Dimension and Member Properties

This table describes the dimension and member properties for Essbase (ASO) and Essbase (BSO) dimensions and members. Unless noted properties apply to both types of dimensions and members.

Table 43. Essbase (ASO) and Essbase (BSO) Dimension and Member Properties

Label

Description

 Name

Alias

Enter the alias in the text box.

Displays all alias tables defined for the database and all aliases defined for the current member.

  • Default: To assign or change the default alias name for the current dimension or member, click the existing alias name and enter the new one. Follow the proper naming rules. All databases have an alias table named Default.

  • A list of alias tables: To assign or change an alias name for the current dimension or member, click the existing alias name next to the alias table and enter the new name. Follow the proper naming rules.

Alias

Allow Duplicates In Dimension

In an outline that allows duplicate member names, select one of the following options to specify member name uniqueness at a granular level:

  • true: Duplicate member names are allowed in the dimension.

  • false: Unique member names are required within the dimension. This is the default for duplicate member name outlines.

Note:

This setting does not apply to outlines that require unique member names.

AllowDuplicatesInDimension

Attribute Type

Associate an attribute type with the selected member. Create attribute values for attributes assigned to dimension members that you can use to query on and to filter members.

Attribute types are:

  • Text

  • Boolean

  • Date

  • Numeric

For example, the attribute type for “Caffeinated” would be Boolean; data values would be True or False.

AttributeType

Comment

Enter a comment for the dimension or member. Comments can contain up to 255 characters. By default, this text box displays the current comment, if one exists.

You cannot assign a comment to an attribute dimension or member.

Comment

Compression

Create the selected dimension as the compression dimension. Oracle recommends optimizing aggregate storage databases by compressing the accounts dimension.

  • When selected, data is grouped in the dimension as (key, mulitple values).

  • When not selected, data is stored as (key, single value), (key, single value).

Note:

This setting only applies to Essbase (ASO) applications.

Compression

Consolidation

Member consolidation properties determine how children roll up into their parents. If the current member is not a dimension or an attribute, select the consolidation operator to assign to the member:

  • + (addition):

  • - (subtraction)

  • * (multiplication)

  • / (division)

  • % (percent)

  • ~ (ignore during consolidation)

  • ^ (never consolidate)

  • NotUsed

Default Value: + (addition)

See also “Calculating Attribute Data” in the Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

Note:

There are some restrictions with use of consolidation operators in aggregate storage outlines.

Consolidation

Currency

Shown if the selected item is a dimension, and if the dimension is tagged as country.

Enter the currency name, for example USD (for US dollars). When preparing a main database outline for currency conversion, you need to assign currency names to the country dimension and its members (for example, assigning dollars to the U.S., Euro to Germany, and so forth).

Note:

This setting only applies to Essbase (BSO) applications.

Currency

Currency Conversion

If the current member is a member of the accounts dimension and within a currency application, complete the following options.

Note:

This setting only applies to Essbase (BSO) applications.

Currency conversion drop-down list box. Select one of the following currency conversion options to define categories of currency exchange rates.

  • None: The member has no relationship to currency conversion. This is the default setting.

  • No Conversion: The member is not converted because it is not a currency value. It can be a value such as a quantity or percentage.

  • Category: The member requires currency conversion to the Category you specify.

See “Preparing the Main Database Outline for Currency Conversion” in the Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

CurrencyConversion

Currency Category

If the current member is a member of the accounts dimension and the member requires currency conversion, enter the type of currency conversion required.

Currency category types are the names of members of the accounts dimension of the currency database.

See also “Assigning Currency Categories to Accounts Members” in the Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

Note:

This setting only applies to Essbase (BSO) applications.

CurrencyCategory

Data Storage

Select one of the following storage options:

  • StoreData: Select to specify that the data is stored with the dimension.

  • DynamicCalcAndStore: Select to specify that the data associated with this dimension is not calculated until requested by a user. Once calculated, the data is stored.

    This option does not apply to aggregate storage outlines.

  • DynamicCalc: Select to specify that the data associated with this dimension is not calculated until requested by a user. The data is not stored but is discarded after the request is completed.

