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 64 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.
To send a report specification as a single string, have the program call EsbReport() and pass the entire report string, not greater than 32 KB long, as an argument. If the Output flag is set to TRUE in the call to EsbReport(), the program must also read the returned report data by calling EsbGetString() repeatedly until a NULL string is returned. The returned data can then be displayed, written to a file, or printed, as required.
To send a report specification as a series of strings, first call EsbBeginReport(), then call EsbSendString() repeatedly to send each string in the report specification (note that in Windows, each individual string must not be greater than 32 KB long). Finally, terminate the report specification by calling EsbEndReport(). If the Output flag is set to TRUE in the call to EsbBeginReport(), the program must also read the returned report data by calling EsbGetString() repeatedly until a NULL string is returned. The returned data can then be displayed, written to a file, or printed, as required.
To send a file as a report specification, use the EsbReportFile() function, passing the report file name. If the Output flag is set to TRUE in the call to EsbReportFile(), the program must also read the returned report data by calling EsbGetString() repeatedly until a NULL string is returned. The returned data can then be displayed, written to a file, or printed, as required.