10 Incredibly Simple Things You Can Do in FDMEE

by | 10 24, 2015 | EPM, FDM, FDMEE

One of my seven year-old daughter’s favorite phrases is “easy, peasy, lemon squeezy”.  She said it recently and I thought, You know, who doesn’t like when something goes as expected or when a product or service just works? Ultimately, technology exists to make life easier, right?  Oracle EPM software is no different.  This got me thinking about how FDMEE makes transforming and loading data in the Oracle EPM world easier than ever. Over the next couple of weeks, this series will show you 10 Incredibly Simple Things You Can Do in FDMEE. Tip 1 – Register a New Target Application Tip 2 – View an Execution Log Tip 3 – Download Metadata to Excel Tip 4- Use Lifecycle Management Tip 5 – Schedule a Job with Batch Processing Tip 6 – Map Blank Record Values Tip 7 – Filter Data Using Query by Example Tip 8 – Define Target Members Based on Multiple Source Values Using Multi-dimension Mapping Tip 9 – Use Advanced Search Tip 10 – Override Default Location Settings with Data Load Rules...

Incredibly Simple Things You Can Do in FDMEE – Tip 6

by | 10 23, 2015 | EPM, FDM, FDMEE

Tip 6 – Mapping Blank Record Values Sometimes incoming source records don’t have a value for every field (column).  For example, Company X tracks its revenue and expenses by product.  Each income statement record for Company X has a corresponding product, while all other account records do not have a product, that is, the product field is blank. To manage this scenario in FDM Classic, you could use a custom import script.  The script would evaluate the product field of each source record and if a record had no value (was blank), the script would assign a dummy value – e.g., NO_PRODUCT. FDMEE finally introduced an easy way to handle this to the FDM world with the <BLANK> notation.  Using the <BLANK> notation in a Like map, you can easily map source fields with no value to a target member. A number of legacy FDM users have been waiting on this for a long time.         (Note: <BLANK> interprets a blank character or space, for example ” “.  It cannot be used for mapping NULL or no value.  Additionally, when interpreting blank characters, it’s important to make sure the import file agrees with the specified file character set under System...

Incredibly Simple Things You Can Do in FDMEE – Tip 5

by | 10 23, 2015 | EPM, FDM, FDMEE

Tip 5 – Scheduling a Job with Batch Processing Anyone familiar with FDM Classic knows the power of Batch Loader. Batch Loader is used to automate data loads. With FDM Classic, you had to use the Windows clients, FDM Workbench and FDM Task Manager, to create and schedule batch jobs, respectively. With FDMEE, setting up and executing a batch job is way easier. You simply use the Batch Definition component to build your job and then you use the Batch Execution component to execute and/or schedule the batch. That’s it.                  ...

Incredibly Simple Things You Can Do in FDMEE – Tip 4

by | 10 23, 2015 | EPM, FDM, FDMEE

Tip 4 – Using Lifecycle Management Want to save a file back up of FDMEE for disaster recovery purposes? Need to synchronize your FDMEE apps across environments? FDMEE makes this easy with Lifecycle Management. Lifecycle Management – commonly referred to as “LCM” – provides a mechanism for migrating application content across environments and even operating systems. You can access Lifecycle Management via Shared Services. In Shared Services, navigate to your FDMEE application. Select your FDMEE application to display a list of migration artifacts. Choose your artifacts and click the Export button to name and generate your LCM package. When the export is complete, your LCM package (a collection of XML files) will appear in the File System group in Shared Services. From there, you can download the LCM zip file to a network share.        ...

Incredibly Simple Things You Can Do in FDMEE – Tip 3

by | 10 23, 2015 | EPM, FDM, FDMEE

Tip 3 – Downloading Metadata Using the Excel Interface Let’s face it. Analyzing data in an application interface can sometimes be cumbersome. Sometimes it’s just easier to do it in Excel. FDMEE comes with a rich reporting framework that allows you to export data to PDF and Excel. But occasionally you’d rather dispense with all of the reporting formatting and just have the data. Or, maybe there isn’t a report for the exact thing you want to review. Enter the Excel Interface component. Using the Excel Interface component you can download just about any metadata item in FDMEE. The Entity Type drop down list (yes, it’s a weird name) gives you a pre-defined list of objects you can download to Excel.  Go to Setup > Integration Setup > Excel Interface and try it out.      ...