Firefox Update Breaks Smart View Links (On-Premise + Cloud)

Mozilla has just released a new version of their browser: Firefox 57 “Quantum”. The new release is promised to be even faster than before, but there is one downside as well; it disables extensions that haven’t been implemented with the new WebExtensions technology. The extension installed by Oracle Smart View is among the "legacy" extensions that can't be used with the latest Firefox version.

This means that the "Open in Smart View" links in HFM, Planning, PBCS and FCCS will cease to work in latest Firefox because they rely on the old extension.

Open in Smart View (HFM)

Open in Smart View (PBCS)

Oracle has published the following statement in the latest Smart View readme file and also in the monthly notes for the EPM Cloud Services.

USING FIREFOX ESR 52.4.2 WITH SMART VIEW

Future releases of Mozilla Firefox will be phasing out support for XUL-based add-ons such as Smart View. Starting in mid-November 2017, only add-ons and extensions built with new web extension technology will work in Firefox. Therefore, Smart View 11.1.2.5.710 only supports Firefox versions up to ESR 52.4.1. If you want to continue using Firefox with Smart View 11.1.2.5.710, do not upgrade your Firefox browser. If your Firefox browser is set to automatically install updates, Oracle recommends changing the setting to “Check for updates, but let me choose whether to install them.” See the Firefox help for instructions on changing this setting.

I have not heard any official statements yet, but I hope that Oracle will update the Smart View extension to work with the latest version soon. Meanwhile your best option is to use the less frequently updated Firefox ESR version as Oracle recommends.

Patch Set Update .700 - IE11 Support Comes To EPM 11.1.2.3

Oracle seems to be in the process of releasing patches belonging to Patch Set Update 11.1.2.3.700. There is a handy list of all .700 patches in the readme file for the Financial Reporting patch that is already downloadable. Note that all of the packages mentioned in the list are not yet available as I'm writing this post and I'm also not sure whether or not PSUs will also be issued for Essbase.

Update on July 2nd: Added the patches for Shared Services and Workspace that were missing from the original list

Product Name	11.1.2.3.700 PSU Patch Number
Oracle Data Relationship Management	21107706
Oracle Financial Reporting	20838970
Oracle Hyperion Calculation Manager	21292109
Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management	20619384
Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management	20768349
Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management Enterprise Edition	20779592
Oracle Hyperion Financial Management	20955781
Oracle Hyperion Performance Management Architect	20929659
Oracle Hyperion Planning	20643564
Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management	20915688
Oracle Hyperion Reporting and Analysis Framework	20768325
Oracle Hyperion Tax Provision	21219363
Oracle Hyperion Web Analysis	20880421
Oracle Hyperion Shared Services	20675028
Oracle EPM Workspace	20612400

The most important update in this PSU is native support for Internet Explorer 11:

"Apply this patch to use Internet Explorer release 11 in standards mode instead of in Enterprise Mode. After you apply this patch, you can no longer use Enterprise Mode. You must apply the 11.1.2.3.700 PSU for all EPM products in your deployment."

The EPM System Certification Matrix document will undoubtedly be updated to match this information soon. The .700 patches must be applied to all EPM products in each environment so you have to be patient and wait for all of them to become available. Have a look at the readme files for each individual patch as there are numerous fixes made to the products. Also note the prerequisites as some of the patches seem to rely on newly released ADF patches.

No More Remote XUL Manager!

This is a quick post to point out a cool feature in EPM 11.1.2.4 that I have somehow overlooked (thanks to Nicklas Englund for the tip!). In previous EPM versions you had to install an extension called Remote XUL Manager in order to use EPM web applications with the Firefox browser. The EPM System certification matrix document also included a note about this: "Firefox 17+ ESR and 24+ ESR requires Remote XUL Manager 1.0.1 Add-on". In 11.1.2.4 this requirement has suddenly been removed without so much as a word in the readme file!

