OAC Essbase Google Sheets add-on

We're happy to announce the availability of our "OAC Essbase by Casabase" Google Sheets add-on. Our add-on has been tested and approved by Google for inclusion in the G Suite Marketplace. You can find more information, including the installation link here.

The "OAC Essbase by Casabase" Google Sheets add-on now allows you to combine the cloud advantages of Sheets (no local install, accessible from any connected device, built-in sharing) with the benefits of Oracle Analytics Cloud. You can now access your OAC data from Google Sheets exactly like you do in Excel using Smart View. All the familiar functions are there: 

·        Free-form: type in member names/alias directly in the sheet
·        Member Selection
·        Pivot
·        Unpivot
·        Drill-down
·        Drill-up
·        Keep Only
·        Remove Only
·        Submit Data
·        Execute MDX queries

The ability to pull your OAC data into Google Sheets in real-time opens up a new world of possibilities. Accessing your data in the Oracle Analytics Cloud using a cloud-based spreadsheet is the logical progression in the trend from on-premises applications. It’s easy to get started and we offer a 5-day free trial. If you have an OAC instance and credentials, you can get started in just a few minutes.

The add-on can also be installed from the G Suite Marketplace here.

Here's a blog post with more details.

Please give it a try and let us know if you have any questions.

Google Sheets Add-on ZoomIn functionality

I told you I just can't stop adding functionality to my Google Sheets Essbase add-on. Now you can ZoomIn to a member's children both in rows and columns.

I've also added indentation to the member names to reflect their level. This is much the same as in the Excel add-in.

Next I may add the ability to ZoomOut to a member's parent.

Please let me know what you think in the comments.

Google Sheets Essbase add-on

I just can't seem to abandon the idea of developing a Google Sheets Essbase add-on. Maybe I'm a little ahead of my time, or maybe I've got some of this guy in me. I don't know. What I do know is that every time I fire up my personal Essbase development environment, a Google Sheets script editor seems to also magically appear. If I build it, maybe they will come.

With Oracle moving more and more services to The Cloud, I have to think that companies' resistance to also moving at least some users to cloud-based office productivity tools like Google Sheets is destined to crumble. After all, the security model of Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services is exactly the same as Google Sheets. All your data is already in the cloud, so why not do your analysis there, too? And since a spreadsheet is really only useful if you can share it with others in your organization, which is where Google Sheets excels (sorry for the punny), why not eliminate the Excel middleman?

As the animation below demonstrates, the add-on currently has the ability to retrieve data from a range using the Essbase Query By Example (”QBE”) paradigm explained by Tim Tow in a blog post here. It actually even eliminates the need to prefix numeric member names with a single quote. This requirement can be extremely vexing to both users and admins alike. The add-on accomplishes all of this through the XMLA web service that you already have running through Provider Services. No additional software currently need be installed.

Of course, in order to also provide the ability to send updated data (a.k.a. lock & send; a.k.a. L&S) back to the Essbase server, it would be necessary to either install a Java API-based web application in-house or to enable the new Essbase Web Services that no one, outside of Oracle, appears to be using.

Before I expend any more effort on this add-on, am I tilting at windmills? Please let me know in the comments.

-Harry

Pulling Essbase data into Google Sheets

I created a thread on network54 to gauge the interest in a Google Sheets Essbase add-in. I developed a sidebar that can run an MDX query against an Essbase database and return the data to a Google Sheet.

The following video demonstrates this functionality: google_sheets_POC

As I mentioned in the network54 thread, please keep in mind the inherent limitation of Google Sheets is that it can only connect to a publicly-available (i.e. internet) URL. As we all know, most companies keep Essbase walled off from the internet behind their firewall. A couple I've worked with have, however, opened up a secure port (https) to the Provider Server URL (e.g. https://CompanyAPS:13080/aps) for partner companies to access data. So it's not completely impossible that companies would be amenable to this option.

I can understand IT Security's reluctance to expose the APS https URL to an external web server, but risks can be mitigated. It is a secure (https) protocol and access is still controlled by Shared Services usernames and passwords passed from the Google Sheet.

If there is sufficient interest, the next step would be to add the functionality contained in the Essbase Excel add-in (and Smart View) to the Essbase Google Sheet add-on.

Please leave a comment if this is something you are interested in.

Thanks,

Harry Gates