    This option does not apply to aggregate storage outlines.

  • NeverShare: Select to specify that the data associated with this dimension cannot shared, even if there is an implied share relationship, such as with a parent with one child. In this case, the data is duplicated in the parent and child.

    Note:

    This option does not apply to stored hierarchies in aggregate storage outlines.

  • LabelOnly: Select to specify that no data be associated with this dimension.

    This option has restrictions for aggregate storage outlines.

  • Share Data: For shared members. The member shares storage space with another member of the same name. In outlines enabled for duplicate member names, if the outline contains multiple members that have the same name as the member you are tagging as shared, the Duplicate Shared Member dialog box is displayed. This dialog box displays all member names in the outline that match the shared member name. Select the duplicate member that you want to be the basis for the shared member. For more information about using shared members with aggregate storage databases, see “Alternate Hierarchies” in the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator's Guide.

Default Value: NeverShare

Note:

You cannot use Performance Management Architect to create Hybrid Analysis or Advanced Relational Access cubes.

DataStorage

Dimension Solve Order

Select one of the following solve order options:

  • Existing value or 0: Select to use the solve order setting that is specified in the outline. If there is no existing setting, Essbase sets the solve order value to 0.

  • New value: Select to specify a number to represent the priority with which Essbase calculates the formulas. The formula on the member that has the highest solve order takes precedence. You can specify a solve order between 0 and 127. Values less than 0 or greater than 127 are reset to 0 and 127 respectively. No warning message is displayed. The default value is 0.

You can also specify solve order at the member level. Members that do not have a solve order inherit the solve order of their dimension.

For complete information about solve order, see “Calculation Order” in the Essbase Database Administrator's Guide.

Note:

These settings only apply to Essbase (ASO) applications.

DimensionSolveOrder

Dimension Sort Order

Enter a numeric value that indicates where the dimension should be placed in the Essbase outline. For example, if a dimension should be fourth in the outline, enter:

4

DimensionSortOrder

Expense Reporting

For an accounts member that is assigned a formula that includes the @VAR or @VARPER function, you can specify Expense or NonExpense to determine how Essbase calculates the difference between actual and budget data.

Note:

These settings only apply to Essbase (BSO) applications.

ExpenseReporting

Format String

Use format strings, to format the values (cell contents) of Essbase database members in numeric type measures so that they appear, for query purposes, as text, dates, or other types of predefined values. The resultant display value is the cell’s formatted value (FORMATTED_VALUE property in MDX).

To use this property, the Typed Measure Enabled property must be selected. This property is applicable to these dimensions and their members: Account, Time, Generic, Currency, Country, and Attribute.

Use MDX language to write the format string expression. This is the format:

MdxFormat( string_value_expression )

For example, the following format string displays negative cell values as positive values enclosed in parentheses. This expression refers to the MDX function, CellValue(), to access the cell value being formatted.

/* Enclose negative values in “(“, “)” */
IIF(CellValue() < 0,
    Concat(Concat(“(“, numtostr(-CellValue())), “)”
    numtostr(CellValue()))

See the Oracle Essbase Data Administrator's Guide and Oracle Essbase Technical Reference for more information on format strings.

FormatStringDuplicate (for dimension)

FormatString (for members)

Fully Qualified Shared Member

In outlines enabled for duplicate member names, displays the qualified name for members with duplicate (non-unique) names. A qualified member name is constructed by prefixing ancestor names to the member name, up to the ancestor that makes the name unique.

For example, if the outline has two members named New York, one under State and one under City, the qualified member names include the first ancestor name that differentiates the members from each other:

[State].[New York]

[City].[New York]

 FullyQualifiedSharedMember

Hierarchy Type

For any dimension and parent members of an aggregate storage database, select an option to define a hierarchy type:

  • Enabled: Multiple hierarchies are enabled. Select to use both stored and dynamic hierarchies in the dimension. (This option is only available on the dimension level.)

  • Disabled: Multiple hierarchies are disabled. (This option is only available on members.)

  • Stored: Select to set a dimension or a parent member as a stored hierarchy. This is the default, except for accounts dimensions.

