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Comparing Outlines

Comparing Essbase Outlines

Outline: Using Oracle Essbase, organizations define a dimensional view of their business. Which defines structure of organizational data.

Comparing Essbase Outlines

If we want to compare two outlines placed in Development and Production

Extracting Outline
Comparing Outline Extract

Extracting Outline
The tool I use is OlapUnderground Outline Extractor. It is a free tool and can be downloaded from

It has support for extracting Outlines to XML which is my preferred choice as XML is brilliant for displaying hierarchical data

Extracting Outline

Note : Make sure you download the correct version related to Essbase Install

So, lets start by extracting the Sample->Basic Database Outline.

Open OlapUnderground Outline Extractor Login to your Essbase Server and Select Sample>Basic Choose XML as your File Type Select your desired Export File format and Field Options Select <<All Dimensions>> (you can compare at Dimension level also) Make sure 'All dimensions in one XML file' is selected Choose an output filename and location Now Export

This will then create an XML export of your Outline which will look something like this:
<?XML version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> - <!-- olapunderground Essbase Outline Extractor v3.3.2: 18/02/2008 19:19:06 --> - <EssbaseOutline Server="Localhost" AppName="Sample" DbName="Basic">- <Dimension Name="Year" Storage="Dense" DimType="Time" AttribDataType="None"> <Member PARENT0_Year="Year" CHILD0_Year="Qtr1" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+ X" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr1" CHILD0_Year="Jan" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr1" CHILD0_Year="Feb" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr1" CHILD0_Year="Mar" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Year" CHILD0_Year="Qtr2" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+ X" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr2" CHILD0_Year="Apr" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr2" CHILD0_Year="May" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr2" CHILD0_Year="Jun" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Year" CHILD0_Year="Qtr3" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+ X" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr3" CHILD0_Year="Jul" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr3" CHILD0_Year="Aug" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr3" CHILD0_Year="Sep" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Year" CHILD0_Year="Qtr4" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+ X" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr4" CHILD0_Year="Oct" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr4" CHILD0_Year="Nov" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> <Member PARENT0_Year="Qtr4" CHILD0_Year="Dec" ALIAS0_Year="" PROPERTY0_Year="+" FORMULA0_Year="" /> </Dimension> -<!-- ... --> </EssbaseOutline>

Comparing the Extracts

Now that you have successfully extracted the Outlines we need to compare them. There are tones of XML comparison tools so you can just use your preferred one. I use JExamXML as it is pretty easy to use and is free. It is command line based so this may put some of you off and it requires Java. You can download your copy from the website.

Any Queries?