Introduction to Cube Designer - Extension Deployment

The Cube Designer extension installation files are currently located on the EssCS server and are placed there by the EssCS installer.  They are in a location which can be accessed via URL so that the following standard Smart View process can be supported.

Standard Smart View Client Install Process

1. User signs on to the EssCS web UI.

2. User navigates to the utilities page and clicks on Smart View client link.

3. User signs on to OTN and downloads the Smart View installer.

4. The user installs the Smart View client.

Note:  The Smart View client installation can be scripted by an administrator and distributed to an end user community.

Standard Extension Install Process via Smart View

1. The user starts Excel.

2. User creates a private connection in Smart View to the EssCS server.  This connection information is used to locate the Cube Designer extension installation files.  If this connection information does not exist, the standard process is broken.

3. User opens the Options dialog and navigates to the Extensions tab.

4. The user clicks the “Check for Updates, Installs and Uninstalls” link.

5. The user is prompted by Smart View to sign on to the EssCS server.

6. The Cube Designer shows up in the list of extensions.

7. The user clicks the install button next to the Cube Designer extension.

8. Once the install is completed, the user must close all Office products and re-open Excel to get the extension to appear.

By placing a new version of the Cube Designer on the EssCS server, the Smart View client has the following built-in update capability.

Standard Extension Update Process via Smart View

1. The user starts Excel.

2. User opens the Options dialog and navigates to the Extensions tab.

3. The user clicks the “Check for Updates, Installs and Uninstalls” link.

4. The user is prompted by Smart View to sign on to the EssCS server.

5. The user clicks the update button next to the Cube Designer extension.

6. Once the install is completed, the user must re-open Excel to get the extension to appear.

Standard Extension Removal Process via Smart View

1. The user starts Excel.

2. User opens the Options dialog and navigates to the Extensions tab.

3. The user clicks the “Remove” button next to the Cube Designer extension.

4. Once the removal is completed, the user must re-open Excel to get the extension to not appear.

Manual Extension Install/Update Process

1. The user must close all Office products before proceeding

2. The user starts a browser and connects to the OAC-Essbase UI.

3. User clicks on the Console button.

4. The user clicks the Download button next to the Smart View Extension item in the list.

5. The user selects Run when prompted to save or run the downloaded file.

Note:  When prompted to download, instead of running it one can simply download the SVEXT installation file and double click it to install the extension as well.

Manual Extension Removal Process

The user can manually remove the Cube Designer extension by deleting the Oracle.SmartView.CubeDesignerExtension folder in this directory:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Oracle\SmartView\extensions\Bin

Introduction to Cube Designer - Overview

With the Essbase Cloud, we are introducing a new set of functionality for quickly creating Essbase cubes based upon Excel workbooks.  An end user can literally go from an Excel workbook to a fully functional Essbase cube in a matter of seconds.

How?
One new capability of the Essbase Cloud is that a table of data contained within an Excel workbook can be uploaded to the cloud.  An algorithm will then be applied to this table of data to determine the shape of the cube including dimensions and hierarchies.  The data will be loaded into the cube and all aggregations will be set to dynamically calc at query time.

Another new capability of the Essbase Cloud is what we are calling Design by Example (or DBX).  DBX can be thought of as a contract between an Excel workbook and the Essbase Cloud.  A DBX workbook has a pre-determined layout and format that the Essbase Cloud understands and when sent to the Essbase Cloud, will result in a fully functional Essbase cube.

What is it? 
The Cube Designer is an Excel Add-in.  Since Oracle already has a great Microsoft Office platform called Smart View, the Cube Designer was developed as a Smart View extension in order to seamlessly integrate into the Smart View paradigm.

What does it do? 
The Cube Designer will allow an end user to quickly create their own Essbase cubes in the Essbase Cloud using Excel.

The Cube Designer supports using either a table format or a DBX format Excel workbook to build a cube in the Essbase Cloud.

The Cube Designer can be used in both a connected and disconnected mode.

The Cube Designer allows access to a Gallery of Excel workbooks in both DBX and table formats.  These workbooks can be used to jump start the cube building process.

The Cube Designer also allows the user to create their own private workbooks for building Essbase cubes.

The Cube Designer has the capability to generate a DBX workbook based upon any existing Essbase Cloud cube, and download it to the client.

The Cube Designer uses the new Essbase REST APIs for communicating with the Essbase Cloud.  Most operations on the cloud are submitted as jobs and run asynchronously.

The Cube Designer contains a wizard that will aid a user in mapping the fields of a table into the dimensional hierarchies of the cube.

With the Cube Designer the user can build the structure of the cube, load data into the cube and calculate the data in the cube.  This can be done as one operation or multiple separate operations.

The Cube Designer employs a local job manager to track the operations submitted from the client.  This allows the user the flexibility to manage their jobs across multiple servers and applications.

The Cube Designer is seamlessly integrated with the ad-hoc query capabilities of Smart View.  Once a cube is generated, a Smart View quick connection is automatically created for the user and they can immediately start querying the data in the new cube.

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After some time we are making a come back, this time with more authors and expanded topics!  Stay tuned for great posts about everything and anything Essbase.