Viewing Metadata Properties within HFM

For HFM admins, making life easier is about automating something, a new calculation, faster consolidation, etc. But for end users, making life easier tends to be about simple stuff. Show me something quick that can make my life easier.

One of the questions end users have is what are the attributes of this account, entity, etc. - the metadata properties. For years administrators have put this information out to Excel files (the HFM Toolbox utility for versions before 11.1.2.4 was great at this).

But within HFM itself, there are some things that can be done.

In the mid 2000s a field was added to the accounts called Calculation Attribute. It provides 100 characters or so for the admin to type in how an account is calculated. The history for this goes back to Hyperion Enterprise that would show the calculation for a calculated account in the Data View window. In HFM right-click a cell (data grid or form), select Cell Information and you'll see the Account Calculation Attribute if it has been provided.

That's all well and good, but what about the metadata attributes? Asset or liability? What custom dimension top members? For this information, there is a simple solution. Right-click the metadata item (I'm using account ROA in the rows here) and select Member Properties.

Once selected, a popup appears with all of the information an end user would want to know. The screenshot does not show all of the attributes, but they are all there.

So simple and available from grids and forms (but unfortunately not Smart View).

HFM 11.1.2.4.204 PSU released

The 204 PSU was released today for HFM 11.1.2.4. Below is the list of defects fixed in the patch. Personally, I'm glad to see the issue with extracting data to an Oracle database requiring TNSNAMES getting fixed. This has been a thorn in my side at my current project.

Have fun patching!

Defects Fixed in this patch

Defect Number	Issue
25352846	Lcm epmhfm-66115: an error occurred reading metadata file content for data form
25346829	Hfm journal report:turkish characters are not exported correctly
25111633	Email alert doesn't work on entity security class
25099054	New option to limit number of concurrent consolidations per user action
25085411	Hfm application crashing when using fdmee data extracts
25023506	Cannot run consolidation after applying hfm 11.1.2.4.203 patch from taskflow
24970914	Issue with grid-invalid intersection in the pov with psu 203
24912844	Getting an error "an invalid security key was specified" in system messages
24911708	Consolidations running server out of memory
24850722	Submitting cell text in data forms does not work in smartview
24835551	Ic reports aborts running reports concurrently
24701675	Overlap consolidation is running for wrong parent in process control grid
24615995	Error retrieving datagrid in api demo.java sample code
24569482	Non admin users are not able to see their "running tasks"
24417229	Process level can be promoted even though validation fails
24389966	Unknown error happens in metadata load and application crashes
24297212	Cannot delete security class from shared services for hfm epmaapp
23725599	User getting adf_faces-60097 error opening hfm application from ie11
23704850	Hfm application opens to white screen after doing opening journal form filter.
23562417	Metadataom.findmembers() returns the member instead of null
23299237	Hfm process crashing on startup on exalytics
23194007	Hang up in active not turn into failure when stage has an issue like no data file
23101101	Hfm dsn export not exporting all member descriptions
22342743	Not possible to override system settings - name field in override window is empty
22322353	No access/metadata issues when accessing smartview(recurring issue)
21840787	Filtering does not work in data audit
21480292	Intercompany report uses the wrong column width settings
21112270	Unable to promote the entity to next level if using a system defined memberlist
20546956	Unable to transform classic hfm linux app to epma
19323855	Extract data to oracle db requires tnsnames
18922785	Cannot select books when creating related contents in hfm

To Lock or Not to Lock - That is the Question

When I talk with clients and other consultants, one of the most controversial topics is whether to lock entities or not. When you lock an entity, no one, including the administrator, can change data in the entity. If the entity is a parent entity, then changes to the entity hierarchy (like removing a child) do not impact the locked entity.

There are two different concerns that companies address with locking: preventing data changes from input and preventing changes from hierarchy movements. The big concern that people have with locking, however, is application rebuilds: if parent entities are locked and changes have been made, it will be (and is) a nightmare to make everything tie out again.

So, lock or don't lock?

I'm not a fan of locking. But I realize the concerns above are valid, so what do you do if you don't lock?

For preventing user changes to data, I prefer to promote the data with process control to where the users cannot make changes and trust the admin not to do something crazy (process control has no effect on administrators).

If you do want to lock, consider locking just the base level entities. That will prevent anyone from making data changes but not cause a problem with a rebuild. 

So if you want to lock parents so that hierarchy changes don't cause impacts, then think about if you have a lot of changes. If not, use alternate hierarchies and/or new entities. But if you do have a lot changes, then consider activating organization by period which is designed for this. 

To me, locking the parent entities is the last thing I want to do. But if you do, keep a version of each month's hierarchy offline (metadata extract) so you can compare back and reconcile when rebuilding. 

Note: locking only protects entities. Parent accounts and parent customs are dynamic calc, so any hierarchy changes in these dimensions will apply to history. Nothing you can do except maintain alternate hierarchies. 

With upgrades many times you can migrate and update the database directly without a rebuild so locking wouldn't be a problem. I've also seen clients keep an archive version of the app each year but that's rare.

But I still wouldn't lock parent entities. 

Oracle Data Visualization Cloud Service

For 2017 I thought I would start with something different. I recently spent some time working with the Oracle Data Visualization Cloud Service ("DVCS" from here on out). I had seen a preview of this product before its release and thought it looked great and wanted to try it out.

DVCS is a presentation tool. You provide it the data, it makes sense of it and presents it. The data can come from Excel or various Oracle products. HFM isn't one of them, though.

