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Release Notes
BusinessObjects Planning Extended 5.3
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Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Business Objects. All rights reserved. Business Objects owns the following
U.S. patents, which may cover products that are offered and licensed by Business Objects:
5,555,403; 6,247,008; 6,289,352; 6,490,593; 6,578,027; 6,768,986; 6,772,409; 6,831,668;
6,882,998; 7,139,766; 7,181,435; 7,181,440 and 7,194,465. Business Objects and the
Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Xcelsius, Crystal
Decisions, Intelligent Question, Desktop Intelligence, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis,
Web Intelligence, RapidMarts, and BusinessQuery are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned
herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Third-party
contributors
Business Objects products in this release may contain redistributions of software licensed
from third-party contributors. Some of these individual components may also be available
under alternative licenses. A partial listing of third-party contributors that have requested or
permitted acknowledgments, as well as required notices, can be found at:
http://www.businessobjects.com/thirdparty
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Contents
Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-5
What’s new in this version? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
Mapping Weekly Time Periods to Other Time Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-8
Publish BusinessObjects Planning Scenario to BusinessObjects Finance
Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-13
Hide the Show Data Entry Mode selector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-15
Percentage-based Workback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-16
Fixed-value Workback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-17
Workback Icons and Rollover Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-18
Auto-Enable Visual Cues on Report Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-19
Excel Add-in Integrated Windows Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-20
Unified Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-21
Corrections Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-27
Release Notes 3
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Contents
4 Release Notes
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Release Notesequirements
Requirements
These release notes provide an overview of enhancements and defect fixes
contained in the BusinessObjects Planning Extended 5.3 release.
BusinessObjects Planning Extended 5.3 represents a continued evolution of
the 5.x generation of products. Users currently on previous generations (3.x
or 4.x) should look to upgrade to take advantage of the focus on performance
and stability.
The BusinessObjects Planning Extended release notes contain:
• A LIST OF NEW FEATURES ADDED TO THE RELEASED VERSION
This section outlines the changes made to this version of the software.
• A LIST OF THE CORRECTIONS MADE TO THE PREVIOUS VERSION
This section outlines the corrections made in this version of the software.
Each correction has been given an internal ID (Visual Intercept ID).
Warning: Do not confuse this internal reference with the Support HelpDesk
reference.
You should consult the following documents before you install or update to
this version of BusinessObjects Planning Extended. They are available in the
Documentation folder of the installation CD.
The French version of BusinessObjects Planning Extended 5.3 is being
released simultaneously.
Requirements
2
Document Description Language
Release notes List of improvement requests and
corrections made
Architecture Guide Technical architecture and
hardware and software
requirements
Installation Guide How to install and configure the
product
Updating
BusinessObjects
Planning
Extended
Administrator's
Guide
How to upgrade to this version of
the product from a previous
version
Information about the product's
administration
English
English
English
English
English
Release Notes 5
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2
Requirements
Y ou can inst all the online help using the inst allation package and access it via
the product. You can access the PDF versions of the documentation via the
online help.
Interoperability
BusinessObjects Planning Extended and BusinessObjects Planning XI R2
are not currently fully integrated yet, though there is functionality which
increases their interoperability . For example, the sharing of some metadat a is
possible, but this sharing does not extend as far as globals/rates. Also, data
created in BusinessObjects Planning Xi R2 will be available in
BusinessObjects Planning Extended.
For more information on the integration capabilities of this release, please
contact your services or sales representative.
6 Release Notes
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What’s new in this version?
This section provides an overview of the new functionality in BusinessObjects
Planning 5.3. The user documentation, along with help from our support and
services organization, will help you determine whether the features and
functions listed address your specific business requirements.
What’s new in this version?
2
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2
Mapping Weekly Time Periods to Other Time Periods
Mapping Weekly Time Periods to Other
Time Periods
Since monthly time periods are the fundamental building block of
BusinessObjects Planning, the ability to map weekly to monthly time periods
enables the ability to map weekly time periods to any other time period
granularity . The mapping method is site-wide by using the following section in
the main planning.ini file:
[Calendar]
WeekToMonthMapping = 4/4/5 | 4/5/4 | 5/4/4
Mapping Method Description
4/4/5
4/4/5
M1 W1 to W4
8 Release Notes
M2 W5 to W8
M3 W9 to W13
M12 W48 to W51/52/53/54
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Mapping Weekly Time Periods to Other Time Periods
Mapping Method Description
4/5/4
M1 W1 to W4
M2 W5 to W9
M3 W10 to W13
M12 W49 to W51/52/53/54
5/4/4
2
4/5/4
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2
Mapping Weekly Time Periods to Other Time Periods
Note: For all of the methods mentioned above, when the fiscal year has 53/
54 weeks, the left-over weeks are placed in the last period (M12).
Note: When mapping weeks to months, an extra week needs to be added for
each quarter. When assuming 4 weeks per month, this works out to 48 weeks
in a year, when actually there are 52 (4 left over). The week to month
mapping option allows you to choose which of the quarter’s three months will
receive the extra balancing week. For example, using 4/4/5 adds the extra
week to the third month of each quarter.
Behaviors defined in the mapping methods will have impact on several
functionalities in the BusinessObjects Planning application. Actions such as:
• Time period drilldown
• Aggregating weekly data values in all higher time period granularities
• Mixed time period scenario data copy
• Workback/proration values from higher time period granularities into
weekly data buckets
Time period drilldown support
You can drilldown time periods in reports based on the following hierarchy:
For example, drilling 2 levels down from quarter 1 will yield the following
display if the mapping method is set to 4/4/5:
10 Release Notes
Year
Half
Quarter
Month
Week
Day
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Mapping Weekly Time Periods to Other Time Periods
Q1
M1 M2 M3
W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11 W12 W13
The CalcEngine can resolve the mapping between months and the underlying
weekly operand time periods dynamically while drilling down and generating a
different number of operand periods accordingly. The same drilldown
behavior applies to both time period drilldowns from either the row or column
level.
