08)

Before starting, just one comment about installation step where you have to add a rewrite rule to your OSH configuration file:

"Add the following rile to the OSH configuration file: %EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE%\httpConfig\ohs\config\OHS\ohs_component\epm_rewrite_rules.conf
RewriteRule ^/aif/static/(.*) /epmstatic/aif/$1 [PT]"

What about if you have just the embedded server and not OHS? There are no instructions yet from Oracle. As per my knowledge WebLogic Server doesn't provide rewrite capability. Typically these rules are specified using a separate HTTP server, that lives on top of WebLogic server, and passes on request... OHS :-)
Anyway I can show you how your nice fishes will look like:

So now, what´s new?

• New VBS files for HFM action scripts (remember FDM?). You can take a look into them and let me know what you think.

• Loading Journal Templates. We can now load HFM journal entries from Journal Excel Templates (like FDM). Users can download the template from Data Load Workbench

• New target application options for HFM

• Intersection Validation Report. We can now validate HFM data intersections (like FDM). There are two formats: Fixed (4 dims) and Dynamic

• Append or Replace mode for File-based data loads (like FDM)
• We can run Essbase Calculation Scripts when loading data to HP/Essbase. This feature has been really enhanced compared to FDM.

You can now configure the scope of the script, when it's executed and its input parameters (new run-time substitution variables in Essbase 11.1.2.3)

Script name must be a valid existing Essbase script :-)

or you will not be able to retrieve parameters... which you can assign values from FDMEE context including new integration options and custom values.

For the following Essbase script having 3 run-time substitution variables:

Parameters retrieved are:

• New custom options available for Locations (like FDM Adapter integration options) and Data Rules. Really good enhancement for custom applications

• Scripting. FDMEE now provides Jython (.py) and Visual Basic (.vbs) based scripting in order to extend and customize their solution to best fit their requirements. For the moment only 3 types of scripts in PSU1:
• Import Scripts (Import Formats) = Jython script only
• Mapping Scripts = Jython and SQL script
• Event Scripts = Jython and VB script (VBS only for FDMEE on Windows! Linux... Jython)

FDMEE provides set of JAVA APIs and VB API to which users can look up and include frequently used data loads properties, or to perform common actions (... FDM accelerators?)

The new Script Editor will let you write your scripts (you can see the list of currently supported event scripts)

Some points about scripting:

• Jython 2.5+ as ODI
• Maybe using programming IDE :-)
• We will talk about scripts soon

• Open batch automates the process of loading a large number of files (batch loader). Open batch is a new type of batch definition

• Custom Target Application (old Pull Adapter). We can now export data from FDMEE into a flat file instead of loading it to Essbase, Planning, and HFM. The file can be then loaded to an external system

• Batch Report Execution (batch report scripts). We can run reports from command line using a set of batch/shell scripts provided in FDMEE (easy to publish reports from scripts...). Parameters can be set in a text file or being selected once the report in generated.
• Shared Application Root Folder at Target Application Level (before it was at System Level). Let me explain this: now we will have the ability to share scripts and other files based on target application. Actually it is similar to have one FDM classic application with one target adapter although now everything is centralized within FDMEE. Folders (data, inbox, outbox) are created under the "Application Root Folder" and folders for locations under appropriate inbox folder

• Event Scripts are defined at target application level
• You can configure if event scripts applies to locations or not

Talk to you soon.