For this test, I used some data from a recent wine tasting. Note the column headers will be helpful in working with the data later.

Click Data Sources and then click Create New Data Source to add the source (or in the case of Excel upload the file).

Once uploaded, return to Home and create a new VA Project. Once the data source is selected, the different fields can be clicked and dragged to the project - rows, columns, etc. The type of chart can be chosen and table layouts are available too for those who just want to see data.

With this setup below, I'm showing the tasters across the x axis for each wine and filtering the results (located above the bar chart selection) to taste. A score of 5 is good, 1 is bad.

With the above setup, we can see that Honig, Worthy, and Brookman were the leaders.

Changing the setup to a donut chart, removing the tasters, and changing the filter to total score, we can see that the Honig was the winner, with Brookman just beating Worthy for second.

Look at the bottom of the screenshot. Commentary can be added to provide context, etc. For the seven wines we tasted, 14 Hands Hot to Trot was not the best scoring wine, but for the price it provided (in our opinion) the best value.

There are other capabilities of DVCS: blending data (using more than one data source together [think joining tables]), calculations based on the data, multiple visualizations on one page, etc. But hopefully this gives you a good start to it. The Academy is a good starting point (as with all of the cloud offerings). This serves as a one-stop shop to docs and videos to get you started.

If you're able to sign up for a free trial, like I was, the product is worth a look. It also gives you some practice on how Academy and Console work which are applicable across many of the Oracle Cloud offerings. If the trial isn't available, or you just want something quick, then take a look at the videos.

http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/data-visualization-cloud/data-viz-cloud_videos.htm

Hyperion Financial Reporting - PSU 704 and Desktop Client News

With Hyperion Financial Reporting PSU 11.1.2.4.704, which was released on December 20, 2016, came multiple updates for the web studio:

New Features in 11.1.2.4.704

Financial Reporting Web Studio enhancements to achievemore parity with the Windows Studio functionality:

•   Conditional formatting and suppression 

•   Auto-Calculation

•   Ability to Save Objects

•   Related Content

•   Row/Column templates

Also, Oracle announced in the patch the planned date for parity with the Windows desktop client and its subsequent removal from the suite.

Removal of Support for Financial Reporting Studio Desktop Client

Oracle is committed to providing a simple and intuitive experience to the users of the service. To achieve this goal, Financial Reporting Web Studio, a component available since the 11.1.2.4.701 release, will be established as the only tool for designing and building reports. As a result, Financial Reporting Studio desktop client support will be fully transitioned to Financial Reporting Web Studio, tentatively in mid-2017. With a planned mid-2017 update, Financial Reporting Studio desktop client is planned to no longer be distributed.

Starting with the 11.1.2.4.704 release, Financial Reporting Web Studio will achieve functional parity with most of the capabilities provided with Financial Reporting Studio desktop client. You will be able to create new reports and modify existing reports using Financial Reporting Web Studio.

Oracle recommends that you transition to using Financial Reporting Web Studio at the earliest opportunity.

I've been using the web studio for a while now and for the most part it is familiar to those used to the desktop client. The key thing when working with it is to open the report, and then on the left panel click the object (grid, image, text, chart) on which you wish to work. The additions in the 704 PSU address some of the missing items. There are a few more to go.

Creating Intercompany Matching Reports via Script

One of the features that has been in HFM since almost day 1 is intercompany matching reports. HFM's predecessor, Hyperion Enterprise (which was originally called Hyperion) had intercompany matching reports. Enterprise's predecessor, IMRS MicroControl, a DOS product developed in the 1980s, had intercompany matching reports.

In the beginning of HFM, intercompany matching reports were developed in script (using KEdit or Notepad or other text editor), uploaded, and then you ran it to see if it worked, anything need changing, etc. Later on the graphical interface came along and nowadays no one really sees the script anymore.

But, it is still there.

Where working with script comes in handy is the initial build of the matching reports. Just built 45 matching reports today using script. Here are the steps.

Build one report through the graphical interface like normal and then extract it from the Documents screen.

Open the file in Notepad and copy the script into Excel.

In this screenshot, the script is in column L. Cells L2 and L3 and the last cell (AccountPlug) have been edited to use cell level formulas to point to I1 and I2. Column I is fed from a list in column E and F with all of the plug accounts that need a report.

Paste the script into Excel and save the file. Then move on to the next item in columns E and F. If you have a huge amount, you could write a macro that cycles through the list and writes out the text files.

Last, go into HFM to the Documents screen and load in the script files. Make sure to set the options at the top to the desired folder, document type, and security class before selecting the files.

Having to create the reports via script has gone the way of the green home page, but the utility of working with the script is still there.

Enjoy!

Charts in HFM Data Grids

Working with HFM 11.1.2.4.202 and wanted to do a blog post on charts within data grids. This feature has been out a couple of months and I wanted to show how it works.

First, start with a normal data grid. Over on the display options panel on the right, there is now a chart radio button.

Once the chart is turned on, the chart displays in the window, graphing any data showing in the grid.

The type of chart and the properties can be controlled on the display options panel. Note there are a lot of chart types: some trial and error will be needed to select the appropriate type.

Clicking a bar, line, etc. on the chart will focus on that specific row/column, but drill down is not available by double-clicking the chart like other programs do. For drill downs, click on the legend to the right.

Clicking the legend to do the drill down not only changes what is displayed on the chart but also changes the table display (if showing both the chart and the table).

Overall it looks good and works well. But there is still is no printing - still need to do screen shots!