I often hear new Smart View users concerned about properly formatting their queries or ensuring the member names are correct. In this post, I will discuss the “Enhanced Comment Handling” feature in the Smart View options. When selected, this option prompts the user to resolve errors whenever an ad-hoc refresh has invalid members in the POV or grid. The prompt includes the exact cell location and value of any invalid members. This feature is in the Smart View options in the Smart View ribbon. It is in the Member Options section.
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In the below example, we see that “Daft 1” was entered instead of “Draft 1” for a version. Generally, Smart View will ignore this member and add the Version dimension to the end of the POV. This can be very confusing for new Smart View users.
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With enhanced comment handling enabled, a refresh will queue the Comment Edit window instead.
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This window will tell you what the problem member was and which cell had the issue. In this window, you can manually edit the entry for that cell and apply changes, or cancel and troubleshoot in whichever way suits you.
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If member issues have not been fixed, you can always check the most current Comment Edit status by going to “View Comments” in the ESSBASE ribbon:
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It is important to note that this option will not work when using multiple grids on a sheet for an ad hoc. This functionality will only work with single grids. Another drawback is that this feature forces you to work through the comment window.
If you do not want to deal with comment handling but still want Smart View to identify issues on your retrieves, there is another option. While leaving the other option on, uncheck “Preserve Formulas and Comments in ad hoc operations” in the Member Options tab.
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As opposed to having to work through a comment window, Smart View will now just notify you where the issue is. This feature will also work with multiple grids. It will only show one issue at a time however. Therefore, you will need to work through errors one at a time. This is not so much an issue as something you need to learn to this functionality.
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Overall, these features are very useful in helping new users identify issues with their Smart View queries. I would recommend this for companies that are new to Hyperion, or making the transition from Essbase Add-In to Smart View.
Questions? Need help? Feel free to reach out to us at:
Jay Adler, jadler@ecapitaladvisors.com
David Grande, dgrande@ecapitaladvisors.com
Jon Harvey, jharvey@ecapitaladvisors.com
