Analysis for office 2.8 – Insecure Connection

Hello everyone!! This is my first blog post on SAP Portal. Here, let me discuss on the most common feedback we are facing post upgrade of Analysis office 2.8 version – The “Insecure Connection” warning message, every time users open Analysis for office report.

Yes, we have got lot of users feedback on what is this insecure connection and why it is not removed. I know, lot of us are still facing similar questions. Let’s discuss on this bit more on how to resolve this in a quick time using multiple possible Approaches. Here is the warning message…

Source: SAP

Cause: In Analysis for Office 2.8, SAP has introduced the additional warning message to the end user to warn if user is agreed to use connection insecurely. If user clicks to continue then only the related connection will be used, otherwise, it will not refresh any data.

Solution Approaches:

There are potential 2 ways this warning message can be dealt with.

Approach 1:

Quick change for individual user

This approach is done using the settings provided in the graphical interface of Analysis for office settings. So individual user need to go to the setting and change the setting based on the requirement.

Below are the steps to follow to implement this quick change:

Step 1. Open AO report, go to File->Analysis

Step 2. Go to Technical configuration and select Settings option

Step 3. Find AllowInsecureConnections. In dropdown there will be 3 options

1. 1. Prompt: Default settings which prompts for the insecure connection. You can continue or cancel based on your choice
   2. No: It will prohibit insecure connection, user will not be able to continue with the warning msg.
   3. Yes: It allows insecure connection. User will not get any warning.

                     Source: SAP

Step 4. Based on the requirement select options from step 3. It will be yes if the prompt is not required.

Step 5. Proceed and restart AO.

Next time onwards the Insecure Connection prompt will not be appearing.

Approach 2:

Change in AO_App.config file

This approach is very useful when IT team pushes the Analysis for Office packaged file to the users system, because user will not have to do anything in system. This will automatically remove the warning message without doing any changes in user’s system. Also, this can be done by individual also if user has the right to change the config file.

Below are the steps to follow to change the AO_App.Config file

Step 1. Open AO_App.config file residing in ( C://ProgamData/SAP/Cof) using Notepad or any other text editor.

Step 2. Search for AllowInsecureConnections, if it is not modified, by default below text will be there without any value <AllowInsecureConnections />

Step 3. As mentioned in earlier approach there can be 3 values (Yes, No, Prompt), based on the requirement modify the line to <AllowInsecureConnections Value=”Yes” />  which will not prompt the warning.

Step 4. Save the file.

Step 5. Restart Analysis for Office, The warning msg will not pop-up.

For the packaged file, save the packaged file with the changed AO_App.config file and Push it to user’s system.

Conclusion: 

This “Insecure Connection” provides users the flexibility to choose if they are willing to continue with the “Insecure Connection”. However, if the organization agrees with removing the warning, it would be better to communicate to users on the solution or it should be fixed in the package before the Analysis for Office 2.8 is pushed to the end user.

I am looking forward to read your comments in the comment section below and in case you have questions, you can post them directly in Q&A: https://answers.sap.com/tags/01200615320800002846.

Thanks,

——————–

Avijit Paul

BI Reporting and Visualization