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Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas

BusinessObjects Analysis Office 2.2 Available – Reviewing New Features

I logged on the SAP Software Distribution Center this morning and noticed the software for 2.2 is available:

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It is a quick installation/update.

I will review some of the new features below:

New Excel Formulas

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Above I inserted a new row, and am calculating the actual expenses of a an item divided by budget

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When you refresh the workbook, the Excel formula stays.

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I can also create text cell for this new Excel formula, shown above as “New Calc” – again, it stays with the workbook when you refresh

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I can also insert a new formula in a new column, and add the text to the column (shown above as “Share”)

You can use Excel’s AutoComplete to copy the formulas

New Search By Data Source

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When you are looking for a data source you can now search for it by InfoProvider, Query and Query View

Remove Data Before Saving

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If your workbook contains confidential data, you can select the “Remove Data before Saving” option.  Then when you save the workbook to the BI Platform and you open it again, you will see this:

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After refreshing, the data is back (assuming you have access)

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There are more features, if I have time I will review later.  I couldn’t locate the updated help, and the release notes haven’t been released yet.

If you are interested in influencing SAP for this product and are an ASUG member, please join ASUG in January for the relaunch of the Analysis Office Influence Council – register here

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      28 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Tobias Meyer
      Tobias Meyer

      Hi Tammy,

      thanks for the information. I think the option "Remove data before saving" exits since 1.4.

      regards

      Tobias

      Author's profile photo Lynn Peter
      Lynn Peter

      Agree. The "Remove data before saving" has been available for awhile.

      Thanks for taking the time to review for us Tammy!

      Author's profile photo Torsten Wirth
      Torsten Wirth

      Strange - maybe it's to early in the morning and I simply don't see it. 😕 But there is no information in the "What's new" guide for 2.2 about the formula topic. That the most interesting feature in my opinion.

      And yes remove data is very old. That is available since we startet with ao more than 2 years ago. 😉

      I will give the 2.2 a try on monday.

      Author's profile photo Torsten Wirth
      Torsten Wirth

      I have tried 2.2 today. My first impession is: Very good. I have done the foolowing after entering formulas:

      - sorting

      - removing and adding a characteristic

      - swap characteristic

      Everything worked without problems and the formulas moved like they should.

      All worked. Only if the DS is resetted the formulas are gone (but that's not surprising). Some features of 2.1 SP3 are missing. Which means we will wait for next SP.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Wow, would not have thought that this excel formula would have continued working when changing the drilldown! That seems a very powerful feature

      Author's profile photo Daniel Klein
      Daniel Klein

      Torsten Wirth wrote:

      ...Some features of 2.1 SP3 are missing....

      Can you please give details about this statement? Important features?

      Author's profile photo Torsten Wirth
      Torsten Wirth

      One features which is missing is "Force Logon Dialog for SSO Logon on BOP" in the version I have tried this menu entry was not included. I'm not from SAP - they should give us this information. Maybe other features or fixes are missing.

      Author's profile photo Michael Hamm
      Michael Hamm

      Nearly all fixes included in 2.1 SP3 are missing. Hopefully 2.2 SP1 (planned release this week) will resolve this and does not contain new critical issues.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Another question ... I want to download BO 2.2 but the download-area is missing ...

      Download_Area.PNG

      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas
      Blog Post Author

      Steffen, you might want to submit a ticket to SAP Support for this

      Author's profile photo Torsten Wirth
      Torsten Wirth

      Seems to be still not all fixes of 2.1 SP3 are included in 2.2 SP2. I'm testing 2.2 for a week now and there are some slowdowns in planning which not encountered with 2.1 SP3. This means after entering a planning figure there is allways a delay which was a bug in earlier versions. Let's hope for SP3.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Dear colleagues,

      when I heard, that with the latest AO version excel formulas can be used I thought that I got a solution for a request from our business.

      Withot trying it but is it possible, that I can use simple excel formulas like =WENN(...) in an input-ready cell?

      Our business wants to use these formulas to get default values in an input-ready cell.

      Thank you and best regards,

      Clemens

      Author's profile photo Torsten Wirth
      Torsten Wirth

      Hello Clemens,

      In short: Yes, this is possible. But keep in mind, that a reset auf DS resets all formulas. And there are cases where you have to reset a DS. I think this is a good solution for simple things but nor for large modifications which you will maybe loose in future.

      Regards,

      Torsten

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Dear Torsten,

      thank you for your answer.

      So is it possible to use a formula like this:

      =WENN(A1<>0;A1;A2)

      A1 represents in this case an actaul value for this fiscal year and A2 represents an actual value of the fiscal year before.

      Our business uses more complex formulas where individually per row values should be created as default values which makes it more complicated to define planning functions.

      Thank you again and best regards,

      Clemens

      Author's profile photo Torsten Wirth
      Torsten Wirth

      Hi Clemens,

      I have created a formula like =wenn(A2>A1;"A";"B") and this worked before I have given the first reply.

      For Englisch speaking readers "wenn" should be "if" in translation.

      Regards,

      Torsten

      Author's profile photo Panayiotis Martzaklis
      Panayiotis Martzaklis

      Hi all,

      I installed the 2.2 SP1 and i was looking forward to see the "new cells " functionality .

      Nevertheless, neither formulas in new column nor in new row are kept. These are lost when we use the prompt for DS option and change for example the reporting date.

      Formulas are kept only when doing the navigation.  (DS reset of course not activated)

      Has anyone else faced this?

      Thanks in advance

      Panayiotis

      Author's profile photo Lynn Peter
      Lynn Peter

      Hello Panayiotis. Yes, we are experiencing the same issue. I applied the hot fix for 2.2 SP1 and still have the same issue. Also, if I try to use the SUM function as soon as I hit enter it briefly shows the value and changes over to NA. So, we unfortunately have had to tell our users not to use it. Looking forward to when it is working properly.

      Author's profile photo Daniel Klein
      Daniel Klein

      Hello all,

      this issue seems fixed at least in version 2.3.2.

      Regards
      Daniel
       

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi All,

      Have found a strange bug with AO 2.2 SP1

      I would like to create a SAP Hana connections according to How to create HANA Http connection in local and consume in Analysis Office 2.0

      If I first open my Connections folder in Select Data Source dialog (e.g. to check whether I already have a Hana connection), no option "Create new SAP  Hana Connection" appears anymore in the context menu, I see only "Refresh". If I close and open AO again, everything is OK till I open Connections folder again.

      ErrorAOHana.png

      Has anybody faced it also?

      Thanks and Regards

      Ekaterina

      Author's profile photo Venkata Subhash Medisetty
      Venkata Subhash Medisetty

      Hi Ekaterina Bondarenko,

      from your screenshot, you have selected Connections folder do not select it. Because it contains only SAP BW connections

      there will another node HANA will be created if you you have any hana connection

      as soon as you go to tree view Just right click you will get an option

      Capture.JPG

      Subhahs

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Subhash,

      The issue is that once selected Connections/Favorites cannot be deselected until AO is restarted, and if I still have no HANA folder, option disappears from the Tree View at all.

      Just found a workaround - to switch to the List View mode, now I see the option. But if I switch back to the Tree view - I cannot again. 🙂

      Regards

      Author's profile photo Daniel Klein
      Daniel Klein

      Does it annoy anyone else that the "Search for"-Field of the "Select Data Source"-screen is not in focus after logging in to a system?:

      Should be:

      Please fix that (at least in the upcoming versions, installed version is 2.2 SP03), it annoys me every time that I have to press "TAB" before the search can start...

      I think this was not a problem in the older release 2.1.

      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Daniel - I don't work for SAP; I suggest reporting this to SAP Support.  Thank you

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Tammy,

      Can you please look into the below thread.

      New Lines in AO referencing wrong cells

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Does anyone know if the timeout settings for AO can be set?

      This will be a big help !

      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas
      Blog Post Author

      Please create this as a discussion at answers.sap.com (also please search for this as well, as it depends on your data source

      Author's profile photo Tarun Arora
      Tarun Arora

      Hi Tammy

      Need your help in understanding , there was an issue in AO 2.0 where Merge Variables was not supported in multiple queries with HANA as datasource, is this part resolved in AO 2.2

      KBA: SAP AO 2.0: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2126723

      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Tarun - please create this as a question at answers.sap.com so the community can assist