Shared Connections and Private Connections

You connect to data sources through shared or private connections in Oracle Smart View for Office.

Generally, you can connect to one provider data source per sheet. However, for the following providers, you can connect to multiple instances of the same data source type per sheet, slide, or document: Planning, Planning Modules, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, FreeForm, Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting, Oracle Essbase cloud, and Oracle Analytics Cloud.

As a Smart View user, you may have access to shared connections, private connections, or both.

Starting in release 20.200, you can access your connections using vanity URLs, also referred to as custom URLs.

• Shared Connections

  You can create shared to connections to Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud sources sources.

  For EPM Cloud sources, there are two ways to use a shared connection:

  • One cloud provider per shared connection.

    For example, shared Connection "A" connects you to your Planning business process instance; shared Connection "B" connects you to your Financial Consolidation and Close business process instance.

    Figure 4-1 illustrates this type of connection.

  • Multiple EPM Cloud providers per shared connection. In this case, all supported cloud providers must reside on the same domain.

    For example, your organization is hosting Planning, Financial Consolidation and Close, and Tax Reporting on the same domain. Shared Connection "C" connects you to all three business process instances.

    In Smart View, this type of connection applies only to these EPM Cloud business processes:

    • Planning

    • Planning Modules

    • FreeForm

    • Financial Consolidation and Close

    • Tax Reporting

    • Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management

    • Narrative Reporting

    • Account Reconciliation

    Figure 4-2 illustrates this type of connection.

    EPM Cloud Service Administrators: See Administering Planning, Connecting Environments in EPM Cloud for information on setting up multiple providers on a single shared connection.

  Shared connections are either:

  • Accessed from a host location and available to multiple users through the Smart View Panel.

  • Stored on each Smart View client machine or on a web server in an XML file created by an administrator. The connections in the XML file are then available to the user through shared connections in the Smart View Panel.

    See Accessing Shared Connections from an XML File in the Oracle Smart View for Office Installation and Configuration Guide for information on preparing and distributing this XML file.

  You cannot edit or rename shared connections, but you can save them as private connections, which you can edit and rename.

• Private Connections

  Private connections are those that you create by saving a shared connection to your local computer, by using a wizard, or by entering a URL to a provider data source. When you create a private connection, it becomes the active connection.

  Figure 4-3 illustrates this type of connecting, showing connections created using a wizard and connections created using the Quick Connection method.

  Note:

  When working with Oracle Analytics Cloud, Oracle Essbase, and Narrative Reporting, you must use a private connection, or add the private connection information to a shared connection XML file, as described in Accessing Shared Connections from an XML File in the Oracle Smart View for Office Installation and Configuration Guide.

Related Topics:

Connections

Connecting to Data Sources

Disconnecting from Data Sources

Creating Private Connections

Saving Connections as Private Connections

Modifying Connections

Deleting Connections