Connect to Essbase | Alteryx 11.0

[AshishBhavnani]

 Dear Users,

I am researching on tools and the information that could enable me to establish a connection with Essbase cubes from within Alteryx. Does anybody have any experience to share or guidance to provide around the approaches that I could take to try and establish connections to Essbase from Alteryx. 

I have done some reading so far on the tools that Alteryx provides for such use cases and some reading on the capabilities that Essbase has to enable integration with 3rd party apps.

Essbase provides JAVA APIs for 3rd party apps integration. However, based on my email exchanges with Alteryx Customer Support Team, it seems that those JAVA APIs cannot be consumed directly by Alteryx since some custom API development is needed before Alteryx can consumer those and connect to Essbase. I am currently looking at Essbase Webservices to see if those could be used by Alteryx for connecting with Essbase.

Please provide your thoughts on how to go about this use case and the approaches that I can take to address this requirement.

Regards,

Ashish Bhavnani

[MichaelCh]

Hello Ashish,

You are correct that Alteryx does not integrate with JAVA APIs. Looking around, I see a couple routes forward for you.

1. Use the SOAP API. This is actually two sub-routes (see below). My initial scrounging around implies the SOAP APIs for Essbase are poorly documented, and I'm not sure whether they even still exist:
   1. Use the download tool to use the Essbase SOAP API. You can find an example here.
   2. Write a Python tool that connects to the Essbase SOAP API. There are plenty of Python libraries for connecting to SOAP APIs.
2. Write a Python tool using https://github.com/jasonwjones/essbasepy to connect directly to Essbase.

I can't tell you which option will work best for you, but this should be enough to get you started.

[Amarendra]

Hi @AshishBhavnani

Were you able to solve the connection problem to Essbase? Any workarounds that you were able to come up with for this? 

Thanks, 

Amar

[mb1824]

@AshishBhavnani 

Did you make any progress on this?

[AshishBhavnani]

I didn't pursue this project and hence don't have any suggestions for you. In case you haven't looked at all the replies to this thread, there are few suggestions from one of the Alteryx Community members that might be worth a try.

The Finance function across most organizations are Essbase users and also rely heavily on Alteryx for it's data handling capabilities. I think it would serve the interests of the broader Finance community if Alteryx were to start offering some native capabilities to connect to Essbase instead of the current custom development approach. In case, if others also share the same thoughts, it would be worthwhile to highlight this pressing need to the Alteryx Designer Product Management team.

[mb1824]

@AshishBhavnani 

Thanks for the reply.

I have started with suggestion 2 from @MichaelCh, however I use Oracle PBCS (cloud version of hyperion), I am pretty sure Oracle PBCS leverages Essbase but I have no idea if I can connect it to with a Python tool using https://github.com/jasonwjones/essbasepy

So I wanted to see if you had got it to work before spending/wasteing too much time on it. 

[CarrHarriman]

Good news! Essbase connectivity is now available in Alteryx with the ExoInsight Essbase Connector!

Casabase Software has partnered with Alteryx to enable direct access to your Essbase data and hierarchies from within Alteryx. You can now connect to all your BSO, ASO, and even Essbase Cloud cubes with only a few clicks.

Please contact us for a demo of the ExoInsight Essbase Connector for Alteryx!
 
Carr Harriman
Casabase Software

[sesposto1]

Your web site is not connecting!

More info about ESSBASE connection please!

[CarrHarriman]

Thanks for your comment! I just checked and our website seems to be fully functional, so please let us know if you're still having issues connecting. 

https://casabasesoftware.com

Regards,

Carr Harriman

Casabase Software

[JustineMJackson]

Hello.  I am trying to get to the website and it's not working.