Creating a Business Rule

A business rule is a Calculation Manager object that consists of calculations grouped into components.

A rule can contain one or more components, templates, or rules.

You can create business rules for applications to which you have access. Your ability to create rules is determined by the role you are assigned. (See Administering User Provisioning for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud).

Rules are represented graphically in a flow chart into which you can drag and drop components to design the rule.

To create a business rule:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • In System View, Custom View, Deployment View, or Filter View, click New Object icon, and then enter the information in the New Object dialog box. Make sure to select Rule as the Object Type.

    • In System View, right-click Rules, then select New, and then enter the information in the New Rule dialog box.

    Note:

    The following characters are not allowed in the rule name: '\r', '\n', '\t', '\f', '\b', '<', '>', '(', ')', '"', '\\', '{', '}', '[', ']', '*', '?'
  2. In the Rule Designer, select objects under New Objects and Existing Objects, and then drop them into the flow chart between Begin and End.

    Note the following:

    • When you drag an existing formula or script component into the flow chart, by default, the formula or script becomes a shared object. If you do not want it to be shared, clear the Shared check box in the formula or script component's Properties. See Sharing Script and Formula Components.

    • To view a script component in its graphical format, right-click the script component in the flow chart, and then select Convert to Graphical.

      A script component is converted to its graphical format only if the script is valid. To undo the conversion to graphical format, right-click the script component, and then select Undo.

    • You can create objects like formulas and scripts independently of the rule, and add them to the rule later.

    • To work with a business rule in its non-graphical format (its script format), click the drop-down next to Designer, and then select Edit Script (See Editing a Business Rule in Script Mode.)

  3. Enter Properties for the rule.

    The properties change as you add components to the rule and move among the components in the flow chart. To enter properties for a specific component, select the component in the flow chart.

    The following properties are displayed when you select Begin or End in the flow chart.

    • General—Name, description, and comments

    • Location—Application and plan type

    • Options—Options specific to the current application

      Table 4-1 Options

      Property Description
      Create Dynamic Members Create members when you specify a default dynamic parent in a variable of the member type with runtime prompts enabled.

      If you create dynamic members in a business rule, and select a default dynamic parent, the children members of the parent are automatically created before the rule is launched in your application.

      Note: If you select Create Dynamic Member, the newly-created members are deleted if the business rule fails to launch.

      Note: This property is not available for Financial Consolidation and Close applications.

      Delete Dynamic Members Delete members when you specify a default dynamic parent in a variable of the member type with runtime prompts enabled.

      If you delete dynamic members in a business rule, and select a default dynamic parent, the children members of the parent are automatically deleted after the rule is launched in your application.

      Note: This property is not available for Financial Consolidation and Close applications.

      Enable Notifications Enable a business rule to send an email notification to a logged on user when the rule launches with or without errors.
  4. Enter or review information on the following tabs in the Rule Designer:
    • Global Range—Define common dimensions in business rule components.

      See Defining Common Dimensions In Business Rule Components.

    • Variables—Review and define information about the variables used in the business rule.

      The Variables tab displays only when the business rule contains runtime prompt values.

      For non-groovy rules, variables of type member or members are the only supported types of variables for Planning cubes of type Aggregate Storage Option (ASO)

    • Script—View the generated script for the rule.

      You cannot make changes on this tab. To make changes to the script, select Edit Script in the drop down next to Designer.

    • Usages—View which rules and rulesets use the rule.

      You cannot edit the information on this tab. By default, a rule is not used by any rules or rulesets when you create it.

    • Errors and Warnings—Click Script Diagnostics button to run script diagnostics for the business rule. When you do this, Calculation Manager analyzes the business rule script, and displays either:

      • Validation errors, if the rule does not validate.

        To fix a validation error, right-click the error, and then select Show in Script or Show in Designer. When you select Show in Designer, Calculation Manager displays the component with the error, where you can make the necessary changes, save the rule, and rerun script diagnostics. To edit the component, you must be in the Designer view.

      • Summary, Warnings, and Blocks, if the rule validates.

        Click on a warning or block item, and then select Show in Script or Show in Designer. You can only edit the components in the Designer view.

        • Summary—Statistics such as the number of data cells in the calculation, the number of passes through the data, and the number of dimensions that are used incorrectly.

        • Warnings—Information such as whether all sparse dimensions are specified for cell references, whether a cell references sparse members, and whether an assignment references sparse dimension members in different data blocks.

        • Blocks—Information such as: "For each Fix statement, what is the potential and estimated number of blocks that could be affected by the fix statement?"

  5. Click Save button to save the rule.