Stupid Programming Tricks No. 20 -- Load Rules, header rows, and confusion

Load Rule hate

Yes, I do go on and on and on about Load Rules, but those little bastards have wasted quite a few hours of my professional life.  I have to believe that Load Rules were written by Old Scratch hisself.  They are evil, evil, evil things masquerading as useful.  Except they aren’t.  Don’t agree?  Join me on this tale of woe.

Loading data

Load Rules are a simple (yet evil and yes there is some personal bias in this but it is my blog after all) interface for loading files and tables into Essbase as either data or metadata.  Every schoolboy knows this, or at least every Essbase developer.

Header records

And everyone knows what a header record is – it’s that first row (or potentially rows) that define metadata not in the body of the data file be it column names or dimensions not defined in the columns.  Header records are dealt with in the Load Rule Data Source Properties dialog box.  

Here’s an example from the export of Sample.Basic.  Pay attention because There Will Be a Quiz Later.  That bit in the red box is the somewhat-useless header.

Data Source Properties

Below are the default settings – skip zero rows, no header records, no data load field names, and no dimension building field names.

In the case of the above export file, the Number of lines to skip parameter is set to 1 because the header record as defined is useless for columnar import.

Data Load Settings

A common way to add a missing dimension to a data Load Rule is to use Data Load Settings and in the Header Name field type in the desired dimension.  This post’s use case doesn’t use this approach and is  noted only for \completeness.

The review on header records in Essbase is now complete.

Enter the bug

Here is Sample.Basic clear of data in Smart View:

Here’s a simple Load Rule without an exclusion of the first record.  Remember that first record that is an artifact of a columnar export from Sample.Basic that starts off with a tab, then Jan, then Feb, then Mar, etc.?  That’s Essbase’s Period header record although since it doesn’t line up with any column it’s pretty worthless when it comes to loading.

Let’s skip the header:

Here’s the Load Rule.  Note that, unsurprisingly, all 12 months are being loaded.  This Is A Clue.

What happens?  Two things:

1. The data loads.
2. A data load error file is generated.

Loaded data in Smart View.

All is good.

Let’s not skip the header:

And what happens?

The error we expected.  

All is well and good and expected.

Bull in the china shop

But what happens when all data columns but the first are ignored and the Period is set to Jun.

Less data is loaded, but no error.  

Just as expected, only Jun data is loaded although in reality it’s from the January column of data.  Regardless, this is expected behavior.

O Horror, O Misery, O Despair

But what happens if the header row is not excluded?  It worked in the 12 month example and just threw an error file so obviously the same would happen with one month.  Except it doesn’t.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?  

I can almost observe a pattern in the data, or at least I would if cell C3 was Jan, cell D4 was Feb, cell E5 was Mar but as you can see from the above it doesn’t work that way.  Mr. Toad had it right, O Horror, O Misery, O Despair.  As he said, right before everything went pear shaped, “O, how clever I am! How clever, how clever, how very clev----”  

Nope, I’m not clever and just like Toad when he was At Her Majesty’s Pleasure, I am, “…a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon of the best-guarded keep of the stoutest castle in all the length and breadth of Essbase Load Rules.”  The last bit may not quite have been how Kenneth Grahame wrote it, but you get the idea.

“I’m such a clever Toad”

If all of the above doesn’t convince you in the strongest possible way that SQL should be the only data source for Essbase, I don’t know what would.

Be like wise old Badger, or Rat, or Mole, or even the sadder but wiser Toad, but definitely not like yr. obt. svt. as I wasted several otherwise well-spent hours as I tried to figure out what was giving me such weird results when I only wanted one month for testing purposes.  

So frustrating.

Be seeing you.

Is Metro-North Irreplacable?

What is Connecticut’s relationship with Metro-North?  Client – vendor?  Shared partnership?  Stockholm syndrome?  Or is the railroad a “fanged sloth” hanging around our neck?

All of those analogies has been made to the state’s 30+ year relationship with Metro-North, part of NY’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.  But given their dismal safety record and deteriorating service in recent years, many have asked “is it time to fire Metro-North and find someone else to run our trains?”

I posed that very question almost four years ago and people were shocked, not knowing that such a thing was even possible.  Now there are even laws being considered in Hartford to rid us of the railroad.

But even though Metro-North works for us, CDOT’s Commissioner Jim Redeker says they should not… in fact, cannot… be replaced.

Redeker recently testified that Metro-North is uniquely qualified and staffed to run a commuter rail operation of its size and that there are no other potential competitors he’d consider as operator, let alone try to build our own agency from scratch.  On this point he’s probably right.

Where he’s wrong is in arguing that replacing Metro-North would mean we wouldn’t be allowed to run “our trains” into “their station”, Grand Central. 

There are plenty of railroads with operating rights on others’ tracks.  NJ Transit has no trouble getting into Penn Station. Virginia Railway Express runs into downtown DC.   Does Commissioner Redeker really think that our Congressional delegation couldn’t force the MTA to give us access to GCT?  It wouldn’t be an easy fight, but this is certainly no deal-breaker to replacing Metro-North.

Alternative #3 is to renegotiate our contract with the railroad. This opportunity only presents itself every five years, and 2015 is one of those windows.   Maybe we should get them to commit to service standards, as their current contract has no metrics to measure their performance.  But again, Commissioner Redeker seems reticent to fight for our state or its commuters.

He reminded lawmakers that the last time Connecticut arbitrated the contract we were out-smarted and ending up with a worse deal than we’d had before, going from 60% cost-sharing to 65%.  The MTA’s army of lawyers took us to the cleaners, costing us millions more in payments to Metro-North each year.  Apparently Commissioner thinks we’re not smart enough to negotiate a better deal, so why even try.

So, just to recap… our Commissioner of Transportation says we have no real options, that we have to work with Metro-North, but we’re probably not savvy enough to get any better deal than we have now.  So let’s just wave the white flag before the battle begins and keep paying $70+ million a year for lousy train service.

Now there is inspired leadership!  Declare defeat and just walk away.  Let the “fanged sloth” continue to hang around our necks.  We really have no choice. Suck it up because Metro-North, our vendor, is running the show.

Friday the 13th oceania TT!

Friday the 13th oceania TT!



While alot of people fear misfortune on todays day and date, I was optimistic it would bring me some good fortune!! By days end it would prove to be the case and while I fell short of it being a perfect day of fortune I certainly finished Friday the 13th with a pretty big smile on my dial. For the past 4 weeks I've been very focused on the Oceania TT which was held today in toowoomba and when the dust settled on the 40km race against the clock I had finally got myself back on a TT podium. It seems a long long time ago now that I was a decent time trialist. Sadly over the past few years i simpl have not done the work on the TT and I've been hopeless at it as a result! Today I was determined to simply give it all I could muster and see if I could get back amongst it on the TT rig.



The Oceania championships is quite a cool little event. While it's far from the glitz and glamour of the big european races, or even the big Aussie races we have just had over the past month, its unique in it's own way. It's held in a more remote country area usually which in 2015 is toowoomba, right on the top of the great dividing range. I love coming to events like this as I get to do it with the gang from the TIS. I have a soft spot for going to races with the tassie sporting gang as it's what interstate trips always involved in my young sporting days. I felt particularly familiar coming out to toowoomba as the last time I'd driven out the a2 highway from Brisbane I was headed to 2001 national rowing championships at lake wivenhoe. I had a pretty successful trip that time winning the school boy single skull, figured it had to be a good Oman ahead of the Oceania champs. There are no team buses, trucks, stickered up race cars, massage therapists or expert mechanics at your bec and call. No there are replaced with the Toyota hiace renta van. There is often no fancy hotels on these trips, infect this time we are staying in a caravan park. It's funny as I've been so spoilt with hotels in my time that you could get a little snot nosed at staying in a caravan park?? Nah not me, I love it and not so much because I'm in a caravan park but these types of accom represent these type of Aussie sporting trips.



I have to admit I was pretty jolly nervous when I woke up this morning. Although I could hardly call the 4 weeks I've focused on this event a hugely sacrificing period of my life it's certainly been on mind each and everyday so obviously I wanted to see some return for the work I'd put in. That's a positive and negative all in one as you are completely in control of how hard you push yourself so can dictate to an extent how well you perform. It's a negative as I've you ride like a softy you get your backside handed to you and Theres only one person to blame! So I've had m fair share of ass whippings lately so at the very least if I was going to put myself on the startline today I was going get everything out of my body no matter what shape it was in. I went into the race with a pretty clear race plan after some solid recon of the course yesterday. The course was pretty simple. 5km straight line dead flat, turn left, another 5km with a nasty 100m 20% wall half was only, do a u turn and ride back to where you started from. Once back to where you started do another u turn and do it all over again! Pretty simple! As I said Id studied the course pretty well yesterday and there were a few factors. Firstly the wind, head wind one way, tail the other! 2nd the climb, 3rd the heat, 4th the dead roads which DS Dave Sanders reiterated there condition to me by saying they were as "dead as Roy Orbison" just to ensure I really knew how slow they were!! He is an absolute crack up!



The other little factor of these events is you need to be organized! Well I'm not really used to organizing everything myself, been way to spoilt in my cycling career, my entire sporting career for that matter! Funnily enough was funny talking to hepburn after the race who said exactly the same thing. With greenedge he always have everything at his beck and call but up here he was largely left to his own devices aswell. It's funny the small things you take for granted like race food. All of a sudden it's not all laid out for you on a table under your shaded warmup area. No your at the supermarket buying it all and worrying about what you have forgotten! Then warmup your trying to find a shady tree or something similar to set up the turbo trainer. Then there's getting your bike ready! Ok we are exactly without resources, there's heads of mechanics here whom are always very happy to help but it's still something to think about. I was jolly lucky to even have my bike on the start line as my disk wheel got destroyed in transit here. Fortunately Andrew Christie Johnston, the owner of the avanti team was on my speed dial to bail me out. Andrew is a legend and is always there in a time of need and he had me up and running with one of his fancy disk wheels. Stuy sanders who's another gem of the sport here in australia ensured that was fitted properly and the bike was running tickedy boo and I was ready to rumble. It's very good for you to realize how much is done for you at all these races, certainly makes you appreciate it even more. Everyone in a cycling team lis without a doubt all equally crucial in ensuring that the wheels go round and round as well as possible!



Back to the tt and after a bit of analyzing with our TIS team manager Ron tubby Bryan and my dad we came up with a pretty good strategy. The first half of the circuit was head wind and we figured this would be telling, particularly on the 2nd lap. The idea with this was therefore to hold a little back on the first and give it grief on the 2nd lap into the wind, pretty simple. The 2nd factor was the hill which being so short but steep still had the potential to take the edge of you if you tried to smash over it but if you backed of a little you could save the legs and drop just a few seconds which you would likely take back later in the course with fresh legs. So was decided to use a small gear there. 3rd the heat, well can't do much about that but make sure your well hydrated and mentally prepare yourself to get pretty jolly hot under the color out there so tha was a simple one. And finally combating the dead roads simply meant there was no free speed anywhere on the course, not even the fast decents, if you stopped pedaling at all you slowed down even going down hill, you simply needed to keep the pressure on the pedals all day no matter how much you were suffering. I was actually happy about this as I spend alot of hours on the ergo so this I felt gave me a little bit of an edge! So with all that considered I hatched the following race plan. Go put solid and try and keep my heart rate below 185beats (my threshold) for the first lap. Then on the 2nd lap into the wind give it some herbs and build up to around 190 beats and then simply give it all I had for the 10km run home toward 195-200beats. Pretty simple hey? Oh and above all else I wanted to give myself a chance at winning which meant at some point rolling the dice a little!! Well here's my execution of it!!



Warm up-

When I'm nervous before a TT I'm simply champing at the bit to get the warmup started. This is a good sign as I know that I'm ready to do a good ride and just want to get on with the job. Well today I was so nervous I was shaking so brought the start of my warmup forward a few min to settle the nerves and get in the zone. Sure enough as I rolled off on the road bike for a quick 30min get the legs rolling spin before the the final tune up on the turbo trainer I instantly was relaxed. Legs felt light and effortless and I was ready to go. Once the warmup begins it's all so systematic down to the minute, 30min on the Rd bike, on the tt bike on the turbo 45min before start time, off the turbo to skin suit up and helmet on 10min before start time, then off to the start between 5-6min before kickoff to check the bike, chill out, final stretch, and on the start line! While I'm on the turbo I choose the fm radio instead of the iPod and my old man is there to ensure I'm drinking the right drinks and have everything set before kick off.



