Creating and Managing Aliases

An alias is an alternate name for a member or shared member. This chapter describes how to create and manage alias tables in an Hyperion Essbase OLAP Server outline. It contains the following sections:

Introducing Aliases and Alias Tables

You can assign one or more alternate names, or aliases, to a member or a shared member. Aliases can improve the readability of an outline or a report. For example, members in the Sample Basic database's Product dimension are identified both by product codes, such as 100, and by more descriptive aliases, such as Cola.

Rules for Aliases

Use the following rules when creating aliases:

The naming conventions for aliases are the same as those for member names. See Rules for Naming Dimensions and Members.

You can select different aliases based on the combination of other dimension members. An alias based on a combination of members is called an alias combination. Table 11-1 shows members with a different alias for each market in which they are sold:

*Table 11-1: Different Aliases Based on Member Combinations*
Product	Market Names	Market
100-10	The Best Cola	All, unless different for specific market
100-10	Kola	New York
100-10	Cool Cola	California

For information on creating alias combinations, see Creating Aliases for Member Combinations.

You can set more than one alias for a member using alias tables. For example, you could use different aliases for different kinds of reports--users may be familiar with 100-10 as Cola, but advertisers and executives may be familiar with it as The Best Cola. Table 11-2 shows some products in the Sample Basic database that have two descriptive alias names:

*Table 11-2: Members with Two Aliases*
Product	Default	Long Names
100-10	Cola	The Best Cola
100-20	Diet Cola	Diet Cola with Honey
100-30	Caffeine Free Cola	All the Cola, none of the Caffeine

For information on creating multiple aliases, see Creating New Alias Tables.

Introducing Alias Tables

Aliases are stored in one or more tables as part of a database outline. When you create a database outline, Hyperion Essbase creates an empty alias table called Default. If you don't create any other alias tables, all of the aliases that you create are stored in the Default alias table.

If you want to create more than one alias for a member or set of members, create a new alias table and set it as your current alias table. Then create one or more new aliases. These aliases are stored in the new alias table. Table 11-2, for example, shows two alias tables. The first alias table is named Default and the second alias table is named Long Names. When users retrieve data, they see the aliases in whichever table that they pick. For more information, see Creating New Alias Tables and Setting Alias Tables.

Note:

You can create up to 10 alias tables for each outline.

Format of an Alias Table

An alias table contains a column listing all of the members followed by a column listing all of the aliases that correspond to those members. Alias tables must use the following format:

$ALT_NAME must be at the top of the table.
Database member names must be in the first field of the file. If a member name contains embedded blanks, enclose it in double quotes.
Alias names must be in the second field of the file. If an alias name contains embedded blanks, enclose it in double quotes.

Figure 11-1 shows a sample alias table:

Figure 11-1: Sample Alias Table

$ALT_NAME
100              Cola
"member name 2"  "Alias Name 2"
$END

Use the DISPLAYALIAS command in ESSCMD to view the all aliases in an alias table. See the online Technical Reference in the DOCS directory for information about this command. See Performing Interactive and Batch Operations Using ESSCMD for information about ESSCMD.

Creating Aliases for Members

You can create aliases for members. For more information on aliases, see Introducing Aliases and Alias Tables.

To create an alias in the Outline Editor:

Select the member for which the alias is to be defined; for example, 100-10.
Click the Data Dictionary button, , press the Enter key, or select Edit > Properties to open the Member Properties dialog box.
Figure 11-2: Member Properties Dialog Box
Enter the alias name (for example, Colas) into the Alias text box on the Member Info page.

Note: Member names and alias names can be up to 80 characters.

Creating Aliases for Member Combinations

You can create aliases for non-attribute members that are based on member combinations. For more information on aliases, see Introducing Aliases and Alias Tables.

To set an alias based on a member combination:

In Outline Editor, select the member for which the alias is to be defined; for example, 100-10.
Click the Data Dictionary button, , press the Enter key or select Edit > Properties to open the Member Properties dialog box.
Click the Alias Combinations tab.
Figure 11-3: Alias Combinations Page

The Alias Combinations page contains the following items:
- Alias list box, which shows each alias name and the alias member combination string on which it is based.
- Add button, which lets you add a new alias to the list. Member names and alias names can be up to 79 characters long.
- Edit button, which lets you edit the definition for the currently selected item.
- Delete button, which lets you delete the currently selected item.
Click the Add button to open the Edit Alias dialog box:
Figure 11-4: Edit Alias Dialog Box
Enter the alias in the Alias text box; for example, Cool Cola.
Either enter the member combination string in the Member Combination String text box or select the members from the Dimension and Member list boxes. To expand or contract the Member List, double-click the expand/contract box in front of the member name. To add the member to the combination list, select the member.
Click OK.

