To ensure the validity of attribute associations, you must select the correct dimension building options and perform the builds in the proper sequence.
Adding or Changing Members of the Attribute Dimension: After you associate members of a base dimension with their numeric attribute ranges, if you manually insert new members or rename existing members in the attribute dimension, ensure that associations between attributes and base members are correct by performing one of the following tasks:
Deleting Members from the Attribute Dimension: You can delete all members of an attribute dimension so that you can rebuild the dimension with new data. In Data Prep Editor, on the Dimension Building Properties tab on the Field Properties dialog box, click the Ranges button and select Delete all members of this attribute dimension. Essbase uses the start value and range size value to rebuild the attribute dimension. To ensure proper attribute association, on the Dimension Build Settings tab of the Dimension Build Settings dialog box, you must select the Allow association changes option for the base dimension.
Adding Members to the Base Dimension: You can use the same rules file to add new members to the base dimension and to associate the new members with their numeric range attributes simultaneously. Provide a value for the range size. In Data Prep Editor, on the Dimension Build Properties tab in the Field Properties dialog box, click the Ranges button and specify the range size for the attribute dimension.
If Essbase encounters a base dimension value that is greater than the highest attribute member by more than the range size or is lower than the lowest attribute member by more than the range size, it creates members in the attribute dimension to accommodate the out-of-range values.
For example, in Figure 89, Dynamically Adding Attribute Range Members, the numeric range attributes are defined as “Tops of ranges.” The highest value member of the Population attribute dimension is 3000000. If the source data includes a record with the population 4,420,000, and the range size is 1000000, Essbase adds two members to the attribute dimension, 4000000 and 5000000, and associates the base member with the value of 4,420,000 with the 5000000 attribute.
When you add range members and base dimension members simultaneously, Essbase does not create aliases for the new members of the attribute dimension. If you want aliases that describe the range values for the new members of the attribute dimension, you must add the aliases in a separate operation.