Fortunately for me dad still loves coming to the races and takes great pride in his glamorous role of tyre pumper uppera! Logistics liaison! And just generally still being for those moments when I've forgotten or need something and even at 31 years old have the desperate "Daaaddd" tone in my voice when I need and extra gell, towel, or some cold water! Yep he's still doing the same things for me at these national events he's benign doing since my first rowing nationals as a 15 year old in Adelaide, I'm pretty sure he still enjoys it as much aswell. His only difficult is he hasn't ever come to terms with the fact that I can carry or pedal my own bike to and from the start/finish line! At rowing he got to carry the boat aswell so feels a little surplus to requirement a those moments during my race days but none the less he always seems pretty chirpy about being in amongst it.



Anyways back to the warmup and once on the turbo trainer the earplugs go in and I start to go into the zone. I slowly but surely warm up all the energy systems over the next 35min to be red and raring to go come start time. I start of with 10min building up to medium intensity. Have a few min off the 2 lots of 5min building up to race pace with a few min off between. I finish of with 1min at VO2 intensity then I'm ready to go. I know from the warmup if I'm a chance to do well as all the efforts should feel easy. Well let's face it your in big trouble if you struggle to do a few min at the same intensity you plan on doing 50min for!! Anyways today was a great warmup and I was ready to go. 10min before the start I was off the turbo, towel off, helmet on, dad slid the rear disc into the trusty cannondale slice RS, quick stretch and off to the start right on schedule 6min before kickoff! Bike check all good and I was finally in the starters house staring at that screen, WURF 5-4-3-2-1 go time!!



1st lap-

Out of the start ramp and I was quickly into my stride. I flung around the left hand corner that started the first 6km straight drag into the wind. I was eager to start this section as when your on a good day you don't seem to notice the head wind. Yeah sure your going a little slower than normal but it doesn't bother you, you feel like you can plow into it. Well I really felt good here and was around 2-3kmph quicker than I anticipated or planned! Yep that's where I made my first big mistake for the day. I got all amped up by how good I felt and believed I could go that extra few % harder than I had meticulously planned. In other words in those first 2-3km's I got my ambitions and capabilities a little jumbled up. Anyways I was committed and while the signs of over revving kept smacking me in the face I ignored them and charged on. My heart rate was at 180beats after 5min so around 20minutes earlier so I just put it down to the heat and freshness and it didn't bother me that much. After 6km I had taken 40seconds out of my minute man and knew I was going quick and needed to be a little reserved so backed it off a bit. Still with the carrot now there right in front of me I didn't back off much and by the time i had ridden 11km I was past him. Now with the tail breeze up my backside I was honking along at 55-60kmph toward the turn. I kept the pace on with my heart rate already settled in around 192 so I was well and truly on the rev limiter. As I came back I could see the guys coming toward me and only Hepburn looked a threat. I know seems presumptuous and impossible to tell riding in the opposite direction but you can sense atherosclerosis riders pace and his poise certainly made know I was in for a fight. Still this also gave me motivation as I was about to enter the section I was confident would make or break my tilt at the title as I began my second lap so I took a few deep breathes, rounded the cone and headed out on what was going to be a very painful final 20km!



