Smart View 11.1.2.5.500 Released

Oracle has released Smart View version 11.1.2.5.500 yesterday. I haven't had a chance to test the release yet but according to the documentation the biggest changes in this release are:

• Support for HFM journals: view journal properties, create, edit, submit, approve, post, unpost, and delete journals. HFM version 11.1.2.4.100 is required to use this new functionality.
• Extended support for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE): multiple connections now supported. OBIEE patch 11.1.1.7.140527 is required.

Read full details and download the patch from Oracle Support: Patch 21635725: Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.5.500 for Oracle Smart View for Office. When upgrading from SV 11.1.2.x you can simply run the installer to upgrade the add-in (no need to uninstall the older version first). And as usual, please share your experiences if you try this version in your EPM environments!

Support For OBIEE And Other Goodies Added To Smart View

Oracle has just released Smart View Patch Set Update 11.1.2.2.310 which brings dozens of fixed defects but also a big bunch of new features into everyone's favorite Office add-in. Read on to find out what's new in this release.

New Feature Highlights 

Support For Oracle BI EE

Smart View now allows users to connect to OBIEE 11.1.1.7 or later - after this long-awaited version gets released first. The following features are (or will be) available:

• Connecting to OBIEE Presentation Server
• Viewing the contents of the Presentation Catalog
• Importing BI Answers views from Presentation Catalog into Office programs (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
• Copying OBIEE Dashboard content and pasting it into Smart View client documents. The data, metadata, and view layout are all copied.
• Programming OBIEE features using Visual Basic: adding OBIEE objects, managing prompts etc.

For complete overview of the OBIEE features in Smart View 11.1.2.2.310 see the Readme file for the PSU on Oracle Support.

Shared Connections Definition File

This feature seems to have been invented because EPM Workspace does not (yet) integrate with OBIEE. To use OBIEE connections in the Shared Connections menu in Smart View, you need to create an XML file which contains the provider connections for your EPM and OBI environment. The path to the XML file is then specified in the Shared Connections URL field in the Smart View Options dialog box, after which the entries should appear in the Shared Connections menu.

Office Table Report Object

A new MS Word only feature allows you to insert a table that is formatted just like tables in Office applications normally are. Office tables can be imported into for example HFM Smart Slices and then used as a part of Word documents. Table formatting tools and styles can be utilized and they are preserved when data and members are refreshed.

Other New Features

Smaller additions that are also worth mentioning:

• Document Contents is a new pane that displays the structure of the current Office document in a tree format 
• Cells containing HsGetValue functions can now be copied between Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Shared Connections can be used in functions for HFM, Essbase and Planning

Be sure to log on to Oracle Support and study the full Readme file for PSU 11.1.2.2.310 as the file also contains information about fixed defects and known issues and their workarounds. And remember that according to the EPM Certification Matrix you can use Smart View 11.1.2.2 with older EPM/Hyperion releases too (HFM, Planning and Essbase 11.1.2.x, 11.1.1.4, 11.1.1.3 and 9.3.3 are compatible - see the Certification Matrix document for full details).