OLAP Spreadsheet Add-in User's Guide for Excel

Before You Start

Before starting the tutorial, you should have a working familiarity with the Hyperion Essbase product through the use of the Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in interface. As a prerequisite, you should review A Basic Hyperion EssbaseTutorial"Chapter 3. A Basic Hyperion Essbase Tutorial" and An Advanced Hyperion Essbase Tutorial"Chapter 4. An Advanced Hyperion Essbase Tutorial" of this guide.

A sample Hyperion Essbase database is the basis for the examples in this tutorial. The database administrator creates this sample Hyperion Essbase database using the sample metaoutline supplied with Integration Server. For more information, see the Hyperion Integration Server Desktop OLAP Model User's Guide. A sample Excel file, Dtreport.xls, contains a sheet with the appropriate member intersections for the sample Drill-Through report. For more information on the sample database, Excel file, and Drill-Through report, see About the Samples Used in This Tutorial.

If you plan to follow the examples in a live working session, check with the person at your organization who installs the Hyperion Integration Server product family for information on the sample database needed for Drill-Through, and to which Hyperion Essbase server you should connect.

Before starting the tutorial, make sure you meet the following requirements:

• You must install the following components on your client PC:
  • A 32-bit version of Excel (for example, Excel 97, or Excel 2000)
  • Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in for Excel
  • Drill-Through

    The Drill-Through module is installed automatically when you install Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in. This module is transparent until you invoke it from the Linked Objects Browser. For more information on installation, contact the Hyperion Essbase System Administrator.

• The Hyperion Essbase System Administrator must install the Hyperion Essbase server.
• You must have access to the Hyperion Essbase Integration Server and to the Hyperion Essbase server. For more information, contact the Hyperion Essbase System Administrator or the person who administers Integration Server at your organization.
• You must have access to the underlying relational database (typically using a user name and password that are different from Hyperion Essbase). For more information, contact the Hyperion Essbase System Administrator or the person who administers Hyperion Essbase Integration Server at your organization.
• Make sure that the sample Excel file, Dtreport.xls, is available in the \Essbase\Client\Sample directory.
• The sample database that contains the Drill-Through report must be set up and running. The sample Drill-Through report used in this tutorial (called "Promotion Media Mix for Cities") is available with the sample database. Contact the person at your organization who installs Integration Server to find out the name of the sample database needed for Drill-Through.

Keep in mind the following guidelines during the tutorial:

• Each tutorial task builds upon the previous task and tasks must be followed in succession.
• Tasks that should not be performed as part of the tutorial appear in gray boxes. These tasks are included for your reference. You can find more information on these tasks in the Integration Server Drill-Through online help.
• The examples used in this tutorial are based on the sample database that is included with the Integration Server installation. Contact the person at your organization who installs Integration Server for information about accessing the sample database.
• Set the options in the Hyperion Essbase Options dialog box as described in the following section, Setting Hyperion Essbase Options If the option settings are different, the illustrations presented in this chapter may not match the spreadsheet view.
• If you make a mistake during the tutorial, choose Essbase > FlashBack to return to the previous spreadsheet view.

Setting Hyperion Essbase Options

Before you begin the tutorial, make sure that the spreadsheet options are set to the initial settings as illustrated in the following figures. If the option settings are different, the illustrations presented in this chapter may not match the spreadsheet view.

Note:

For information about each option in the Hyperion Essbase Options dialog box, click Help to see the Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in online help.

1. From the Spreadsheet menu, choose Essbase > Options.
2. In the Essbase Options dialog box select the Display tab.
3. Select the appropriate check boxes and option buttons so that your display matches the following illustration:

   Figure 175. Initial Settings for Display Options
   

4. Select the Zoom tab.
5. Select the appropriate check boxes and option buttons so that your display matches the following illustration:

   Figure 176. Initial Settings for Zoom Options
   

6. Select the Mode tab.
7. Select the appropriate check boxes and option buttons so that your display matches the following illustration:

   Figure 177. Initial Settings for Mode Options
   

8. Select the Style tab.
9. Select the appropriate check boxes and option buttons so that your display matches the following illustration:

   Figure 178. Initial Settings for Style Options
   

10. Select the Global tab.
11. Select the appropriate check boxes and option buttons so that your display matches the following illustration:

    Figure 179. Initial Settings for Global Options
    

12. Click OK to save the settings for this session and close the Essbase Options dialog box.

About the Samples Used in This Tutorial

The sample database used for this tutorial contains the following dimensions: Scenario, Products, Package, Markets, Accounts, Time, and Channel. The sample Excel file provides a particular view from this database:

Figure 180. View from Sample Database

For this spreadsheet view, detail-level data exists in a relational data source--data that is not available from Hyperion Essbase. For example, the relational source contains columns of data for cities, seasons, and different types of media (for example, print, radio, and so forth). This tutorial walks you through a sample Integration Server Drill-Through session, where you will drill down from the data shown above into the detail data from the relational source.

This tutorial uses a sample Hyperion Drill-Through report called "Promotion Media Mix for Cities." As with all Hyperion Drill-Through reports, this report has been predefined to retrieve specific columns from the relational source. You will use the Drill-Through Wizard to customize the predefined report.

Note:

The sample file also contains a second sample report, called "City Demographics," that you can use for Drill-Through practice.