The use of aliases to identify objects is a common business practice. In Essbase, an alias is an alternate name for a member or shared member. For example, members in the Product dimension in the Sample Basic database are identified both by product codes, such as 100, and by more descriptive aliases, such as Cola. Aliases, stored in alias tables, can improve the readability of an outline or a report. Aliases can be grouped by languages, regions, or descriptive names.
Using alias sets, you can specify more than one alias for a member. For example, you can use different aliases for different kinds of reports—users may be familiar with 100-10 as Cola, but advertisers and executives may be familiar with it as The Best Cola. This list shows some products in the Sample Basic database that have two descriptive alias names:
Product Default Long Names 100-10 Cola The Best Cola 100-20 Diet Cola Diet Cola with Honey 100-30 Caffeine Free Cola All the Cola, none of the Caffeine
You create alias sets in the Alias Set Manager. An alias set maps a specific, named set of alias names to member names. For each element in the logical tree, you assign one alias for each alias set defined in the catalog. Unlike Essbase, there is no default alias table. You specify all alias tables, including a Default alias table if you choose, in the Alias Set Manager. You then associate alias sets to members in an Essbase model before the cube deployment process in these ways:
By applying one or more alias sets to all members at the Essbase model level
By applying one or more alias sets at the dimension and member level
For more information, see Working with Alias Sets.