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Monday, August 19, 2013

Smart View 11.1.2.5

In a move that probably took even the most die-hard Hyperion pros (and myself ;) by surprise, Oracle has released Smart View 11.1.2.5 last Friday. Yes, you got it right, the version number indeed reads eleven-one-two-five! I'm not quite sure how Oracle came up with such a jump in the version numbering but I'll wager that they wanted to separate Smart View from the rest of the EPM suite as the product has pretty much started to live a life of its own anyway. Let's take a look at what the new package has got to offer.


What's New



  • New certifications:
    • Support for Windows 8 added (on PC and on Microsoft Surface Pro tablets)
    • Microsoft Office 2013 supported (32 and 64-bit)
    • For older OSs and Office versions the list follows the EPM 11.1.2.3 certification matrix
  • The same installer (smartview.exe) now includes the add-in versions for both 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Office
  • Installer language detected automatically based on Windows Regional Settings
  • Better upgrade functionality - no need to uninstall or delete files (Note: When upgrading from release 11.1.1.3.x and earlier, Oracle recommends to uninstall Smart View first)
  • MS .Net Framework 4.0 is needed (the installer will complain and close in case correct framework version is not found)
  • Lots of bugs fixed and known issues listed with workarounds. Some highlights:
    • The Improve Metadata Storage option is selected by default to improve performance and enhance compatibility with Excel macros
    • Starting with release 11.1.2.5, formula cells can be copied and pasted
    • Excel process no more terminates when saving a workbook in certain cases
    • HFM: POV details were not correctly passed into linked forms
    • Planning: Decimal truncation error fixed when comma is used as decimal separator in Windows
    • Etc... See the readme file for full list

Latest Smart View version is now available on a separate Smart View page on the Oracle Technology Network website: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/smart-view-for-office/overview/index.html

Full documentation for SV 11.1.2.5 available on OTN as well. Take some time to read through the readme file as there are still some quirks with the 64-bit Office support (some of which Oracle seems to be trying to tackle with Microsoft).


Update (2014-03-20): Thanks to John Goodwin for pointing out the following information about Smart View and backwards compatibility.
This version of Smart View (11.1.2.5.x) can be used with HFM, Planning and Essbase versions:
- 11.1.1.3
- 11.1.1.4
- 11.1.2.x

(Source: "Available Patch Sets and Patch Set Updates for Oracle Hyperion Planning (Doc ID 1395593.1)" and similar docs for HFM and Essbase)

30 comments :

  1. Great post!
    Thanks Henri.

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  2. Hello, could you me tell me if Smart View version 11.1.1.3.500 runs with Office 2013? I installed on the pc of a client who has office 2013 but seems not working properly! Thanks a lot for your help! Francesco

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    Replies
    1. No, the first version of Smart View that can be used with Office 2013 is 11.1.2.5. You can find the link to the download page from my post above.

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  3. Hi, do you know if we can use Smartview 11.1.2.5 with HFM 11.1.2.2? Are there any issues with this? \Eva

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    Replies
    1. I am using this combination now at a client and have not had any trouble. SV 11.1.2.5 should be backwards compatible.

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    2. Yes, it is compatible with older EPM releases as well. For some reason Smart View has been dropped from the EPM Compatibility Matrix document that used to include this kind of information.

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  4. who know whether hyperion 6.5.1.0.0 can work in excel 2013

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    Replies
    1. Hello,

      Excel 2013 and Essase 6.5 dont work together properly. If the DLL Essbase is enabled, I find some bugs in Excel formulas and the navigation between 2 workbooks isn't possible....

      But I have no solutions currently :-(

      Does anyone has an idea ? Could you help me ?

      Thanks

      Delete
  5. I may have found a bug of sorts. When you dock the POV to the top of Excel 2013, no problem. But if you switch windows the dock hides, and then when you switch back it reappears, causing a whole lot of excess drawing on the screen. Running 8.1 on a Surface Pro 2, Office(well really Excel) 2013 and 11.1.2.5.200.
    I'm still trying to hunt this one down, so if it's something I'm doing wrong, my apologies. I did think you'd want to be aware at any rate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. According to the readme file for SV 11.1.2.5.200 Windows 8 is supported on Surface Pro tablets. Windows 8.1 will probably be officially certified with a later release. But it's of course hard to tell if the problem is caused by OS version or not...

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  6. Hi, do we know if SV 11.1.2.5.x supports PC Windows 8.1? Many thanks!