Lap 2-

As I hit the head wind for the 2nd time I still had that good feeling. I felt ontop of the breeze if that makes any sense and was relieved that there was still some life in my pins. As I swung left onto the dead roads toward the little kicker and top end of the course for the 2nd time the questions in my head began. I was really starting to feel those dead roads and my head rate was pumping away at 195, I was at my limit. I had mentally prepared for this and knew that when I felt the dead roads I simply had to keep pedaling, everybody would be suffering backing off to gain some rest bite would be a disaster so just had to grit the teeth. When I hit the top of the little kicker for the 2nd time I knew I was in survival mode big time as this time around I was craving a respite on the decent! The lap before I accelerated nicely over the top and down the other side, I needed to stay focused. At the top turn around with 10km to go i got a few seconds reprieve as I rounded the cone and it gave me a bit of a 100wind!! I will and trully used up my 2nd-99th in the first 30km!! At this point i knew i was still on a flyer. The splits would later back me up on this as i was 2seconds up on hepburn at that final turn. Unlike him i had no idea of any splits as i didn't have a race radio. Would it have made any difference?? Maby but probably not. Sure it would have been nice to be re enforced how far ahead I was but in reality I was cooked, no amount of encouragement can make you ride any harder when you've simply put yourself way to far into the red zone in an individual TT. Infect at this point all you can hope for is that your far enough ahead that you hang on for the win or your rivals are slowly as rapidly as you are, basically your no longer in control of the outcome, just cross the fingers!! By now my heart rate had been around 190beats for nearly 40min and it was as simple as getting every last little bit of energy out of my flagging body. This was the plan all along mind you to hang on from this point, only problem was I realistically had been hanging on for around 5km more than I could handle in my current condition. Sure enough as I swung around the final right hander with 6km to go and that big tail breeze hit my backside the speed didn't go up as much as it needed to. On the first lap I was 55-60kmph comfortably, on the all important run to the finish i was flat out doing 50kmph. It was all I could do to turn the pedals around, the feeling was well and truly gone from my legs and so was the power. The pulse was banging away at 200beats and I was well and truly groveling to the finish. I could see a drapac rider up ahead around 30seconds and knew that was the race. I'd been catching adam one an who started a few min ahead all day and knew I needed to get him to win. I don't know why but just had a feeling that that was the marker. Try as I may I couldn't get going to make any further inroads to Adam and when I crossed the line I knew I was going to come up short. I knew I would be close between heppi and I as knew how draining the course was and there was always the chance he over cooked it aswell. As he had my splits and with all his experience I knew this was unlikely as he would have know with 5km go I'd slowed big time and he really turned the screws on me in those final km's. He told me he was doing 60kmph down there and that's the 38sec difference he would eventually pump into me. After going toe to toe with him all day he showed his class and superior condition by having that bit when it mattered most so was a very deserved winner so well done heppi. It was a relief to see him looking just as demolished as me after the finish as I could be content in the fact that I had at least made him work for it.



When it's all said and done I was really happy with my performance. That first 5km's of excitement proved to be my undoing in those final 5km's. It's funny but just backing off 1-2kmph there could have made 5-10kmph difference coming the other way into the finish. In reality it would have made the 38seconds I needed to fend of heppi so doesn't matter anyways, I was beaten. Anyways a good lesson to trust and believe in your pacing. To be honest while I believed I could do a good TT yesterday I was also scared I wouldn't and thats the way rode it. I got my tail up and instead of riding a calculated ride I rode on the whim of hope. In other words I hoped I could handle the pace I was pushing. Its been 3 years since I rode a competitive TT so it's normal to have reservations which I won't have next time I line up in such an event. The most important thing for me to get out of this event was the belief back that I could ride a good TT again. I knew I hadn't down the work to do a phenomenal performance, I simply haunt made the sacrifices over the past 8 months to be an elite athlete but I knew I'd done enough work to get a glimpse of whether or not it was still in there. It's a huge relief to me and extremely motivating that that first 30km gave me all the answers that I needed and I'm now really excited to put my head down and focus again on the race against the clock in the future!! job done



Cjw









Sent from my iPad

Post Suntour r n r

Stage 4 Suntour

Stage 4 Suntour



The final stage of the Suntour is a real doozey!! There is always suspense till the very end at the Suntour thanks to the final stage finish on the iconic arthurs seat climb. The stage is set down on the morning ton peninsula and has that many twists and turns and lumps and bumps that you feel sea sick at times, there simply isn't a flat section of road in the entire course. Through in the constant flutter of breeze that seems forever present in the area and with all the changes in direction you really have to stay on your toes to ensure your not caught out. While the previous couple of days had all been about steele, the final stage and with the summit finish at argues seat was all about our gc men chris and laughlan to see what they could. We had a fair bit of faith in particularly lauchie for today of a high finish so the plan was pretty simple, get him to base of the final climb as fresh as possible. Following a big 80km loop of the peninsula we had 3 well balanced 16km circuits including the arthurs seat climb to tackle befor the finish at the summit on the 3rd assent. Wight he tricky course and the wind and off course the importance of the final climb for the overall battle in the race, it was always going to be a pretty stressful and challenging stage and it didn't disappoint.



