Retrieving and Updating Data

Retrieving Data

To retrieve data from an Essbase database, either for reporting or for subsequent updating, your program needs to use a report specification. Report specifications can be in the form of a single text string (if it is less than 32 KB in length), a series of text strings, or a file. Report files can reside either on the client machine, or on the Essbase Server.

Updating Data

To update data in the database, you should first lock the blocks in the database which you are going to update.

  To lock database blocks, select one method:

  • Send a report specification as described above, with the Output flag set to TRUE and Lock flag also set to TRUE. The data output by this report can be modified, then sent back to the database as an update.

  • Alternatively, if there is new or modified data ready to be loaded, a program can first use it as a report specification to lock the data blocks by setting the Output flag to FALSE and setting the Lock flag to TRUE when calling the appropriate report function.

The database can be updated either from a single string, a series of strings, or a file. Update data files can reside either on the client machine, or on the Essbase Server: