I debated between putting this question onto the ODI forum or here but as the world-famous John Goodwin so dominates this board, I thought I’d post it here.

How are people handling Planning dimension builds in ODI wrt error handling within packages?

My goal is to only send exception emails when a problem occurs. I am automating this via packages compiled to scenarios.

I have found that a genuine error in an interface will cause a trappable error in a package, e.g., the server name is really plan01.corpname.com and somehow the physical schema gets changed to bozotheclown.goaway.org. I can then send a failure email off.

I have also found that if I have a metadata error in a Planning dim build interface I can trap the errors to an error file. A bad record (syntactically correct, but its parent can’t be found, for instance) will generate an entry in the error file if I turn error logging on.

However, that bad record does not generate an ODI error in a package.

I thought about testing for the existence of this error file but the constant generation (from the LOG_ERRORS option in the IKM SQL to Hyperion Planning) of the error file regardless of bad record condition means that I can’t use the ODIFileWait control to test if the file is there or not.

I cannot find a way to test for the length of the file (if it is zero, there is no metadata error) within ODI.

I guess I could do it through an external script (Windows environment) but that is so wrong on so many levels that I can’t believe that is my only option.

Any thoughts? If you come up with an answer I’ll post it in my blog and give you all the credit. As if that were a real incentive…

Regards,

Cameron Lackpour

If it really is that involved (what exactly in ODI is not involved?) for the time being I better just go with an NT cmd script that gets thrown into the mix and generates a new file (or not) depending on file length. Kludgy but effective. Now I just have to figure that out...

Ouch.

That would be awesome. Just keep the words simple for your American cousin(s).

The questions I hear about you are: does he float or walk, put on his pants two legs at time or just one, does he eat, is he from the future. Most imporantly, does he have a job beyond dominating OTN and that wonderful blog.

In all seriousness, you really have been a lifesaver for me and many others. Thanks again for your amazing work.

Regards,

Cameron Lackpour

P.S. I'm in favor of the Kaleidoscope John Goodwin day, too. You've got two ODTUG SIG board members on that Network54 thread asking for you to present (I'm one of them).

Because I goofed when I clicked it. John Goodwin answered the question externally to OTN -- he certainly deserves the credit. Regards,

Cameron Lackpour