  • Dynamic: Select to set a dimension or a parent member as a dynamic hierarchy.

    The dimension tagged as accounts is automatically considered a dynamic hierarchy. You cannot specify the accounts dimension as a stored hierarchy.

Default Value: Stored

Note:

These settings only apply to Essbase (ASO) applications.

For important information about restrictions with using dynamic and stored hierarchies, see “Hierarchies” in the Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

HierarchyType

Member Formula ASO

Enter a formula to associate with the member. Formulas for ASO (aggregate storage) must be in MDX format.

For information and other guidelines on developing formulas in MDX, see the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference.

Note:

The MemberFormula property is deprecated. Importing values for it will result in a warning and the values will be ignored. The ASOMemberFormula property should be used instead for Essbase ASO applications.

ASOMemberFormula

Member Formula BSO

Enter a formula to associate with the member. Formulas for BSO (block storage) must be in the standard Essbase calculation script format.

Note that if member names in a formula are surrounded by quotation marks, for example, "Root Beer"+"Cream Soda";, then surround the entire formula with quotations marks ("..."). Failure to do this results in Essbase stripping out the opening and closing quotation marks, for example, Root Beer"+"Cream Soda, making the formula invalid.

The correct syntax is:

""Root Beer"+"Cream Soda""

For information and other guidelines on developing formulas in calculation script format, see the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator’s Guide.

Note:

The MemberFormula property is deprecated. Importing values for it will result in a warning and the values will be ignored. The BSOMemberFormula property should be used instead for Essbase BSO applications.

BSOMemberFormula

Member Solve Order

Specify a number to represent the priority with which Essbase calculates the formulas. The formula on the member that has the highest solve order takes precedence. You can specify a solve order between 0 and 127. Values less than 0 or greater than 127 are reset to 0 and 127 respectively. No warning message is displayed.

Default Value: 0

Members that have a solve order of 0 inherit the solve order of their dimension. Members with the same solve order are evaluated in the order in which their dimensions appear in the database outline, unless otherwise specified by the dimension sort order property. Members with no solve order are evaluated after members with a solve order.

Note:

These settings only apply to Essbase (ASO) applications.

For more information, see “Calculation Order” in the Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

MemberSolveOrder

Named Level

Specify a unique name for a level that can be applied to all logically-related named generations. For example, a named level called Product can apply to all levels containing products.

See Working with Named Levels (Essbase (ASO) and Essbase (BSO) Only).

NamedLevel

Named Generation

Specify a unique name to associate related members. For example, a generation called Regional Revenue contains the revenue figures produced in each region.

See Working with Named Generations (Essbase (ASO) and Essbase (BSO) Only).

NamedGeneration

Period Type

Specify the kind of time period, such as Base Time Period or Year Time Period

PeriodType

Level Usage for Aggregation (For base dimensions.)

Restricts the levels for base dimensions which can be selected by the view selection engine during aggregation operations.

Select one of the following options:

  • Default: The view selection engine is free to decide which levels to pick. This is the initial value for new hierarchies.

  • AllLevels: The view selection engine considers all levels of the hierarchy for aggregation.

  • NoAggregatopm: The view selection engine cannot select any levels for aggregation.

  • TopLevelOnly: The view selection engine considers only the highest level of the dimension for aggregation.

  • BottomTop: The view selection engine considers only the highest level and the lowest level of the dimension for aggregation.

Note:

These settings only apply to Essbase (ASO) applications.

PrimaryLevelWeighting

Level Usage for Aggregation

(For attribute dimensions.)

Restricts the levels for attributes which can be selected by the view selection engine during aggregation operation.

Select one of the following options:

  • Default: The view selection engine is free to decide which levels to pick. This is the initial value for new hierarchies.

  • AllLevels : The view selection engine considers all levels of the hierarchy for aggregation.

  • NoAggregation: The view selection engine cannot select any levels for aggregation.

  • BottomLevelOnly: The view selection engine considers only the bottom level of the attribute dimension for aggregation.

Note:

These settings only apply to Essbase (ASO) applications.

