1. Developing Integrated Spreadsheets Using Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel
  2. What's New in Release 2.5.0

2 What's New in Release 2.5.0

Here’s an overview of new features and enhancements added to Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel in Release 2.5.0. Take note also of some limitations when using the add-in.

New and Changed Features

  • A new "all users" installer for Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel (vbafe-installer-all-users.msi) that installs in the Program Files folder and is available to all users on the target machine. The existing installer (vbafe-installer.exe) installs in a user's AppData folder and is available only for that user. The All Users installer can be run from the command line. See Install Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel.
  • Define a list of values for a row finder variable. During download, when Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel prompts the user to provide a value for a row finder, the user can choose a value from a list. See Configure a List of Values for a Row Finder Variable.
  • Configure Excel add-in to send multiple requests in parallel during upload to improve performance and shorten the overall time to upload a large set of changes. See Configure Parallel Requests During Upload.
  • Link multiple "sibling" business objects to the same parent in a set of dependent layouts. Siblings must be at the third level or deeper in your business object hierarchy. When you have created these dependencies, you can download, upload, and clear data for the parent and all children layouts at once. See Use Multiple Layouts for Multi-level Business Objects.
  • Add tooltips to form field labels and table column headers through the Business Object Field Editor. Tooltips provide business users with hints to the purpose of business object fields on a worksheet. See Create a Form-over-Table Layout in an Excel Workbook or Create a Table Layout in an Excel Workbook for the configuration steps.
  • A new "date picker" for selecting dates for date fields in integrated workbooks. The date picker is automatically available for any date or date-time field. No configuration is necessary. Please note that the date picker only sets the date in a date-time field. The time value is not changed.
  • An expanded troubleshooting section in the documentation to help you identify and fix problems with your system configuration. See Troubleshoot Excel Workbooks.
  • A new topic on the embedded browser in Excel add-in. Excel add-in uses key components of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) installed on the computer where Excel add-in is running to display web pages such as the JSON web token (JWT) log-in page. See Embedded Browser Notes.

Known Limitations

  • Review REST Service Support to understand the limitations around data type support.
  • Review Use Lists of Values in an Excel Workbook to understand limitations around using lists of values.
  • Review Custom Actions to understand custom action support.
  • Workbooks created or modified with version 2.5 are generally considered to be incompatible with prior versions of the add-in.