Properties in XML

Reading and modifying properties

You can read and modify XML properties using these options:

• The respective GetProperties and PutProperties XML functions.
• The Edit Database dashboard of EPM Administration for dimensions or cubes.

This table shows the permissions required to read and modify properties:

Types of properties

This table shows the XML property types:

Restrictions

These are the restrictions on the <Alea:Properties> XML element:

• It must only contain XML elements. Text content is not allowed.
• Each property name must be unique among the direct children of <Alea:Properties>. This restriction does not apply to nested levels or to <Alea:Translation> elements.

Examples of valid structures

This structure contains only unique root-level property names and no root-level text.

<Alea:Properties>
  <MyProperty1>OK</MyProperty1>
  <MyProperty1_1>OK</MyProperty1_1>
</Alea:Properties>

This structure contains both duplicated property names and text only in the nested levels.

<Alea:Properties>
  <MyProperty2>
    <MyProperty3>
      <MyProperty4>OK</MyProperty4>
      <MyProperty4>OK</MyProperty4>
      some text
    </MyProperty3>
  </MyProperty2> 
</Alea:Properties>

Examples of invalid structures

Structures that contain text directly, for example:

<Alea:Properties>
  <MyProperty>OK</MyProperty>
  some text
</Alea:Properties>

Structures with duplicated property names among direct children, for example:

<Alea:Properties>
  <MyProperty>OK</MyProperty>
  <MyProperty>OK</MyProperty>
</Alea:Properties>

PutProperties behavior

If there are multiple <Alea:Properties> XML elements, the PutProperties functions of all named classes process only the first one.

These are the ways in which each direct child of <Alea:Properties> is processed:

• Inserting the property if none with the same name exists.
• Replacing the existing property with the same name.
• Deleting the property with the same name if it is empty. An empty property has no text, no child elements, and no attributes.
• Returning an error in <Alea:Return> if:
  • The user or process lacks permission.
  • The property is read-only.
  • A property is specified more than once.

Removing nested properties

To remove a nested structure, you must send the empty root element.

Example

Existing structure:

<Alea:Properties>
  <MyProperty2>
    <MyProperty3>
      <MyProperty4>OK</MyProperty4>
      <MyProperty4>OK</MyProperty4>
      some text
    </MyProperty3>
  </MyProperty2> 
</Alea:Properties>

Removing the entire MyProperty2 structure:

<Alea:Properties>
  <MyProperty2 /> 
</Alea:Properties> 

Nesting <Alea:Properties> XML elements

Do not nest <Alea:Properties> elements, even though it is technically allowed.

Nesting <Alea:Properties> may cause these issues:

• System properties inside nested <Alea:Properties> are ignored without error logging.
• Some clients treat such structure as invalid.

Example

<Alea:Properties>
  <Alea:AccessCube Enabled="true" /><!-- not ignored --> 
  <Alea:Properties>
    <Alea:AccessCube Enabled="false" /><!-- ignored --> 
  </Alea:Properties> 
</Alea:Properties>

Read-only system properties

This table shows the read-only system properties: