Will no one rid me of this turbulent security?

No Archbishop of Canterbury will be put to sword in this blog post but what will be expunged is security that no one wants (heh, sort of like the TSA).

I recently imported an application into my local copy of OneStream and…

What went FOOM!?

And in a little more detail:

Bugger, there’s a security group named “S_ACT_READ” assigned to a member on a dimension as a read data group and I don’t have said group on my install of OneStream. I could add it as a security group but that would almost certainly be repeated many times as the import process hit the rows in the dimension import file that have security – not my idea of fun or I imagine anyone else. I could also go into the dimension XML and find it, figure out the open and close of the XML node, and then delete the security assignment it but I’d have to do that across all dimensions, Cube Views, etc. that have any kind of security – also not my idea of fun. Bummer.

Marketplace

Or, I could remember that OneStream has a nifty utility that removes security. What an excellent blogging moment. Sadly, I live for these so my sadness is your joy. Or sadness. Decide on your own.

Regardless of your mood, I shall log into the XF MarketPlace and download said utility.

There are a ton of addons/modules/solutions available for download. AFAIK, all are free except for the ones developed by partners – their (our) ability to sell directly is new so the vast majority of the downloads are free. Actually, let me rephrase that: OneStream itself is not free (it is after all the product of a software company) but, except for those partner solutions, everything you see in the MarketPlace is yours to use or not and for no additional charge. I can’t think of many implementations that don’t use at least some of these modules.

Here we are:

No, no, no, no

Here’s the price of my laziness. I think about writing this post, think about it some more, completely forget about it, start writing it, finish it, and then lo and behold, OneStream went and upgraded MarketPlace. Arrrrgh. Ah well, my procrastination, memory, and semi-fortuitous timing means that you, Gentle Reader, get to see what the new MarketPlace looks like. At least I have a guide as to screenshots.

Here we are:

Downloading XML Security Remover

If I click on the remover button, I see the below:

I can download the utility itself, read the readme (just two paragraphs – it is dead easy to use), see the install, etc. All of the MarketPlace solutions have the same components.

Download the file(s):

I am a good little geek so you see both the .exe app as a zip in addition to the documentation. Also, I’ll probably forget all about how to use it so it’s best to have the docs.

Let’s have a quick read of how to use it:

Good grief, that seems pretty easy. Is it?

Prepare to launch

Double click on XMLSecurityRemover.exe:

Point to the file:

Click on the “Clean and Export” button:

Did it work?

That’s some sort of record for most succinct dialog box ever (not that Yr. Obt. Svt. could or would ever restrain himself to Just the facts, ma’am as has been pointed out to me on more than one occasion) but what else would it say when the removal works?

How do I know that it’s cleaned up? ‘Cos it says so right in the file name.

Import Mk II

I go back into the OneStream Windows client and import the application (did I mention that this is the entire application sans the security I just removed?) and see…well, it looks like it’s working:

It is working:

All done:

Success!

So what do we have?

I suspect this is something consultants will use more than customers – why would anyone want to import an application in one’s own environment that didn’t already have the security groups in question. I suppose there must be some kind of scenario that requires this but I think that’s a very small set.

For we few happy consultants, this is an easy peasy way to quickly import applications without bringing security along for the ride.

Be seeing you.