New Features

If you used previous releases of Essbase, this section will help you identify issues with upgrading from Release 5.x to Releases 6.0 and 6.1. It describes changes to functions and commands that you need to know about before running your existing scripts in a Release 6.x environment.

• What's New In Release 6.1
• What's New In Release 6

What's New in Release 6.1

New MaxL Language Reference Section

The MaxL language is the new multi-dimensional database access language for Hyperion Essbase OLAP Server. You can use the MaxL Command Shell as the interface for logging in to Hyperion Essbase and passing MaxL statements to the server and you can embed MaxL statements in Perl programs.

This new section describes the MaxL language, its syntax, and commands, and how to use the language in both the MaxL and Perl environments.

Custom-Defined Macros and Custom-Defined Functions

Release 6.1 has added to the Hyperion Essbase calculator language the ability to create and manage custom-defined macros and functions. Included in the MaxL Language Reference section are examples of custom-defined macros and functions.

Use the create macro MaxL statement to create custom-defined macros. These macros enable you to combine existing calculator functions into a single new function called a macro.

Use the create function MaxL statement to create custom-defined functions. Custom-defined functions enable you to use custom calculator functions within the Essbase calculator framework. These custom-developed functions are written in the Java programming language and are called by the Essbase calculator framework as external functions.

For more information about custom-defined macros and functions, see the Database Administrator's Guide.

New Calculation Functions

The following functions are new in Release 6.1:

New ESSBASE.CFG Settings in Release 6.1

• AGENTLOGMESSAGELEVEL
• DYNCALCCACHEMAXSIZE
• DYNCALCCACHEWAITFORBLK
• DYNCALCCACHEBLKTIMEOUT
• DYNCALCCACHEBLKRELEASE
• DYNCALCCACHECOMPRBLKBUFSIZE
• EXPORTTHREADS
• JVMMODULELOCATION

ESSCMD Information

The following ESSCMD command was added in release 6.1:

PAREXPORT

The following ESSCMD commands were updated in release 6.1:

• EXPORT
• GETPERFSTATS
• GETVERSION
• PORTS
• RESETPERFSTATS
• USERS

What's New in Release 6

New Calculation Functions

The following functions are new in Release 6:

New Allocation and Forecasting Functions ALLOCATE MDALLOCATE MOVAVG MOVMAX MOVMED MOVMIN SPLINE TREND	New Statistical Functions CORRELATION COUNT MEDIAN MODE RANK STDEV STDEVP STDEVRANGE VARIANCE VARIANCEP
New Member Set Functions ATTRIBUTE ANCEST CURRMBR LIST MERGE PARENT RANGE REMOVE WITHATTR	New Relationship Functions ATTRIBUTEVAL XREF New Date and Time Functions TODATE

The following calculator changes have been made in Release 6:

• ENDIF statements are no longer required for nested ELSEIF statements. Only IF statements require a closing ENDIF statement. For more information, see ENDIF.
• Macro functions are now referred to as "member set functions". This change is reflected in the Application Manager and in all Hyperion Essbase documentation.
• In the Calc Script Editor, the Functions and Macro Template dialog box has been renamed to the Functions Template dialog box.
• Using abbreviations for calculation functions (e.g., @DESC instead of @DESCENDANTS) is strongly discouraged, and you should begin migrating your calc scripts to eliminate such abbreviations. With the addition of new functions, abbreviations can be ambiguous. For example, if you use the abbreviated @ANCEST for the @ANCESTVAL function, that abbreviation now conflicts with the new @ANCEST function.
• The @STDDEV and @STDDEVRANGE functions are no longer available in the Calc Script Editor. These functions have been replaced with the new @STDEV, @STDEVP, and @STDEVRANGE functions, which perform the same calculation and also provide for SKIP processing. Although the old @STDDEV and @STDDEVRANGE functions are still supported for migration purposes, you can no longer select them in the Calc Script Editor.

New Report Writer Commands

The following commands are new in Release 6:

• ATTRIBUTE
  
• WITHATTR
  
• TODATE
  

ESSCMD Information

ESSCMD information and commands, as found in the Quick Technical Reference Guide, have been added to the online Technical Reference documentation.

The following commands are new in Release 6:

• CREATELOCATION
  
• DELETELOCATION
  
• LISTLOCATIONS
  
• LISTFILES
  
• GETATTRINFO
  
• GETATTRIBUTESPECS
  
• GETPERFSTATS
  
• RESETPERFSTATS
  

The following commands are modified in Release 6:

• GETDBINFO
  
• GETDBSTATE
  
• GETMBRINFO
  
• SETDBSTATEITEM