Creating New Alias Tables

To create a new alias table for the selected outline:

Select Outline > Aliases > Create Table to open the Create Alias Table dialog box.
Figure 11-5: Create Alias Table Dialog Box
Enter the name of the new alias table in the Name text box.

Note: You can create up to 10 alias tables for an outline.
If desired, set the new alias table as the current table by selecting Set as Current Table.
Click OK.

Setting Alias Tables

Hyperion Essbase uses the current alias table as the source for the aliases displayed in the outline. For more information on alias tables, see Introducing Alias Tables.

To set an alias table to be the current alias table:

Select Outline > Aliases > Set Table to open the Set Current Alias Table dialog box.
Figure 11-6: Set Current Alias Table Dialog Box
Select the alias table from the Alias Table list box. If the alias table that you want to use is not in the list box, you must create it. See Creating New Alias Tables.
Click OK.

You can view and set the current alias table using ESSCMD, as explained in the following table.


To perform this task...	Use this ESSCMD...	For example...
View a list of available alias tables	LISTALIASES	LISTALIASES
Set the current alias table	SETALIAS	SETALIAS "Long Names"

For help about an individual command, see the online Technical Reference in the DOCS directory. See Performing Interactive and Batch Operations Using ESSCMD for information about ESSCMD.

Copying Existing Alias Tables

To copy an alias table to a different name in the same outline:

Select Outline > Aliases > Copy Table to open the Copy Alias Table dialog box.
Figure 11-7: Copy Alias Table Dialog Box
Select the alias table to copy from the From list box.
Enter the new name of the alias table to copy it to in the To list box.
Click OK.

Renaming Alias Tables

To change the names of existing alias tables:

Select Outline > Aliases > Rename Table to open the Rename Alias Table dialog box.
Figure 11-8: Rename Alias Table Dialog Box
Select the alias table to rename from the From list box.
Enter the new name of the alias table in the To list box.
Click OK.

Deleting and Clearing Alias Tables

You can delete an alias table from the outline or you can clear all of the aliases from an alias table without deleting the alias table itself.

Deleting Alias Tables

To delete an alias table from the outline:

Select Outline > Aliases > Delete Table to open the Delete Alias Table dialog box.
Figure 11-9: Delete Alias Table Dialog Box
Select the alias table to delete from the Alias Table list box.
Click OK.

Clearing Alias Tables

To clear the contents of an alias table, that is, remove all of the entries in the table without deleting the table:

Select Outline > Aliases > Clear Table to open the Clear Alias Table dialog box.
Figure 11-10: Clear Alias Table Dialog Box
Select the alias table to clear from the Alias Table list box.
Click OK.

Importing and Exporting Alias Tables

You can import or export alias tables into an outline. For more information on alias tables, see Introducing Aliases and Alias Tables.

Importing an Alias Table

To import an alias table:

Select File > Import Alias Table to open the Import Server Alias Table Object dialog box.
Figure 11-11: Import Alias Table Object Dialog Box
Select the alias table name. All alias table names end in .ALT.
Specify the location of the alias table by clicking either the Server or Client button.
If you select Server, the alias table to import must reside in the database directory under\ESSBASE\APP\application_name\database_name, where application_name and database_name represent the name of your application and database. Type the name of the alias table in the Object Name text box or select it from the Objects list box.

If you select Client, the alias table can reside in either the application or database directory under\ESSBASE\CLIENT or on the drives accessible from the client file system. Click the File System button to select a file from a standard Open Client Data Files dialog box.

Select the alias table to open.

Note: The\ESSBASE\APP and\ESSBASE\CLIENT are the default directories specified during installation. You may have set these directories differently.
Click OK.

Use the LOADALIAS command in ESSCMD to perform this task. To unload an alias table, use the UNLOADALIAS command in ESSCMD.

See the online Technical Reference in the DOCS directory for information about these commands. See Performing Interactive and Batch Operations Using ESSCMD for information about ESSCMD.

Exporting an Alias Table

To export an alias table:

Select File > Export Alias Table to open the Export Server Alias Table Object dialog box.
Save the alias table to the desired location.

Use the LISTLINKEDOBJECTS and PURGELINKEDOBJECTS commands in ESSCMD to perform these tasks. See the online Technical Reference in the DOCS directory for information about these commands. See Performing Interactive and Batch Operations Using ESSCMD for information about ESSCMD.