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Tags  business rule;  create a business rule;  create a rule;  MDX;  PEL;  SQL

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What are tags?

Most business rules in PerformancePoint Planning Business Modeler are written in PerformancePoint Expression Language (PEL). PEL is a unique language that was designed specifically to create business rules, and to manipulate multi-dimensional information in PerformancePoint Planning Server.

PEL provides a great deal of flexibility:

• The PEL compiler can generate SQL or Multidimensional Expressions (MDX); in fact, from the same PEL source, you can generate both and then compare the results.
• Input data can reside in Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cubes or in relational databases.
• Rule calculations can be performed in the cube using MDX, in a relational database using SQL, or in main memory using one of Planning Business Modeler specialized components.
• Results of calculations can be returned without storage, written to fact tables in the relational database, or written to cells in the model.

Elements of a PEL business rule

There are three basic components of a PEL business rule in Planning Business Modeler.

• The Scope statement
  Scope (<enter target dimensions/members here>);
  
• The calculation statement, often a This statement
  This = (<enter the calculations here>);
  
• The End Scope statement
  End scope;

Examples

As with any programming task, syntax is extremely important. For example, each basic component of the rule must end in a semi-colon, and all brackets and parenthesis must consist of a matching pair. For specific information about the PEL language, see the Planning Business Rules Developer Guide.

The following example shows a simple rule that assigns the value “1” to every cell defined in the scope.

// SCOPE statement

SCOPE(

        [Scenario].[All Members].[Budget],

       [Time].[All Members].[7/2/2000],

       [Account].[All Members].[Cons 7100000],

       [BusinessProcess].[Standard].[INPUT], 

       [Entity].[All Members].[Tahoe],

       [TimeDataView].[All Members].[PERIODIC],

       [Flow].[All Members].[ADD] 

      );

// Calculation statement

 THIS = 1;

// End SCOPE statement

END SCOPE;


			

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The next example is more complex, but notice that it still consists of the same three basic components. This rule creates a forecast for the last three months of the year. The forecast is based on the average actual operating expense for the first nine months of the year.

SCOPE (

       [Account].[Corporate].[Operating Expense].LeafMembers,

       [BusinessProcess].[Standard].[Input],

       [Entity].[SubsidiaryOperation].[MySubsidiary],

       [Scenario].[All Members].[Forecast],

        [Time].[Monthly].[Month 10 Year 2004]:[Time].[Monthly].[Month 12 Year 2004],

       );


// "This" statement uses the Avg function

//  To calculate the average of actual operating expenses

//  over 9 months


      THIS = Avg(

      [Time].[Monthly].[Month 1 Year 2004]:[Time].[Monthly].[Month 9 Year 2004],

      [Scenario].[All Members].[Actual]

      );



// End SCOPE statement

END SCOPE; 

			

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