Thanks for all the great feedback on our Essbase Add-in Ribbon!  I have seen praise and thanks on the Oracle forums, network54, and a number of other popular hotspots.  I am constantly getting emails of gratitude.  Hundreds, if not thousands, of Hyperion customers are using the ribbon.  With the accolades, I am also getting some great suggestions for additional functionality.  In the spirit of giving back to the Hyperion community, I have every intention of implementing these requests. 

What is new for the second release of the ribbon?  For those of you who used the Essbase Powerbar, you are aware of the option to save commonly used server connections.  I am happy to announce that it is now part of the In2Hyperion Essbase Add-in Ribbon feature set! 

We moved the connection button that existed on the right, to the first button on the ribbon and renamed it Quick Connect.  From this menu button, users can select connect, add quick connection, or remove quick connection.  As connections are added, they will appear automatically in the Quick Connect menu.

The benefit of this option is that a user can select a “quick connection,” which remembers the server, application, database, username, and password.  Connecting to an Essbase application requires fewer clicks and less typing.  After quick connections are added, a file in My Documents named In2Hyperion.txt will exist.  This is where the connection information is stored.  The password is encrypted to ensure your information is not made available to other parties.

Download version 2.  To stay informed about future releases by signing up for our newsletter.  If you have any feedback, send us an email through the contact page.  Thanks again for all your support!

Essbase Excel Add-In users often asked why their Essbase Add-In options randomly change.  

Some of the Essbase options are stored globally, and some are stored at a worksheet level.  The global options should not change unless the user changes them.  The options stored at a worksheet level can appear to change unexpectedly. 

Once a sheet is connected to Essbase, the settings are saved.  They will never change unless the user changes them. 

Where the confusion lies is when a new worksheet is connected to Essbase.  When a new worksheet is created, the most recent options are used as the defaults.  For example, assume the last time a retrieve was requested, or a connection was initiated, the worksheet in question had the zoom option set to all levels.  When a new worksheet that has never been used as an Essbase retrieve is used to connect or retrieve data, it would have the zoom option set to all levels.  Users typically don’t look at the options when they retrieve data.  As worksheets are passed around, and different users apply options differently, the options can appear to change for no reason.

The following are the Global options that are set at the user/PC level.  These settings will be used on all worksheets.  If any of these are changed, they are changed for all worksheets.

• Enable secondary button setting
• Enable double-clicking setting
• Enable FlashBack setting
• Enable retain member selection information setting
• Specify message level setting
• Enable display unknown members setting
• Enable route messages to log setting
• Enable purge log setting
• Enable double-clicking to browse Linked Reporting Objects setting
• Display Member Select Save dialog box setting
• Enable Navigate Without Data

The remaining options are saved to each worksheet.  These do not change at the worksheet level once saved, unless the users changes them.

• Set drill level setting
• Enable Include Selection setting
• Enable Within Selection Group setting
• Enable Remove Unselected Groups setting
• Specify Indent setting
• Enable suppress missing setting
• Enable suppress zeros setting
• Enable suppress underscores setting
• Specify Alias for missing text
• Enable update mode setting
• Enable Retain on Retrieval formula preservation setting
• Enable adjust columns setting
• Enable alias names setting
• Specify alias names table setting
• Enable template retrieve mode
• Enable free form/Version 2.x mode
• Enable auto sort rows setting
• Enable use styles setting
• Specify No Access label
• Enable Retain on Keep Only and Remove Only formula preservation setting
• Enable Retain on Zooms formula preservation setting
• Enable formula fill setting
• Enable member names and alias setting
• Enable repeat member labels setting
• Enable sheet options for Query Designer setting
• Enable Latest Time Period setting
• Specify Latest Time Period
• Enable Hybrid Analysis
• Enables metadata sampling when performing a Zoom In operation
• Indicates the percentage of the members to retrieve when metadata sampling is enabled
• Enables display of the qualified name of the duplicate (non-unique) member in the Excel comment box
• Enables display of the qualified name of the duplicate member in the Excel spreadsheet

Many of the Hyperion Planning and Essbase users still prefer to use the Essbase Add-In in conjunction with, or in place of, SmartView. As you probably already know, deploying the Essbase Add-In in version 11 has challenges. There is over 2GB of data that is required and the installtool.cmd file is not a simple installation that most users can administer without help. Because of the size, deploying it in a distributed package is extremely challenging. There are some instructions on various BLOGs that explain a way to deploy it manually, with edits to the registry. Any time I work with a client and mention editing the registry outside an automated install, this option is quickly disregarded.

