Working with Essbase Files

Working on a project I found myself writing a bunch of MaxL scripts.  So for this I started using Administrative Service and as the scripts got bigger I realized I needed to start using my favorite text editor, TextPad.   If you don’t have it already it is really a fine text editor and I have been using it for years, but working with MaxL I was missing the syntax highlighting and function lists that I had in Administrative Services.  I remembered that TextPad has features that allow you to define things like highlighting and function lists, you just need to build the definition files for this stuff.  Here are the steps I took to get my MaxL files working the way I wanted.

• Set up TextPad to run MaxL scripts and capture the output.
1. Open TextPad.
2. Select Configure | Preferences.
3. Select the ‘Tools’ item.
4. On the screen click the ‘Add’ button and choose ‘Program’.
5. Browse to the location of the MaxL executable and select it.  (useally - %HYPERION_HOME%\products\Essbase\EssbaseClient\bin\essmsh.exe).



6. Once in the tools list you can select it and make edits if needed.
7. Now you can run MaxL scripts in TextPad.  Select Tools | External Tools and select the item you want to run.
8. Repeat for things like Esscmd and anything else you might want to run from TextPad.
• Set up Syntax Highlighting
1. Open TextPad.
2. Select Configure | New Document Class.
3. Type the name you want for the new document type (MaxL or Essbase MaxL).
4. Select the class members or file extensions that will identify the file (*.msh, *.mxl).
5. Enable syntax highlighting and select the file to be used.  The files need to be located in the TextPad ‘samples’ directory. (C:\Program Files\TextPad 5\Samples)  Files are posted below.
6. Click ‘Next’ and then ‘Finish’.
7. You now have a new document class that understands syntax highlighting; repeat this for other file types like MDX, Essbase Calculation Scripts, Etc.
• Set up clip Libraries.
1. Make sure the clip library files are located in the TextPad ‘samples’ directory. (C:\Program Files\TextPad 5\Samples) Files are posted below.
2. Open TextPad.
3. Select View | Clip Library.
4. Select the clip library you want.

Now TextPad it set up to handle all the Essbase Script development you would ever want.  You can also set up things like ‘File Name Filters’ and ‘Associated Files’ to make things even easier.

Thanks to Dave Roberts for providing the initial TextPad files used for syntax highlighting and clip libraries.  Please note the some of the files need updating for new features in Essbase but all are pretty close…