Smart View allows users to connect to Oracle BI EE server and utilize the content created in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers dashboards and analyses. In addition to working with pre-created content, Smart View users can create ad hoc queries in the form of simple views with the View Designer, using Oracle BI EE Presentation Server as the data source. The views created can then be published to the Oracle BI EE Presentation Catalog, where they can be edited further.

Smart View offers Oracle BI EE users a cohesive and consistent experience across all Oracle BI EE content providers.

When connected to an Oracle BI EE data source in Smart View, you can:

See “Smart View and Oracle BI EE” in the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office User's Guide for more information.

You can use Visual Basic to program your own Oracle BI EE interfaces. New s that support this are:

See the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office Developer's Guide for descriptions of these new functions.

Starting with the 11.1.2.2.310 release, when connecting to Smart View data sources, you can use connection information in an XML file to connect to providers. The XML file is stored locally on individual Smart View client machines. You point to this XML file in the Shared Connections URL field of the Options dialog box, and then access these connections as you would any other shared connection.

This method is the only way to connect to Oracle BI EE providers using a shared connection; however, Oracle BI EE connections can also be made using private connections.

See “Accessing Shared Connections from an XML File” in the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office User's Guide for more information.

Document Contents is a new task pane in the Smart View Panel that provides a view of the content existing in the current Office document.

Document Contents displays Office objects in a tree format, allowing you to easily see and interact with the content in a workbook, presentation, or document, regardless of the provider or type of content and including content from extensions. Content is displayed based on the document layout on sheets, slides, or pages.

Some operations that were previously available in the Action Panel are now available in Document Contents.

See “Document Contents ” in the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office User's Guide for an overview of the functionality available. Information is also available in applicable topics throughout the guide.

You may now copy cells and ranges of cells containing the HsGetValue function from one Office application and paste them into Excel, Word, or PowerPoint.

Only cells containing the HsGetValue function may be copied and pasted. You may not copy and paste cells containing other functions.

For guidelines and instructions, see “Copying and Pasting HsGetValue Functions” in the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office User's Guide.

In addition to the improvements made to the Function Builder in the Smart View 11.1.2.2.300 release, shared connections are now supported in functions for these providers:

You can use shared connections with the Function Builder wizard or when creating functions manually. If you are creating functions manually, refer to the “Functions” chapter of the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office User's Guide for complete information on the syntax for both shared and private connections.

A new reporting objected called “Office Table” can now be imported into Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting function grids, and into function grids for Essbase and Financial Management Smart Slices.

Office tables can be used with Word only. Office tables display results in native Microsoft Office table format. Office tables look and feel like part of the Word document, but the members and data in the table cells are connected to the Smart View provider. With Office tables, you can work with the Word table formatting and styles to which you are accustomed. When you refresh an Office table, both members and data are refreshed.

Insert a POV object into the report and you can change the POV of the Office table. Refresh the Office table after changing formatting or POV and the new POV is reflected in the results and custom formatting is retained.

You cannot zoom in or out in an Office table object and you cannot perform other ad hoc operations or use free form.

In the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office User's Guide, see the topics, “Creating Reports with Smart Slices” and “Importing Financial Reporting Documents into Word and PowerPoint” for more information on using Office tables.

The POV now supports a maximum of 5,000 members. (13701564)

You can now open and use Financial Management data grids in Smart View. See the Financial Management product documentation for information about data grids.

You can perform ad hoc analysis on data grids that were created and saved on a different server or on the same server whose name has changed. To do so, from the Smart View Panel, right-click the data grid name and select Set Active Connection for This Worksheet. This action updates the server information in Sheet Info.

Essbase users can view database notes associated with Essbase databases. To display database notes, from the Smart View Panel, right-click the name of an Essbase database, and then select Database Note. You cannot edit these database notes from Smart View.

This feature can be implemented in VBA by using the new VBA function, HypGetDatabaseNote.

In this release, you can select members directly from cells in the page dimension row of an Essbase grid rather than by using the POV toolbar. The new cell-based POV is available by selecting the down arrow in a page POV dimension cell; it works the same as the POV toolbar.

You can still use the POV toolbar as before by toggling the POV button on the Essbase ribbon. The cell-based POV and the POV toolbar selections are automatically synchronized, regardless of where the selections are made. If you change to a different alias table, the cell-based POV is populated with the proper alias names.

The cell-based POV can also be used with multiple-grid worksheets; however, you cannot toggle the POV button.

The Function Builder has been redesigned for enhanced functionality and ease of use. In the new Function Builder:

You can use functions that were created in the previous version of the Function Builder. However, the new Function Builder uses commas (,) to separate member list arguments rather than semicolons (;), which were used by the old Function Builder. Both characters are supported by the new Function Builder, but when you modify a function created in the previous version, you are prompted to convert to the new comma-separated format. If you choose not to convert, then none of your modifications to the function are applied.

Using Cell References

You can enter references to single cells that contain member names, connection names, variable names, and labels. References cannot be made to cell ranges.

This new feature fixes links that may be broken when you uninstall Smart View on one drive and install it on another drive or send a Smart View file to a user who installs it on a different drive.

From the Smart View ribbon, select Functions and then Fix Links.

If you use the relative time period functionality in a Financial Management data form, you can now have a member from the same dimension appear on the row, column, and POV. Smart View displays the relative time period members as user variables in the POV toolbar.

Additionally, when a Financial Management data form has selectable dimensions, rows, or columns, you can modify them in Smart View with user variables.

For example, in data form design mode, you can select either a member list or multiple members for a dimension, such as Period, and use the Period dimension on a row or column with the @Cur function. The Period dimension will then be represented in Smart View with user variables.

User variables resemble buttons in the POV toolbar in Smart View. When you click on the user variable buttons, the Member Selection dialog box is displayed. You then select members applicable for the user variable. Any filters that apply to the selected user variable are loaded and viewable from the filter drop-down list. Once selections are made, you can easily change one or more of the user variable buttons, thus changing the POV of a data form in Smart View.

You must have Financial Management Release 11.1.2.2.300 or later installed, and Smart View Release 11.1.2.2.300 or later must be able to connect to it in order to use this feature. For information on using the relative time period functionality and for setting up selectable dimensions, rows, and columns in Financial Management, see the Oracle Hyperion Financial Management Administrator's Guide. To define and use user variables in Smart View, see the following procedure.

The following VBA functions are new in this release.

Public Declare Function HypExecuteMenu Lib "HsAddin" (ByVal vtSheetName As Variant, _
ByVal vtMenuName As Variant) As Long
Sub Example_ExecuteMenu()
sts = HypExecuteMenu("Sheet1", "Panel")  'returns 0
sts = HypExecuteMenu(Empty, "Smartview->Refresh") 'returns 0
sts = HypExecuteMenu("Sheet1", "Refresh")  'returns -73(ambiguity)
sts = HypExecuteMenu("Sheet1", "Connections")  'returns -15(invalid parameter because "Connections" is not associated with an action)
End Sub

Public Declare Function HypShowPanel Lib "HsAddin" (ByVal bShow As Boolean) As Long
Sub ShowPanel()
sts = HypShowPanel(True)
End Sub

Public Declare Function HypShowPanel Lib "HsAddin" (ByVal bShow As Boolean) As Long
Sub ShowPanel()
sts = HypShowPanel(False)
End Sub

Public Declare Function HypGetVersion Lib "HsAddin" (ByVal vtID As Variant, ByRef vtValueList As Variant, ByVal vtVersionInfoCommand As Variant) As Long
Sub Example_HypGetVersion() 
sts = HypGetVersion(BUILD_VERSION, version, 0) 
MsgBox version(0) 
End Sub 

Public Declare Function HypGetVersion Lib "HsAddin" (ByVal vtID As Variant, ByRef vtValueList As Variant, ByVal vtVersionInfoCommand As Variant) As Long
Sub Example_GetVersionInfoandSave()
sts = HypGetVersion("", versioninfo, 1) 'saves version info file in user directory and gets array
inf = versioninfo(0) 'gets the information in 0th array element
End Sub

Public Declare Function HypGetLastError Lib "HsAddin" (ByRef vtErrorCode As Variant, ByRef vtErrorMessage As Variant, ByRef vtErrorDescription As Variant) As Long
Sub Example_HypGetLastError
ReturnValue = HypGetLastError(ErrorCodeValue, ErrorMessageValue, ErrorDescriptionValue)
End Sub

Public Declare Function HypPerformAdhocOnForm Lib  "HsAddin" (ByVal  vtSheetName As Variant, ByVal  vtFormName  As Variant)  As Long
Sub Example_PerformAdhocOnForm
sts = HypPerformAdhocOnForm(Empty, "/Forms/Financials/Financials Summary")
End Sub

Public Declare Function HypGetDatabaseNote Lib "HsAddin" (ByVal vtSheetName As Variant, ByRef vtDBNote As Variant) As Long
Sub Example_HypGetDatabaseNote()
sts = HypGetDatabaseNote(Empty, DBNote)
MsgBox DBNote
End  Sub

The new Smart Query is a multidimensional analysis and reporting tool constructed from multiple sets of members and filters.You create a Smart Query by defining one or more sets of members from the dimensions in an application. To each member set, you can define and apply composite filters to further refine the data to be returned by the Smart Query. Using these sets and their filters, you can create a highly complex query by defining unions, complements, and intersections of data from the different sets.

