Next Generation Outline Extractor - New Version Available

Today we released a new version of the Next Generation Outline Extractor, version 2.0.3.769.  Here are the release notes from this new version:

Version 2.0.3.769 supports the following Essbase versions:

9.3.1
9.3.1.1
9.3.1.2
9.3.3
11.1.1
11.1.1.1
11.1.1.2
11.1.1.3
11.1.1.4
11.1.2
11.1.2.1
11.1.2.1.102
11.1.2.1.103
11.1.2.1.104
11.1.2.1.105
11.1.2.1.106
11.1.2.2
11.1.2.2.102
11.1.2.2.103
11.1.2.2.104
11.1.2.3
11.1.2.3.001
11.1.2.3.002
11.1.2.3.003
11.1.2.3.500
11.1.2.3.501
11.1.2.3.502
11.1.2.3.505
11.1.2.4

Issues resolved in version 2.0.3.769:

2015.02.15 - Issue 1355 - All Writers - Add functionality to replace all line feeds, carriage returns, tabs, and extraneous spaces in formulas

2015.02.13 - Issue 1354 - RelationalWriter - Changed the default database name from dodeca to extractor

2015.02.13 - Issue 1353 - RelationalWriter - Added CONSOLIDATION_TYPE_SYMBOL, SHARE_FLAG_SYMBOL, TIME_BALANCE, TIME_BALANCE_SYMBOL, TIME_BALANCE_SKIP, TIME_BALANCE_SKIP_SYMBOL, EXPENSE_FLAG, EXPENSE_FLAG_SYMBOL, TWO_PASS_FLAG, and TWO_PASS_FLAG_SYMBOL columns to the CACHED_OUTLINE_MEMBERS table

2015.02.13 - Issue 1352 - RelationalWriter - Added Server, Application, and Cube columns to the CACHED_OUTLINE_VERSIONS table

2015.02.13 - Issue 1351 - Fixed issue with LoadFileWriter where UDA column headers were incorrectly written in the form UDAS0,DimName instead of UDA0,DimName

In addition, a number of fixes, etc, were put into 2.0.2 and earlier releases and those releases went unannounced.  Those updates included the following items:

1. There is no longer a default .properties file for the Extractor.  This will force a user to specify a .properties file.  (2.0.2.601)
2. Removed the "/" character as a switch for command line arguments as it causes problems in Linux. (2.0.2.605)
3. Fixed issue when combining MaxL input with relational output where a "not supported" error message would appear due to certain properties were not being read correctly from the XML file (2.0.2.601)
4. Command line operations resulted in an error due to an improper attempt to interact with the GUI progress bar. (2.0.2.601)
5. Shared members attributes where not be properly written resulting in a delimiter/column count mismatch. (2.0.2.625)
6. Added encoding options where a user can choose between UTF-8 and ANSI encodings.  The Extractor will attempt to detect encoding from selected outline and, if the detected outline encoding is different from the user selected outline encoding, a warning message appears.

Ephemeral Port Issue with Essbase Has Been Fixed!

The issue that has plagued a number of Essbase customers over the years related to running out of available ports has finally been fixed!

This issue, which often manifested itself with errors in the Essbase error 10420xx range, was caused by how the Essbase Java API communicated with the server. In essence, whenever a piece of information was needed, the Essbase Java API grabbed a port from the pool of available ports, did its business, and then released the port back to the pool. That doesn’t sound bad, but the problem occurs due to how Windows handles this pool of ports. Windows will put the port into a timeout status for a period of time before it makes the port available for reuse and the default timeout in Windows is 4 minutes! Further, the size of the available pool of ports is only about 16,000 ports in the later versions of Windows. That may sound like a lot of ports, but the speed of modern computers makes it possible, and even likely, that certain operations, such as the outline APIs, that call Essbase many, many times to get information would be subject to this issue. Frankly, we see this issue quite often with both VB and the Java Essbase Outline Extractors.

We brought this issue to the attention of the Java API team and assisted them by testing a prerelease version of the Java API jars. I am happy to report the fix was released with Essbase 11.1.2.3.502. In addition, there is a new essbase.properties setting that allows you to turn the optimization on or off:

olap.system.socketoptimization=false

It is our understanding that this optimization is turned on by default. I also checked the default essbase.properties files shipped with both Essbase 11.1.2.3.502 and 11.1.2.4 and did not see that setting in those files. It may be one of those settings that is there in case it messes something else up. The work of our own Jay Zuercher in our labs and searching Oracle Support seems to have confirmed that thought. There is apparently an issue where EIS drill-through reports don't work in Smart View if socket optimization is turned on. It is documented in Oracle Support Doc ID 1959533.1.

There is also another undocumented essbase.properties setting:

olap.server.socketIdleTime

According to Oracle development, this value defaults to 300 ms but there should be little need to ever change it. The only reason it is there is to tune socket optimization in case more than 2 sockets are used per Java API session.

Jay also tested the 11.1.2.4 version in our labs with the Next Generation Outline Extractor. With the default settings, one large test outline we have, "BigBad", with about 120,000 members in it, extracted in 1 minute and 50 seconds.  With socket optimization turned off, the same outline was only about 25% complete after 2 hours.   In summary, this fix will be very useful for a lot of Oracle customers.

Essbase VB API is Officially Dead

It is with a sad heart that bring you the news that, as of Essbase 11.1.2.4, the Essbase VB API is officially dead.  I cut my teeth in Essbase working with that API way back in the mid-1990's, but the writing had been on the wall for some time.  Microsoft stopped supporting VB years ago, so it was only a matter of time before this time would come.  That being said, I haven't used the VB API for any new Essbase work since about 2001; the Essbase Java API is alive and growing so my efforts have been there.

Here is the official notification:

You can read the notification yourself in the Essbase 11.1.2.4 Readme.