An alias table in Oracle Essbase is a named collection of alternative display labels — aliases — for dimension members. Each member in an Essbase outline has a base member name (the technical identifier used in Calc Scripts, member formulas, and data load rules) and can have one alias in each configured alias table. When a user accesses data through Smart View, Financial Reporting Studio, or the EPM Cloud forms, they can choose which alias table’s labels to display — seeing “Revenue from Operations” instead of the technical member name “REV_OPS_001”, or seeing “الإيرادات التشغيلية” (Arabic) instead of the English label, depending on which alias table is selected. The base member name is always used in calculation logic; aliases affect only what is displayed to users.
Alias Table Architecture
| Alias Table | Contents | Who Selects It |
|---|---|---|
| Default | Standard English descriptive labels for all members | Most users — the default display in Smart View and EPM forms |
| Arabic | Arabic-language labels for all members — dimensions, account names, entity names | Arabic-language users via Smart View POV or EPM form POV settings |
| Long Description | Full expanded descriptions — “Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortisation” rather than “EBITDA” | Board reporting audience; training materials |
| Short Code | Abbreviated codes — for use in Financial Reporting Studio column headers where space is limited | FR Studio reports requiring compact column headers |
Arabic Alias Tables in GCC EPM Deployments
Arabic alias tables are a specific governance requirement for GCC enterprise EPM deployments where the finance team includes Arabic-language users who interact with Essbase data through Smart View or EPM Cloud planning forms. The Arabic alias table stores the Arabic-language label for every dimension member — account names, entity names, cost centre descriptions, period names — as the second alias alongside the English default alias. When an Arabic-language finance user opens a Smart View ad hoc analysis and selects the Arabic alias table, all member labels appear in Arabic. When an English-language user opens the same connection, the Default alias table shows English labels. Both users access the same underlying Essbase data — the alias table controls only the display label.
Arabic alias tables in Essbase must be maintained in UTF-8 encoding — the same encoding requirement that applies to all Arabic-language data in GCC EPM environments. Oracle Essbase’s alias table storage is encoding-dependent: alias tables loaded with incorrect encoding produce Arabic labels that appear as corrupted character strings in Smart View and EPM forms. Every Arabic alias load — whether through the Outline Load Utility, EPM Cloud’s Data Integration dimension import, or EPM Automate’s importDimensionMetadata command — must explicitly specify UTF-8 encoding to preserve Arabic characters through the load process.
Alias Table Governance
Alias table maintenance requires the same governance discipline as dimension member maintenance. When a new account member is added to the Essbase outline, its Arabic alias must be added to the Arabic alias table at the same time — not deferred to a future maintenance cycle. An account member with no Arabic alias displays its technical member name (e.g., “REV_OPS_001”) to Arabic-language users, which is not a meaningful label. Alias gaps accumulate rapidly in environments without alias governance: after a year of monthly dimension changes without alias maintenance, dozens of members may have English labels but no Arabic equivalents.
What Goes Wrong in Practice
The specific alias table failure with the most visible user-facing impact is a Smart View or EPM form that intermittently displays base member names instead of alias labels — occurring when the Essbase connection is set to the Default alias table but the Default table has not been updated to include new members. Users see technical codes like “ACCT_14217” where “Trade Payables” should appear. This is always an alias maintenance gap — not a system defect — but it is perceived by end users as a system error. Immediate remediation requires adding the missing alias to the Default alias table and refreshing the Essbase outline.
How Loop Wise Solutions Manages Alias Tables
We include alias table maintenance as a standard component of every dimension change request in Oracle EPM — the dimension change form requires both the member name and the Default and Arabic aliases before the change is approved and implemented. No member is added to a production EPM application without a confirmed alias in every active alias table.
