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What’s New with Smart View

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The newest release of Smart View (Release 11.1.2.1.102) includes many helpful, long-awaited features sure to both enhance the end-user experience and increase productivity. Many of the new features are examined below while a complete list and their descriptions can be found here.

Ad Hoc Operations in Multiple Cells

Previous versions of Smart View limited users to cell level ad-hoc operations. For example; say you wanted to ‘Zoom In’ on a member, Smart View limited this action to a single cell (single member). The newest version allows users to select a range of cells before performing an action allowing for quicker answers. Multi-cell actions such as Zoom In, Zoom Out, Keep Only and Remove Only are now permitted.  

Member Information

End users of Smart View often struggled to find additional information pertaining to members of a dimension from which they queried. This problem has been remedied with the new ‘Member Information’ button located in the Essbase ribbon. When focused on a single Essbase member, users can click the Member Information button and be presented with multiple member properties such as:

  • Dimension Name
  • Member Level
  • Member Generation
  • Parent/Child Name
  • Consolidation Operator
  • Alias Tables
  • Alias Names
  • Attributes
  • Formulas
  • Comments
  • User Defined Attributes (UDAs)

Linked Objects

End users with proper access can now add/ access ‘Linked Reporting Objects’ and ‘Linked Partitions’. Having Linked Reporting Object access allows for cells notes, external files and URLs to be linked to Smart View data cells for reference. Access to Linked Partitions enables connection between 2 separate databases. This allows users to navigate database ”A” while connected to database “B”, opening up additional data analysis opportunities.

Displaying Member Names and Aliases

Previous versions of Smart View generated a common complaint centered on the display of member names versus aliases. Essbase and Planning users familiar with the Essbase Add-In were accustomed to displaying both member names and aliases in a retrieve. These users had become frustrated by Smart View’s inability to function similarly. This problem has been fixed with Oracle’s latest release whereas users now have the option to display member names and their aliases, side-by-side, on retrieves.

POV Toggle

The ‘POV Toggle’ button allows end-users the ability to move dimensions from the Smart View POV Toolbar to row one, thus placing all dimensions on the grid. Users familiar with the Essbase Add-In will appreciate this functionality, allowing ‘power users’ quicker retrieve setup times. This can easily be switched back with the click of the POV Toggle button.

Sheet Level Options

Previously, all Smart View specified Options were global in nature. Options found in the ‘Options’ dialog box including ‘Member Options’, ‘Data Options’ and ‘Formatting Options’ are now sheet specific, allowing for multiple sheets to function with their own definitions. This means ‘Sheet 1’ could drill to the bottom level and display only member names while ‘Sheet 2’ could drill to the next level and display the combination of member name and alias. Note that options found in ‘Advanced Options’, ‘Cell Styles’ and ‘Extensions’ remain global in nature.

Butterfly Reporting

One of the commonly used features of Financial Reporting involves the use of ‘Butterfly’ reporting. Butterfly reports display a column of dimensional members between two columns of data.

New Zoom Options

Users now have additional ‘Zoom’ options including:

  • Same Level
  • Sibling Level
  • Same Generation
  • Formulas (retrieve data for all members that are defined by the formula of the selected member)

Submit Data without Refreshing

Gone is the requirement to refresh a grid prior to submitting data while in Free-Form mode.

 

As noted above, this review includes many, but not all new features released with Smart View 11.1.2.1.102. Please visit Oracle for a complete list and description of each new feature.