Rule and Rule Member Considerations

As you work with rules and rule members in Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, keep in mind the following considerations:

• For each unique rule in Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, there will be a corresponding rule member in Oracle Essbase that matches the rule name. The rule member is created in Essbase during the first calculation run after the rule is created in the Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management Rule Designer. It is advisable to refresh the cube after creating new rules. (See Using the Rule Designer and Calculating a Model).

• All rule names must be unique within a model.

• A rule can exist in multiple models.

  This is because each model has its own definition of the rule, so the definition of the rule can vary from one model to another. In that sense, they are different rules. But since they both share the same rule name, they both share the same rule member in Essbase; so in that sense, they are the same rule.

• Deleting a rule in the Rule Designer does not delete the rule members associated with that rule. This is important to understand because deleting a rule member also deletes the data associated with the rule member. (See Deleting a Rule or Rule Set.)

• The only way to delete a rule member is from the Edit Member Properties page accessed from the Application, Dimensions tab. (See Deleting Members,)

• Rule members can have attributes and UDAs.

  Attributes and UDAs make it possible to categorize rules. (See Working with Attributes.)

• If a rule that has been calculated is renamed, then a new member with the new rule name is added to the cube. The old member name still persists, and any data associated with that member name remains in the cube.