Substitution variables act as global placeholders for information that changes regularly. Each variable has an assigned value that can be changed centrally on the Essbase server. Substitution variables are especially useful for developing and reporting on rolling forecasts. When you select substitution variables as members on the data form, their values are based on dynamically generated information. For example, you could set the current month member to the substitution variable CurMnth so that when the month changes, you need not update the month value manually in the data form or the report script.
When you open or calculate values on data forms, Essbase replaces substitution variables with values assigned to them. By default, each substitution variable is retrieved and cached from the Essbase server every five minutes (or 300 seconds). You can change the retrieval interval by adding the SUBST_VAR_CACHE_LIFETIME property and setting its value in seconds.
You create and assign values to substitution variables using Administration Services Console or ESSCMD. These substitution variables are then available in Planning when you select members for a data form.
Substitution variables must be appropriate for the context in data forms. For example, you could select a substitution variable named CurrQtr with a value of Qtr2 as a member of the Time Period dimension. It is not valid to select a substitution variable named CurrYr for the Year dimension if its value is Feb. You can set substitution variables on the Essbase server, application, or database level. The same substitution variable can exist on multiple levels; Planning uses the first one it finds as it searches in this order: 1) database 2) application 3) server.
You can select from substitution variables if they are enabled for runtime prompts in business rules, and their values match a member set in the runtime prompt for a business rule.
Planning checks the validity of substitution variables when they are used (for example, when the data form is opened). It does not check when you design data forms, so you should test substitution variables by saving and opening data forms.
For information on errors generated when substitution variables are calculated, you can check several logs. See the Essbase server log for information on attempts to use a substitution variable that is no longer contained in Essbase. See the Planning log for information on substitution variables that are not valid in the data form. For information about logs, see the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Troubleshooting Guide.
To specify substitution variables in data forms:
Create the data form (see Creating Simple Data Forms).
On Member Selection, select substitution variables the same way you select members, using the right, left, and double arrows to move substitution variables to and from Selected Members.
When selected, a substitution variable is preceded by an ampersand (&). For example:
&CurrentScenario