OBIEE and Oracle OLAP Value Based Hierarchies

Question

Hi there...
I have a value based dimension built on Oracle OLAP and want to map it on OBIEE Administration tool.
I've been using the above link as reference:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/olap_biee/CreateBIEEMetadata.htm
There's no option to import from Oracle Multi-dimensional Database. Either to import/configure the view created by OLAP as an Unballanced or Ragged Dimension.
I also checked this example, but it uses ESSBASE as the multi-dimensional source....
http://www.rittmanmead.com/2008/08/27/ragged-hierarchy-handling-in-obiee/
How to map this Ragged Dimension created in OLAP workspace in OBIEE? Any suggestions or directions will be highly appreciated...
Thanks in advance
Marcos

Answer 1

Mark and others,
You can create OLAP_TABLE views with level columns on top of value-based hierarchies. BI Beans used to do that too behind the scenes in Discoverer Plus OLAP. If you trace the Discoverer session, where you are querying data from Value-based hierarchies, you will see that it also generates OLAP_TABLE views with level columns in it.
So the question is how to do it. Internally, even for Value-based hierarchies Oracle OLAP keeps track of the "depth" of each value by using a structure called GID_DIMENSION (i.e., Grouping Dimension). Here is an example of a view on top of a value-based hierarchy (CFC_ACCT_GAPP) for RPT_ACCOUNT dimension. You have to know how "deep" your value-based hierarchy is.
Similar kind of a thing is done by OLAP View Generator application, which I never use - since I always prefer to define my own OLAP_TABLE views.
This kind of a view can then be used in the RPD of OBIEE.
select *
FROM table(OLAP_TABLE ('AW duration session',
*'DIMENSION RPT_ACCT_ID FROM RPT_ACCOUNT WITH*
HIERARCHY RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_PARENT   FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_PARENTREL(RPT_ACCOUNT_HIERLIST ''CFC_ACCT_GAAP'') INHIERARCHY RPT_ACCOUNT_INHIER
HATTRIBUTE RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL_NUM FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_DEPTHVAL
FAMILYREL RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL1,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL2,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL3,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL4,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL5,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL6,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL7,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL8
FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 127),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 63),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 31),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 15),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 7),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 3),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 1),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 0)
FAMILYREL RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL1_DSC,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL2_DSC,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL3_DSC,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL4_DSC,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL5_DSC,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL6_DSC,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL7_DSC,
RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_LVL8_DSC
FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 127),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 63),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 31),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 15),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 7),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 3),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 1),
RPT_ACCOUNT_FAMILYRELVAL(GID_DIMENSION 0)
LABEL RPT_ACCOUNT_LONG_DESCRIPTION
ATTRIBUTE ACCOUNT_LDSC    FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_LONG_DESCRIPTION
ATTRIBUTE ACCOUNT_SDSC    FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_SHORT_DESCRIPTION
ATTRIBUTE ACCOUNT_TYPE    FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_TYPE
ATTRIBUTE SOURCE_LEVEL    FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_LEVEL
ATTRIBUTE CALCULATION     FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_CALCULATION
ATTRIBUTE CALC_DATA       FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_CALC_DATA
ATTRIBUTE GAAP_SORT_ORDER FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_GAAP_SORT_ORDER
ATTRIBUTE RATIO           FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_RATIO
ATTRIBUTE ACCOUNT_LEVEL   FROM RPT_ACCOUNT_LEVELREL'))