PBCS EPM Automate – Why is Identity domain needed

Well, for starters, this is a speculative blog… I do not guarantee that what I am saying is the truth and nothing but the absolute truth (manic laughter here…Never thought I would use this phrase)… I can be woefully wrong as well…

This is the way, we login to a cloud PBCS instance using EPMAuotmate…

Below is the list of the parameters for epmautomate login…

Now this is what bothers me… Why do we need a separate identity domain…The reason being that it the identity domain is very well contained in the URL…Why do you need a separate field just for something that can be derived from some other parameter?

And this is the best reason why you need the identity domain separate that comes to my mind…

If you have tried connecting to the PBCS either using FR Studio thick client or using the Planning REST API, you will know that Oracle PBCS expects you to give something which is called as fully qualified name that is, your user name is actually a combination of your identity domain and user name separated by a period symbol…

So if you have your user name to be captainkirk@enterprise.mil perhaps (too bored to Google Star Wars wiki) and your identity domain is z999999, if you are trying to connect to PBCS using either the FR Studio or Planning REST API, you will need to enter your user name as follows: -

Z999999.captainkirk@enterprise.mil

Then you can connect… Else, you keep getting weird authentication messages… (Well, if you are network security guy you will know this is not weird authentication messages, its “Security by obfuscation” in bold and capital)

So technically, the last parameter that you pass to EPM Automate is used in combination with your user name to derive your user name and to enable the derived user name to connect to PBCS…Hope that makes sense…I read it thrice and it looks good I think…

And this is what makes me smile… If I was coding EPM Automate, I would do the same…Who would code something separately to get a derived field along with all the associated error checking and exception tracking… And who would like to document how to give your user name… Not me for one…

I would just say pass it separately and since Java in my poison, I would code it this way

userName=identityDomain.concat(“.”).concat(userName);

Don’t we all programmers think same… I think it is called the path of least resistance…All innovation is driven by this one thing…