Once a Smart Query is created, you can use it for ad hoc reporting and analysis. Smart Queries can be saved, reused, and shared. Sets and filters can be saved individually for use in other Smart Queries.

This release of Smart View supports the 64-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010. Please see the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide and Oracle Hyperion Smart View Readme for installation and usage information.

Smart View supports two new extensions. When installed and set up, these new extensions display their own ribbons in Excel.

The new Move Formatting on Operations option on the Formatting page of the Options dialog box enables you to apply your Excel formatting selections to expanded cells when you zoom in. This formatting also moves with the data when you pivot members.

This release of Smart View supports the following new features and enhancements for Planning. See the Oracle Hyperion Planning New Features and other Planning documentation for more information.

Smart View supports Financial Management's configurable dimensionality, also new in this release.

You can now create applications with an unlimited number of custom dimensions. You can specify a dimension name and alias for custom dimensions, and specify the dimension size (small, medium, or large). You can create additional custom dimensions for existing applications as well as continuing to use existing Custom1, Custom2, Custom3, and Custom4 dimensions.

This release features the following new VBA functions.

HypGetMemberInformationEx: For Essbase, returns all information about a member in an array.

HypGetActiveMember: For Essbase, Planning, Financial Management, and Hyperion Enterprise, returns the active member name for the given dimension.

HypSetActiveMember: For Essbase, Planning, Financial Management, and Hyperion Enterprise, sets the active member for a given dimension - page, POV, and user variables.

HypGetDimensions: For Essbase, Planning, Financial Management, and Hyperion Enterprise, returns an array containing the dimension names in the grid and an array containing their corresponding types.

HypSetDimensions: For Essbase, Planning, Financial Management, and Hyperion Enterprise, enables users to specify an array containing the dimension names in the grid and an array containing their corresponding types. This function is used to rearrange the metadata of the grid.

HypGetMembers: For Essbase, Planning, Financial Management, and Hyperion Enterprise, returns a list of selected or used members for a given dimension in the grid.

HypSetMembers: For Essbase, Planning ad hoc,and Hyperion Enterprise, sets the POV dimension choices in ad hoc grids. For Financial Management data forms, sets the page list.

HypGetBackgroundPOV: For Essbase, Planning, Financial Management, and Hyperion Enterprise, returns the list of background POV members as two string arrays. One string array contains the POV dimension names; the other contains the member names.

The following new log message display options are available for selection from the Advanced page of the Options dialog box:

Online help content for EPM System products is served from a central Oracle download location, which reduces the download and installation time for EPM System. You can also install and configure online help to run locally. For more information, see the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide.

Previously, it was possible to perform ad hoc operations on one cell at a time. In this release, you can select a range of cells for these ad hoc operations: Zoom In, Zoom Out, Keep Only, and Remove Only.

By selecting the new Member Information button on the Essbase ribbon, you can view the following properties if applicable about any member in the grid:

From the new Linked Objects dialog box, you can access the following objects in Excel:

Previously, all options specified in the Smart View Options dialog box were global options; they applied to the current workbook and all new workbooks and worksheets. In this release, some options are specific to the worksheet for which they are set. They are also the default option settings for new worksheets in the current workbook and for any new workbook. Changes to sheet level option settings do not affect existing worksheets or workbooks.

In the Options dialog box, these options are sheet level options:

Advanced options, extensions, and cell styles remain global options, which apply to the entire current workbook and to any workbooks and worksheets that are created henceforth.

In this release, you can choose to display all dimensions on the grid rather than using the POV toolbar to select and move members to and from the grid. The POV toggle button introduced in Release 11.1.2.1 has been modified for Essbase connections; now it toggles between displaying the POV toolbar and displaying all dimensions with the POV toolbar hidden.

In Essbase, you can create multiple independent grids on one worksheet. These grids can be connected to the same data source or to different Essbase data sources, and you can change the connection of a grid from Smart View.

Worksheets that support multiple grids can be created from blank worksheets or by converting existing ad hoc worksheets.

You can design report layouts other than the standard report with members above and to the left of the data grid. For example, you can create “butterfly” reports with a column of members between two columns of data cells.

