Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
The Essbase Report Script
Just like other Essbase file objects, Essbase database report scripts are actually ASCII
text file objects with an extension of
.rep
. As with other similar Essbase file objects,
they must also follow the same naming convention of upto 8 characters, and the
directory path must not contain any spaces.
An Essbase report script may be stored anywhere in the file system, but is considered
to be in its default location when saved into the database folder on the analytic
server, much the same as a database calculation script. The benefit of storing the
report script file objects in their default location comes when you are coding an API
or EssCmd function, you only need to mention the name of the report script and not
the fully qualified path to that particular object.
Okay, so what exactly is an Essbase report script? Well, an Essbase report script
is an ASCII text file that contains commands or instructions for data retrieval,
formatting, and output that Essbase uses to extract data from an Essbase cube into
either a formatted report or an ASCII text flat file that can be sent to downstream
systems as a data feed.
While report scripts are certainly capable of creating reports, hence the name,
an Essbase report script is more than likely used to extract data into flat files.
Most Essbase users seem to prefer reports created in Microsoft Excel as opposed
to free standing plain paper reports.
Although most report scripts are created to extract data from
a database for export to other systems, a properly written
Essbase report script can be pasted into a blank Microsoft
Excel worksheet and then retrieved. Essbase will interpret the
commands and dump the data into the worksheet.