SecondaryLevelWeighting

Skip Value

Select an option to determine what Essbase skips, or ignores, during a time balance calculation. You can only specify skip settings if you set the time balance properties as first, last, or average.

  • None: Select to include zeros and missing values when calculating parent values.

    Note:

    If Essbase encounters #MISSING values when calculating, the #MISSING values are not divided by the total number of members. Instead, the #MISSING values are divided by the number of members with actual values.

  • Missing: Select to exclude #MISSING values when calculating parent values.

  • Zeros: Select to exclude zeros when calculating parent values.

  • Missing and zeros: Select to exclude #MISSING values and zeros when calculating parent values.

Default Value: None

SkipValue

Smart List

 Specify a unique name containing alphanumeric and underscore characters, and no special characters or spaces.

When you specify a measure “Type” as text, use a Smart List to map text-based content to measures. Storage and analysis of textual content can be useful when a cell needs to have one of a finite list of textual values; for example, a product may be sold in five different colors. The color is a text measure whose value must be one of the five colors. The colors are a set of text strings mapped to corresponding numeric IDs. These mappings are contained in dimension-level Smart List objects that you create.

See Creating Smart Lists and Modifying Smart List Dimension Properties.

SmartList

Time Balance

Select an option to set time balance properties on the accounts dimension.

  • Existing definition or none: Use the setting specified in the outline. If there is no existing setting, Essbase sets the time balance property to none. This is the default.

  • None: Use no time balance properties. Member values are calculated in the default manner.

  • First: Select as the time balance property when the parent value represents the value at the beginning of a time period.

  • Average: Select as the time balance property when the parent value represents the average value of a time period.

  • Last: Select as the time balance property when a parent value represents the value at the end of a time period.

  • Skip property: Select one of the following options to determine what Essbase skips, or ignores, during a time balance calculation. You can only specify skip settings if you set the time balance properties as first, last, or average.

    • None: Select to include zeros and missing values when calculating parent values.

      Note:

      If Essbase encounters #MISSING values when calculating, the #MISSING values are not divided by the total number of members. Instead, the #MISSING values are divided by the number of members with actual values.

    • Missing: Select to exclude #MISSING values when calculating parent values.

    • Zeros: Select to exclude zeros when calculating parent values.

    • Missing and zeros: Select to exclude #MISSING values and zeros when calculating parent values.

Note:

When you define the value for this property at the parent level, all children automatically inherit the value.

Note:

These options do not apply to Essbase applications: Fill, Flow, Balance, Weighted Average - Actual Average, Weighted Average, Actual 365.

For Essbase application deployments: If Time Balance is set to Balance, the property is sent to Essbase as Last; If Time Balance is set to Flow, it is sent to Essbase as None.

Default Value: Existing definition or none

TimeBalance

Two Pass Calculation

Select this check box to calculate a dimension on the second pass through the outline.

Note:

These settings only apply to Essbase (BSO) applications.

TwoPassCalc

Type

Select an option:

  • Numeric: the default

  • Text: select if the member is a text measure.

  • Date: select if the member is a date measure

If the type is Text, you must associate this member with a Smart List.

If the type is Date, you must associate a date format with this member.

Default Value: Numeric

Type

UDA

Enter the UDA name for the selected member. Multiple UDAs must be comma separated; for example: Small Market,New Market.

UDA

Variance Reporting

Select one of the following options to determine how to calculate the difference between actual and budget data.

Note:

When you define the value for this property at the parent level, all children automatically inherit the value.

  • Existing definition or non-expense: Select to use the setting specified in the outline to calculate the difference between actual and budget data. If there is no existing setting, Essbase stores the dimension as non-expense. This is the default.

  • Non-expense: Select to set the member as non-expense. When you budget non-expense items, such as sales, you want the actual sales to be greater than the budget. When the actual sales is lower than the budget, the variance is negative.

  • Expense: Select to set the member as an expense. When you budget expenses for a period, you want the actual expenses to be lower than the budget. When actual expenses are greater than the budget, the variance is negative.

Default Value: NonExpense

Note:

These settings only apply to Essbase (BSO) applications.

VarianceReporting