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).

resetConfigTask Utility

Here's a tip for those who haven't yet subscribed to the Hyperion Error of the Day blog maintained by Nicholas King. Nicholas has written a useful post about the resetConfigTask utility which enables you to reset the task configuration status for any given EPM product. This may be useful in case you want to reconfigure a certain module after a failed configuration attempt. The utility is available starting with the EPM 11.1.2.2 release.

Link: Hyperion Error of the Day blog post: resetConfigTask.bat

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.

Infratects Top Gun 2013 Event Announced

If you work with EPM/Hyperion products and are interested in the technical aspects of the products in any way - these are the dates you should already book in your calendar! The second annual Infratects EPM Infrastructure Top Gun Event will be held on March 15th and 16th in Barcelona, Spain. Watch this space and the Infratects website for more detailed information soon.

Download Old EPM/Hyperion Binaries While You Still Can

Just thought I'd post a quick note about the following statement that was posted on the Oracle EPM Proactive Support blog today:

The following media packs will be removed from E-Delivery this week, as of the above reason.

• Hyperion 9.3.1
• Hyperion 9.2.1
• Hyperion Pre-system 9
• EPM 11.1.1.3
• EPM 11.1.1.4

If you are still using one of these versions it might be a good idea to grab the installation packages  - just in case you need to reinstall any components in the future. Access to the removed media packs can be arranged later by contacting Oracle Support and asking to receive the archived software but it is a lot easier to have a local copy of the files in any case.

Link: eDelivery (Delivery Cloud) Housekeeping - removal of obsolete EPM products

Update on October 4th:

Looks like the original statement was not an empty threat. The only pre-EPM 11.1.2 packages remaining on eDelivery (and on the Oracle Technology site) are the latest Hyperion Enterprise media files:

If you still need to install EPM 9.3.x or 11.1.1.3 (for a staging server for example) you need to dig into your own stash of media files or follow the steps detailed in this Support document to request a separate download:

Requesting Physical Shipment or Download URL for Software Media [ID 1071023.1]

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.

Maximum Number of Custom Dimensions In HFM 11.1.2.2

Note: I have now updated the post with some additional research. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see my later findings.

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"Unlimited" number of custom dimensions is one of the biggest changes introduced in HFM 11.1.2.2. The actual amount of dimensions is not unlimited though - and it is pretty hard to find solid information about the real limits at the moment. So far the best resource explaining how to use the expanded dimensionality seems to be this post on the Oracle OBI/EPM PAE (Product  Assurance Engineering) blog:

• Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) Configurable Dimensions FAQ