In version 11.1.2, Oracle|Hyperion has added a self contained executable for the Essbase Add-In! The download is located in the Hyperion Essbase’s download page.

For those of you who still enjoy the flexibility of the Hyperion Excel add-in and have upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007, you are well aware that Excel no longer has toolbars or menus.  SmartView integrates with the ribbon methodology well, but the Hyperion Essbase Excel add-in doesn’t.  What used to be the Hyperion menu is stuck in the add-ins ribbon as a drop down menu.  It still functions the same, but users loose the quick access to functions that the ribbon methodology adds.

In2Hyperion developed a ribbon add-in that can be used in conjunction with the Excel add-in.  Nearly all the functionality exists and makes the options easier to use and are embedded in their own ribbon!  This still requires the Hyperion Essbase add-in to be installed.  It simply uses the existing functions and associates them with a ribbon button.

We have also added a few additional functions that make common tasks a little quicker to perform.

• Drill To Bottom:  Use this option to drill down to level 0 of the selected member.
• Drill To All:  Use this option to drill down to all descendants of the selected member. 
• Restore Defaults:  Use this option to set all the global settings back to the default settings when installed.
• Excel Mouse:  Use this option to set the mouse functionality to the Excel options.  This disables the right click and double click Hyperion Essbase functionality.
• Hyperion Essbase Mouse:  Use this option to set the mouse functional so the double click and right click functions interact with Hyperion Essbase.
• Lock And Send:  Use this option if you do not want to select lock, followed by selecting send.

To install the add-in, unzip In2Hyperion Essbase Ribbon.zip to any location and follow these steps. 

1. Click on the office button in the top left corner of Microsoft Excel. 
2. Click the Excel Options button located in the bottom right area of the window. 
3. Select the Add-Ins menu.
4. Select Excel Add-Ins in the Manage drop down, and click Go. 
5. Click the browse button, navigate to the location where you unzipped the downloaded file, and click the OK button.

Many people use Custom Lists in Excel – sometimes without even knowing.  If you have ever typed January into a cell and used autofill (click the dark plus sign, and drag across other cells) to create February through December, you have used Custom Lists.

Excel has a few Custom Lists setup for users when it is installed. Select the Tools / Options menu, and display the Custom Lists tab to view them.  Users can create their own Custom Lists in this dialog box by entering a list separated by commas or importing a range of cells that already includes a list.

For Essbase users who use the Hyperion Spreadsheet Add-In or SmartView, this can become a valuable tool.  Many times Essbase users will want to display a specific list of accounts, measures, products, etc.  Rather than selecting these from the member selection, or typing them, Custom Lists can be created and used to reduce the effort.

Let’s assume a user is responsible for a subset of the existing products and those products are only sold in a few of the markets.  The user may spend a lot of time creating the market list every time they create a new retrieve.  If the user creates a Custom List, they can automate this selection process.  A Custom List might include the following members.

Columbus,Cincinnati,Los Angeles,Tempe,Dallas,Austin,Seattle,Denver,Nashville

All the user has to do now is type Columbus in the first cell and use the autofill to list the rest of the markets.  This function can save those who frequently create add hoc reports a lot of time.

Custom Lists can be created for just about anything, are easy and quick to create, and are useful in a variety of situations.  www.In2Hyperion.com is not just for those in a technical capacity.  User related ideas, such as using Custom Lists, will become more prevalent on this site.  Sign up for our newsletter and receive notifications when more Excel tips for Essbase users become available.