Budgeting and Forecasting in AWM 11g

Question

Hi,
We are looking at implementing the budgeting and forecasting capabilities into an Oracle OLAP 11g Cube built using AWM v11.1.0.6.0A.
On a very high level, we have the following questions:
1. What are the options available in AWM 11g for budgeting/forecasting.
2. What are the limitations/pre-requisites (in terms of cube or AW design).
3. Steps required to create a budgeting/forecasting model (like what needs to be done in the Cube Scripts) in AWM.
Any inputs on the above are highly appreciated.
Thanks and Regards,
Piyush

Answer 1

There is, unfortunately, no direct support for Forecasting in 11g AWM or the 11g OLAP API (which sits underneath AWM). But there is support for this in the OLAP DML and I recommend that you look at the OLAP DML Reference documentation. For forecasting, for example, see
FCOPEN function -- Creates a forecasting context.
FCSET command -- Specifies the forecast characteristics.
FCEXEC command -- Executes a forecast and populates Oracle OLAP variables with forecasting data.
FCQUERY function -- Retrieves information about the characteristics of a forecast or a trial of a forecast.
FCCLOSE command -- Closes a forecasting context.
These can be built into a DML PROGRAM, which can in turn be run from a Cube Build Script (as an OLAP DML command step).
You can write directly to the variables of a cube (provided you have not enabled Materialized Views, which is unlikely in this case).
There is support in the 11g OLAP API for MODELs in the OLAP DML sense, but this has not been exposed through AWM. You can use the API (Java or XML) to create models, custom members, and rules in models. See
OLAP Java API Reference (Javadoc)
In particular you may want to see classes
oracle.olapi.metadata.mdm.MdmModel and subclass MdmDimensionCalculationModel (to represent a model)
oracle.olapi.metadata.mdm.MdmAssignment (to represent an assignment of the form lhs = rhs in a model)
oracle.olapi.syntax.ConsistentSolveSpecification (to associated a model with a cube)
oracle.olapi.syntax.Expression and subclasses (to define rhs of model assignments)