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Fixing What's Broken in the Essbase JAPI and Reaching New Heights with Groovy
Topic: Essbase
Owner: Joe Aultman
Date: 2013-07-26
Subtopic: Solutions

Essbase JAPI programming can be a challenge even to Java programmers, let alone Essbase admins who have other responsibilities. Becoming a Java expert isn't in the cards for many admins, yet automation through the JAPI is still in reach. Groovy smooths the way, but the JAPI itself has its own pitfalls and idiosyncracies.

After learning about Groovy from my presentation two years ago, from my chapter in the Developing Essbase Applications book, or perhaps from the session I may get to co-present with David Schleiss this year, many people may want to know more about the realities and practicalities of using Groovy with Essbase.

In this presentation, I will describe some of the problems the Essbase JAPI presents on its own which can make using it difficult and confusing, even with Groovy. I will show solutions to these problems that I have created through advanced Groovy metaprogramming, a technique that allows the manipulation and improvement of existing Java objects.

I will present this code along with the principles it employs to reach the solutions. I will provide the code for download. These new objects and modfications to existing objects lower the barrier to entry into JAPI programming more than ever before.

A few of the problems I will address are:
- resource cleanup (Groovy allows you to this automatically)
- methods that don't actually work (replace with ones that do)
- member objects with partial information (make objects that compensate)

I will provide examples of using the JAPI and my code to do complex tasks simply: iterate over all apps/databases on the server, detect which are ASO and which are BSO, branch accordingly, and perform automation tasks on each.

Time permitting, I will present my backup script, which uses a mixture of Groovy and MaxL to thoroughly, modularly, and fault-tolerantly backup an Essbase environment.


Download File   jaultman.FixingWhatsBroken.pptx

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