Oracle EPM, IE11 and Enterprise Mode Explained

The following message and the Bindows information page are familiar to those who have attempted to use current Oracle EPM versions with Internet Explorer 11. In August last year Oracle published an article stating that use of Internet Explorer 11 is now supported with EPM versions 11.1.2.2 and 11.1.2.3 as long as you use Enterprise Mode in the browser. In this post I will explain what Enterprise Mode is and how you can enable it for your EPM environment.

Note that later EPM releases 11.1.2.3.700 and 11.1.2.4 are tested and certified with IE11 and they do not require Enterprise Mode to be configured in the browser.

PSU 11.1.2.2.500 And Other New Patches

I'm still enjoying my summer holiday but wanted to briefly switch into working mode just to point out that the long-awaited Patch Set Update 11.1.2.2.500 has now been released. The Oracle Business Analytics Proactive Support blog sums the patch up nicely in their post Patch Release: EPM 11.1.2.2.500. I find it quite odd that the readme file for 11.1.2.2.500 does not specifically mention added support for Internet Explorer 10 even though this is considered the most important change in this patch bundle. The EPM Certification Matrix document has been updated to include new browser specific information for 11.1.2.2 though.

"Internet Explorer 10.x is supported only in 11.1.2.2.500, and only with Windows 7 and Windows 8."

Several EPM products have recently received new updates in the 11.1.2.3 code branch as well. See the following blog post for more details: EPM Patch Set Updates - June 2014. Note that the HFM PSU .501 (patch nr. 18792393) is also available although it's not included in the list.

Support For Mobile Browsers In EPM 11.1.2.3

Financial Reporting 11.1.2.3 adds an interesting new twist to the EPM products: FR reports now have a mobile interface which is certified on iOS and Android platforms. EPM certification matrix states that the native browsers on Apple iOS5 & 6 and Android versions 3.x and 4.x are all supported. This means that no special apps are needed on either platform for viewing FR reports. I took the feature for a spin using the EPM test server I installed the other day.

Force EPM Web Language To English

Long time, no blog posts... Unfortunately I have been too busy at work to give much thought to my blog but here comes a small and useful trick I have been using quite a lot lately.

Many companies use EPM/Hyperion products throughout their world-wide organization. Latest EPM versions have been translated into a large number of languages which is naturally a good thing for all the end-users wanting to view the web interface in their own language. Supporting software that allows the language to be chosen by users (or by the web browser in this case) can be  challenging though - it may not be easy to deal with error reports shown in Chinese or Finnish for example.

PSU 600 Brings IE9 Support To EPM 11.1.2.1

The following Patch Set Updates have been made available on Oracle Support with the primary purpose of adding support for Internet Explorer 9 into Oracle EPM System Release 11.1.2.1.

• Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.1.600 for EPM Architect (patch ID 14224664)
• Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.1.600 for Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) (patch ID 14354419)
• Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.1.600 for Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management (patch ID 14548006)
• Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.1.600 Hyperion Planning (patch ID 14464109)
• Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.1.600 Shared Services 11.1.2.1 (patch ID 14142678)
• Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.1.600 Workspace 11.1.2.1 (patch ID 14119724)

You should apply the PSUs for Shared Services and Workspace in all environments and include the other specific updates depending on what products are installed. Take time to study the readme files carefully as some of the updates (especially the one for Planning) includes quite a few prerequisites and also instructions to work around known issues.

I'm not sure if these will be the only products to receive (or to require) the IE9 treatment but this information will hopefully be added to the EPM certification matrix document soon. It's also worth noting that the readme file for the Planning PSU mentions that even with these updates applied, Internet Explorer 9 is still supported in compatibility view mode only.

Browser Version Detection (OHS Customization Part 2)

One of my customers running EPM 11.1.2.1 faced issues last week when some of their end users had received new laptops with Internet Explorer 9 installed. It took some time for the IT department and EPM admins to figure out that the random problems that were being reported were actually caused by the unsupported browser version instead of other technical issues. We discussed how to work around the problem of unwanted browser versions - the most important method being centralized control over browser installations of course - but this gave me an idea of giving EPM end users a warning in case they were using an unsupported web browser.