Purpose of extracting the metadata after loading the metadata

Question

Hi Hyperion experts,
AFTER loading the metadata in File what is the reason to go for extracting and where we will use

Answer 1

I keep the XML files around after every load for a variety of reasons :
- Loading to other applications : I'll generally make changes in dev / test and move to production. I guess I could probably get LCM to do the moving around; however, we're not big users of it at this point. I just load the file into the next app. It's pretty easy to open the client and hit load metadata. ;)
- Historical Records : Since I keep a copy of every 'major' load into the system, I can easily 'roll back' or tell you when a change was made as far back as I want.
- SOX Audits : Part of our controls is to ensure that changes loaded to production are approved through our documentation process. Having the files allows them to confirm what changes were made when.
- Point in Time comparisons : Pretty much just like the SOX Audit, I will periodically review two points in time to see what has changed. For instance, every year when I roll out our budget Smartview template, I compared the current metadata to the prior year to do a quick check to see what accounts have changed. Depending on what has changed during hte last year, I may need to update my template accordingly, etc. [I use an XML differencing tool to do the comparisons]
- Insurance : ' I'm not paranoid, I just know everyone is after me ' While I keep backups of my databases, etc, etc, I like having the file versions 'just in case'. If any of my other tools malfunction or I lose a backup, I can always grab my trusty files and reload.