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    Replies
    1. From Oracle Support: "Windows 8.1 Client will be supported only with the future release 11.1.2.4. (this may be subject to change). Please check with compatibility matrix for more info."

      Therefore it's not officially supported so I wouldn't deploy to a large number of end-user PCs as you won't get support in case you run into problems. If it's just your own laptop I would give it a try just to see if it works or not... ;)

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  7. Hyperion financial reporting version:11.1.2.334

    ORACLE smart view version for office :11.1.2.5.210(Build 042)

    Microsoft power point version 2007


    We have imported reports from HFR to Microsoft power point using the smart view addin ,in the smartview tab in ppt we have options to manually refresh single slide or all slides in the ppt.

    We are looking at to automate the ppt refresh instead of manully opening the ppt file and click on the refresh button.is it possible to automate this.


    We have 30 ppt files ,and required to refrsh monhly 3 times,it is time consuming process to manully open the ppt file and refresh every time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think automation should be achievable using VBScript but I have to admit that I haven't tried it myself. Have you had a look at this blog post for example: Automation of SmartView reports?

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  8. Hi, just found out SV 11.1.2.5 doesnot support IE 11 , so is there any way to chane the default browser in SV? thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What kind of an issue are you experiencing with IE11?

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    2. Is there a way to change the default browser used in smartview when trying to run an HFR from within smartview connecting to Reporting and Analysis? If your version of Hyperion is not compatible with IE11 but your organization is pushing IE11 out you have this issue within Smartview. You can use Firefox to connect to workspace from the web, but smartview still defaults to using IE and in my case IE11.

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    3. Please see the following Support article:

      Error: "An error has occurred in the script on this page. Unable to detect Browser version" When Importing Financial Reporting (FR) Report via SmartView Client Using IE11 on Windows 7.1 or 8.1 (Doc ID 2056681.1)

      Basically the recommended solution is to upgrade to EPM version 11.1.2.3.700 or 11.1.2.4 where the issue seems to be solved.

      Delete
  9. We're having the same issue. When you try to open a financial report in SV, you get an error message that says "Unable to Detect Browser Version". Oracle has a doc (Doc ID 1992332.1) referencing this error, but it does not seem to resolve the issue. Several folks have been talking about it in the Oracle user forum, but it doesn't seem like anyone has a fix.

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  10. Currently we are in 11.1.2.3.500 and we are using Smart view 11.1.2.5.410.Recently user system got upgraded from MS office 2013 - 32 bit to 64 bit..after this lot of glitches are facing while using smartview,suddenly hanging and suddenly restarting the system, any help from your side on this??

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  11. Hi Henri,

    I am getting this error message while trying to access HFR reports in smart view - Script Error - Application is undefined... we are using IE 11.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very late answer but adding this in case others are having about the same issue... The error could be caused by SSL offloading - see this thread on the OTN forums: https://community.oracle.com/thread/3972017

      Delete
  12. Hi Henri,

    I have a user who has an issue where when he clicks refresh on Smartview it refreshes data for that particular workbook. But when he has 2 separate workbooks open and clicks refresh it only refreshes 1 workbook and not both. Other users do not have that problem. Any suggestions/solutions? Have you come across this problem before?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,

      Have you checked the timeout settings for this user (ServerInfoTimeout etc)? How big are the sheets?

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    2. No I have not checked the ServerInfoTimeout settings. File size is around 102Kb for each workbook but they vary. Thing is he tries to refresh the workbooks one after the other literally 2 seconds apart. One workbook refreshes with data the other doesn't.

      Delete
  13. Hi Henri,

    We are seeing installation issues with Smart View extensions on machines with 64 bit OS and 64 bit Office. 64/32 works without issue. Have you experienced this or know of a work around to this problem?

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  14. If it is 32 bit Office you should use the 32 bit version of Hyperion. The same goes for 64 bit. 64 bit Office use 64 bit Hyperion.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The SV installer detects the version of office during the install and then installs 32 or 64. In the case of our issue the OS is 64, Office is 64, and SV is 64. We are on 11.1.2.5.500

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  16. Is SV version 11.1.2.5.700 compatible with Windows 7 64 Bit and Office 2013?

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    Replies
    1. Yes it is (with both of them). The certification information (supported operating systems and Office versions) can be found in the Oracle EPM System 11.1.2.x Certification Matrix.

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