Our man of steele Von Hoff was on his home roads. Sure enough as the flag dropped for the start he was off like a rocket ship in the days early breakaway giving his family friends and fans a good chance to cheer him on all day. The rest of our lads got together in the group and began the day long stressful battle for position ensuring lauchie and chris had as easy a ride as possible. Fortunately I was feeling even better today so figured it was best I take the role of positioning the boys and make good use of the extra fuel I finally started feeling in my pins. On a twisty, windy, undulating course like today the peleton is always stretched out in one big long line so position is even more crucial as the further back you are the more yoyo you have to endure and the more sting it saps out of your legs. Therefore my role role to ensure we were always in the right spot to save the boys valuable energy and also ensure we didn't miss any potential splits in the peleton. It's a simple job really provided your prepared to use plenty of energy. It's alway easy to sit in the wheel at the front but if you can't get a space in the line in a good possi you simply have to form another line and ride in the wind. This can obviously be pretty draining but it makes a huge difference for the boys behind you not wasting energy fighting wind and fighting for position. Also when you are in the long line and it's in the gutter you not real helping your boys as if your in the gutter the guy behind gets less coverage than you do so I always sit on the outside of the wheel in front to give my man behind maximum protection. Basically on a day like today you simply think at every moment where can I ride to save energy for my team mate behind as It could be the difference between a good and greater result for the team. So around the 80km circuit i boxed on in the bunch for good posi for the boys and we were finally at the base of the climb for the start of the circuits. I was not surprisingly pretty cooked by this point so made sure I positioned the guys right at the front at the base of the climb so I would have plenty of paces to drop back through the group and stay at the front of the race for as long as possible!



So onto the climb we went for the first time in perfect posi. I set up camp behind the avanti team doing all the work on the front which meant I had a nice content rhythm to follow. Fortunately my condition seemed to be returning and I was actually finally able to recover a little on the climb as was no longer having to ride in the wind and fight for position as the pace was such that everyone was happy where they were positioned. Lauchie and chris looked good so all was going according to plan for the korda mentha national team boys. By the top I had got my second wind and was ready for my next role should I have the energy, cover any dangerous counter attacks. A few went and I quickly followed but none were at all threatening. With such small gaps on gc none of the big players were going to be able to go anywhere and we were back in the climb for the 2nd time before we knew it. The 2nd time up was much like the first and a nice solid tempo with no attacks. As expected everyone seemed keen on saving the pins for the final climb and try and make a difference there. Was funny day really as on the big 80km loop I spent so much energy holding is in a good position that I was fried by the time we reached the circuits. Fortunately then the more constant pace of the climb had actually freshened me up a little and I was ready to do whatever I could for lauchie on the final climb.



Before we knew it we were finally at the base of the final assent of arthurs seat and just 3km away form the end of the tour. The boys were in a great posi so we had done our job and given them the best chance to strut there stuff on the final climb. As expected the pace on the final time up really ramped up and now I was reminded of the work done earlier in the day as the turbo was well and truly gone! I had the chew chew train legs but anything over and I was instantly aboard the pain train. Anyways I gritted my teeth and hung in aslong as I could to be there for lauchie if required but when the first big attack came with 2km to go the leaders went one way and I went the other, I didn't have any kick in me today. Unfortunately lauchie didn't have the day he planned as he visibly had untimely cramps in the final km or so. As great as it would have been to see him do one of his devastating attacks it just wasn't meant to be today. Lauchie is having a quiet year this year so hasn't done anywhere near the racing or hard preparation he normally would for this time of the year. He'll focus on the big tours in the USA later in the year at altitude with Utah and Colorado so is slowly building up to them. I can understand where he is at as I'm in the same boat, infect I haven't even done any motor pacing this year preferring to just go out and ride and hope to have some decent race condition. I certainly paid for it in the first couple of stages but was a nice feeling to feel the legs hardening back up to the demands of racing the final couple of stages. I was certainly a tired boy but knew I needed a good blowout so was happy to still play apart in the race in the last few stages. Anyways that was that, bit of an anticlimax day for our boys but we did what we planed to do everyday in giving our guys a shot and that's all we could ask of ourselves as we were simply outgunned by better riders.



Once I crossed the line it struck me that the race was over. I felt however like I was jus getting going again and didn't want to the of the bike. I round up the Morton boys said lets ride back to Melbourne. These guys are absolute champions of men and didn't hesitate in saying rightio. It want until we had ridden 10km that they actually asked how far it was as really they didn't care. This was a chance for us to enjoy riding our bikes outside the structure of a race for the first time in a few days and the chinwag home was what the 3 of us most cared about. Besides these two boys rode form port Macquarie to uluru in the off season so riding long days isn't something that bothers them. As great as the whole team was this week riding with the Morton boys was something I'll remember for a long time. They always and I mean always have something exciting to talk about. Infect every night at dinner there stories had us in that much laugher that I had a sore stomach and saw excellent gains in m 6 pack during the 5days! The ride home back to Melbourne was our first chance to really just hang out in an environment it became apparent we share the passion for hanging out in! On a bicycle. In a year that seas the Morton boys and I headed down a similar path with or cycling i guess it was no surprise we got along pretty well. When we finally mad our way back to st kilda at 8pm we figured we may aswell stop at the bar for a quick end of season beverage. It was st kilda festival so people everywhere so I was a little scared when I rolled into the pub and ordered 3 schooners dressed in my Lycra! Fortunately I got the bears, myself, and my wallet back out to the boys with just a few wise cracks, think they were scared of giving me a hard time as I left my helmet on for safety! Always the Morton boys and I had an awesome afternoon discussing everything and everything and a little bit of cycling. We made some plans which will come to fruition throughout the year which we are all pretty excited about. That's an understatement really as some of the adventures we have come up with had us bouncing out of our skin but more on that later. Was a great way to wrap up a great week racing around victoria with an awesome group of guys. Sow to the mortons, davo, Stuy, chris, steels, nick, leanne, and of course the wonderful group of people at Korda mentha who sponsored the national tema for the event thankyou very much for being part of such a an eventful week! Next stop toowoomba and the Oceania TT.



Cjw





Sent from my iPad

ODI, Planning, Essbase, and the power of petitions

Update

Chris tells me that this support is now OFFICIAL.  Check out My Oracle Support document ID 1969035.1 for the real, honest-to-goodness, it's from Oracle statement of direction.  

Introduction

This is a guest post by Chris Rothermel, a very talented and passionate Oracle Data Integrator geek.  

Chris’ passion led him to (politely) take on Oracle Product Management and win.  That takes a fair amount of bravery and an awful lot of cheek.  Chris led, and Oracle listened.

As I’ve written before, I’m often pleasantly surprised at how an absolutely humungous multinational corporation actually listens to the opinions of its users and developers.  We’re lucky that Oracle has that culture.

With that, Chris take it away.

Victory!

I just closed this petition on Change.org requesting Oracle announce support for the Hyperion KMs for Oracle 12c.  The purpose of this guest blog is to share a little more of the history of our little grass roots movement.

It all started at KScope14 on Sunday June 21, 2014 in a large conference room in the Seattle Conference center.  In this large room I reconnected with clients, former colleagues, and several other people I’ve gotten to know through Network54, OTN, or ODTUG.  I was great to renew friendships in person and for the first time meet in person people I only know virtually like Cameron Lackpour.

Oracle’s PowerPoint presentation began with a slide declaring safe harbor.  They let us know they’re about to tell us some things about the direction of the EPM products but don’t bank on it or consider this conversation legally binding.  They talked about DRM, HFM, and Planning and there seem to be no great revelations or surprises.   

Next came the surprise statement, which went something like this:  “The Hyperion Planning and Hyperion Financial Management Knowledge Modules for ODI will not be supported in the next release of ODI.  However the Essbase Knowledge modules will definitely be available as it’s a key component used by BI for Essbase.”

Shock and awe, but mostly shock

I wondered how can this be?!  It seemed like just yesterday I read the product announcement for Oracle 11g which highlighted the adapters for Hyperion Planning, Financial Management, and Essbase.  What about Oracle’s statement that ODI is “a best-of-breed data integration platform focused on fast bulk data movement and handling complex data transformations.”  What ever happened to this talk that ODI is the integration tool of choice for Oracle products?  

Now have we been wrong to tell our customers to use it?  Let’s answer that for our customers:  No we have not been wrong as it really was the only choice Oracle had for classic Hyperion Planning.  It was the choice that was bundled with the product.  How can you make the wrong choice of integration tool if this is what the application solution provided for integration?