There are four new options for zooming in to data. As with existing zoom options, you can select any of these levels when you zoom, and you can set any of them as the default zoom level.

In this release, you can choose to preserve formulas associated with members in the grid when you refresh and during ad hoc operations such and zooming.

If member cells are associated with formulas, you can use the new Formula/Format Fill option to propagate these formulas to the members retrieved as a result of zooming in. For example, if member Qtr1 is associated with a formula, then the formula can be propagated to Jan, Feb, and Mar when you zoom in on Qtr1.

In the same way, you can use Format/Formula Fill to propagate formatting during zooming.

Improvements have been made to the Use Excel Formatting option to increase reliability and stability.

In this release, the requirement that you refresh the grid before submitting data in free-form mode has been eliminated.

This document describes the new features introduced in Smart View Release 11.1.2.1

It is our goal to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to the disabled community. Smart View Release 11.1.2.1 supports accessibility features, which are described in Appendix A of the Smart View for Office User's Guide.

Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management task lists are now integrated into Outlook, so Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management users can integrate their tasks into Outlook tasks and perform these tasks from within Outlook.

This release of Smart View supports the following new features for Planning connections.

Direct Connections Between Smart View and Planning

Save Ad Hoc Grids as Data Forms

The Member Selection dialog box has been redesigned to improve ease-of-use and provide more options for selecting members for the grid. The following enhancements have been made to the Member Selection dialog box:

Figure 1.  Member Selection Dialog Box

In this release, the Point of View (POV) has been made easier to use with the following new features:

The following new options are available from the Options dialog box:

With this release, you can use Smart View with Microsoft Office 2010 (32-bit only) in addition to Office 2003 and 2007.

This release features the following new functions.

Smart View Functions

VBA Functions

You can select an alias table for the current worksheet or for a connection.

Smart View is now available in the following languages:

In this release, you can open the User Preferences dialog box for data providers by simply right-clicking the provider node in the Smart View Panel and selecting User Preferences. Previously, you had to select preferences in the Options dialog box.

From the Smart View Panel, you can manage data source connections, access data and task lists, create reports, and open Oracle Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management workbooks if you are licensed for Crystal Ball EPM.

The Smart View Panel, opened from the Smart View ribbon, is displayed by default on the right side of the Microsoft Office application. You can move, re-size, or close the Smart View Panel from the down arrow in the title bar.

The Smart View Panel contains the following panes:

Smart View operations in Microsoft Office applications are available through ribbon commands. The Smart View ribbon, which contains commands for common Smart View operations, is always present. When you connect to a data source (other than Oracle Hyperion Reporting and Analysis), the corresponding data source ribbon is also displayed. For Planning, Financial Management, and Hyperion Enterprise, when you enter ad hoc analysis, the data source ribbon is automatically replaced by its ad hoc version. Each ribbon displays only the commands permitted for that data source, mode, and Office application.

These are the new ribbons:

Planning and Financial Management task lists are now integrated into Outlook, so users can integrate their tasks into Outlook tasks and perform these tasks from within Outlook. Data form tasks are seamlessly launched from Outlook into the familiar Excel interface.

The Smart View Options dialog box has been redesigned to make options more easily accessible. Options are organized into categories to provide better user experience and accommodate provider-specific options. Like other components of Smart View in this release, options are available to users only if they are supported by the currently connected data source.

The following new options are available from the Options dialog box:

Figure 2.  Options Dialog Box

This release of Smart View supports a greatly expanded set of Planning functionality.

For information about Planning, see the Oracle Hyperion Planning New Features and Oracle Hyperion Planning User's Guide.

In this release, Smart Slices are available toFinancial Management users who connect to Smart View. Using Smart Slices, Financial Management users can create and save reports from the Report Designer and cascade reports across a selected dimension.

Customers who use Smart View in Excel or Word to assemble financial reports can also use Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management, which allows you to assemble a reporting package for submission to a regulatory agency that includes financial statements, as well as supporting schedules and commentary which may exist in Excel, Word, or an Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting report.

The first release of Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management offers a complete XBRL creation and management solution with Enterprise level XBRL mapping; XBRL Taxonomy management, editing and viewing; and Instance document creation, validation and viewing. While viewing Smart View queries in Word or Excel, users can perform data source level mapping with the XBRL Taxonomy Mapping Tool, that allows for re-usable taxonomy element mapping within Oracle Hyperion Financial Management, Oracle Hyperion Planning, and Oracle Essbase.

This release features the following new VBA functions.