ODI and Planning’s history

Let’s now have a brief history of integration options for Hyperion Planning starting in with version 9.3.1 circa 2007.

• Hyperion Application Link (HAL), a product by Vignette licensed and branded by Hyperion Solutions.
• July 2009 HAL was removed from Oracle premium support
• June 2010 HAL was removed from Oracle Support

• Data Integration Management (DIM) aka Informatica’s PowerCenter rebranded by Hyperion before Oracle acquired Hyperion
• This goes quickly out of fashion after Oracle acquired Hyperion and after Oracle buys Sunopsis

EPMA for Hyperion had some challenges in the early days and many people reverted back to Classic administration and used ODI with Classic.  The Hyperion ODI adapters can’t be used with EPMA, they’re designed just for classic.   

What is the frequency, Kenneth?

There are other products and frankly Oracle’s EPM Integration strategy has been very confusing.

Dismay, despair, and then hope

When we heard the Hyperion Planning Adapters would no longer be supported that added to the confusion and the frustration of the ever changing integration choice for Hyperion.  After the open session one of my clients approached me and said, “What will happen to all of the integrations you developed for us just a few months ago now that the Hyperion Planning Adapter is going away?”  I wondered the same and thought what a waste for clients like these who have invested the time to develop, test, and use ODI for their Hyperion operations.

I attended many sessions at KScope that week and connected with customers using ODI, consultants who use it, and even old friends from Oracle.  After one session the presenter and I talked about the disappointing news and other attendees got into the conversation.  We though maybe Oracle was not aware of the in depth use of the product and we should tell them.  So I collected some business cards from clients and also asked consultants which of their clients used the products and would be negatively impacted.  

Armed with the list of clients that would be impacted I let Oracle know that these clients would be dissatisfied.  I also joked that I would start a petition on Change.org.

Petition for redress

One day I got asked the question, “Where is the petition? We can’t find it.”  So maybe there was a need.  I created the petition with the deadline of December 31, 2014.  We got over 100 votes and generated some excitement with the comments.  

Our friends in Brazil, Rodrigo Radtke and Ricardo Giampoli, supported this petition in their blog DEVEPM.com.  They also discovered how to port the Hyperion Planning KMs to Oracle 12c.  

This taught us that having the Planning KMs in 12c wasn’t a technical issue.  So what’s the reason?  One issue is Oracle’s great interest in Cloud at the exclusion of others.  Another is Oracle’s lack of visibility to the product’s use because it is packaged as a limited use license with Hyperion.  Another is the excellent work that has been done with the OutlineLoadUtility (command line and web).  

Still it seems odd to have the KMs for Hyperion Planning and not for Hyperion Essbase.  Perhaps because Planning and Essbase are managed by two different departments each department made a different decision.  Furthermore ODI is in a different department as well.   To say Oracle has a lot of products would be an understatement.

I closed it because we just may have success for Hyperion Planning.  Here’s what I wrote earlier this month:

Hope for the future

I’m not Oracle and it will be interested to see exactly when this comes to fruition or if it does at all.  

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Cameron for encouraging me to pursue this and for this guest blog opportunity.   As Cameron says, “Be seeing you.”  More specifically I hope to see you at ODTUG’s KScope15.  Last year was my first KScope and I was blown away.

So where do we go from here?

It’s awfully gratifying to be the platform for this announcement.  ODI is a great tool and I’m very glad that it will remain part of the EPM toolkit.

Chris Rothermel, Oracle ACE

As for yr. obt. svt.’s role in this, I think Chris is giving me entirely too much credit.  He came up with the idea, he organized it, and he brought it to Oracle’s attention.  Chris worked for you, oh Best and Brightest.  Personally, I think this kind of advocacy is the kind of act that suggests that Chris is Oracle ACE material.  Yes, Chris, I know, you’re a modest guy.  Don’t be, at least in this case.  I wouldn’t write this if I didn’t think you were more than qualified to be an ACE.

Chris used a petition as a way to get Oracle to listen.  Can we use the comments section of this blog to get OTN to listen?  If you agree, leave your vote below and I’ll forward it to the relevant person.  No guarantees of course as the decision is entirely Oracle’s, but part of my job as an ACED is to identify Oracle’s advocates and evangelists and I think Chris is a fantastic candidate.

Chris, try not to blush.  :)

Be seeing you.