Weekly data aggregation
Weekly data aggregation works very similar to the aggregation logic at any
other time period granularity level. The difference is that Weekly data
aggregation dynamically aggregates the weekly time period data values
according to a combination of the following factors:
• Number of underlying weekly time period buckets
• Line aggregation type
• Weekly calendar configuration
• Weekly mapping method
2
Resolve the weekly operand time period(s) based on the time period
in context, weekly calendar configuration, and weekly mapping
method defined.
Aggregate the weekly data values based on the line aggregation
type.
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2
Mapping Weekly Time Periods to Other Time Periods
Mixed time period scenario copy
With the introduction of weekly-monthly mapping support, you can perform
scenario copy operation from/to weekly scenarios to all other scenarios with
different time period frequencies. The weekly mapping method specified and
the account properties determine how the data cells are aggregated/deaggregated during the copy process if a mixed time period is involved.
Weekly rates mapping support
Inheritance logic restriction no longer applies for weekly rates after the
mapping methods are implemented. This means the following changes to the
existing weekly rates:
• Rate year versions defined in other time period frequencies can now be
used in place of weekly rates in a weekly scenario.
• Weekly rate year versions can no longer co-exist with other rate year
versions with the same fiscal year/version combination.
Note: Weekly rates that exist within existing models which violate the fiscal
year/version uniqueness rule will be considered as invalid after weeklymonthly mapping methods are implemented. An error message is issued
during the model check-in process to ensure the user will fix this problem after
the latest version supporting the mapping methods is deployed.
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Publish BusinessObjects Planning Scenario to BusinessObjects Finance Function
Publish BusinessObjects Planning Scenario
to BusinessObjects Finance Function
A new script function called ScenarioPublishtoFinance has been added,
which pushes scenarios from Business Objects Planning Analyst to
BusinessObjects Finance.
Syntax
intReturn = ScenarioPublishtoFinance({-,+,*}strUnitId,
strScenarioId, strReportingUnit, <optional parameters>)
where
Parameter Description
UnitID Unit whose scenario data is to be pushed to
Finance. An optional scope indicator can be
specified, determining a subset of units.
The scope indicator can be a combination of the
following symbols:
[-] or none: data of current Unit
[+] : data of intermediary level units (beneath the
one given as the parameter’s value)
[*] : data of leaf level units
Note: Only units with source field=MAGNITUDE
should be considered.
2
ScenarioID Identifier of the scenario which will be passed to
Finance.
ReportingID Finance Reporting Unit Identifier
Process Existing Data
(optional)
Include Empty Rows
(optional)
Run Package Rules
(optional)
0 - Delete everything (Default)
1 - Replace
2 - Aggregate
0 - No (Default)
1 - Yes
0 - No (Default)
1 - Yes
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Publish BusinessObjects Planning Scenario to Bu sinessObjects Finance Function
Parameter Description
Run Controls
(optional)
Publish Package
(optional)
Reject File
(optional)
0 - No (Default)
1 - Yes
0 - No (Default)
1 - Yes
Location (including full path) of the file where a list
of any rejected records will be kept.
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Hide the Show Data Entry Mode selector
Hide the Show Data Entry Mode selector
A new View menu item was added in Web Analyst called Show Data Entry
Mode selector.
When enabled, this menu item displays a checkmark beside it. The menu
item is enabled by default each time Web Analyst is started. The Data Entry
Mode selector dialog is only displayed when this menu item is enabled.
A Shortcut to Disabling
An alternate way of disabling the Show Data Entry Mode selector menu
item (and the display of the associated selector dialog) is to use the X widget
in the top-right corner of the selector dialog the first time it is displayed.
2
Once the dialog is dismissed using the X, it will no longer be displayed during
the current session (or until manually re-enabled using the View menu item
described earlier).
Release Notes 15
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2
Percentage-based Workback
Percentage-based Workback
Workback (previously called "Proration") is the ability to enter a value at a
non-leaf level (i.e. at a summary level) and to have that number automatically
allocated across a certain number of child cells, using some algorithm.
For example, if you had a planned marketing budget of $200,000 for ten
products, you could have the total budget divided - for example, evenly - into
$20,000 for each of the ten products. This means you could just enter a single
high-level total and then perhaps tweak one or two leaf (product) level values,
instead of having to perform a manual calculation and then enter each leaflevel value separately by hand.
Percentage-based Workback adds the ability to edit a cell with a relative
value or an absolute one. In the above example, the absolute value of
$200,000 was used, but in many cases it is more useful to work in more
relative terms. Questions such as "What if this budget increases/decreases
by 12% next year?" or "What if this budget is 68% of what it is this year?" can
more easily be addressed with the ability to directly enter those percentages.
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Fixed-value Workback
Fixed-Value Workback is a simplified version of leaf-based Workback, where:
1. A specific value is entered somewhere in the grid.
2. The BusinessObjects Planning calculation engine determines all leaf
data points based on the intersection in the grid where the above value
has been entered.
3. The specific value entered in step 1 is written to all leaf data points as
determined by step 2.
The Fixed-Value method takes no parameters. All required information is
inferred from the coordinates of the overwritten cell, and with the exception of
the amount that is input/written to the target cells, this method behaves like
the familiar Leaf-Based method.
Note: Fixed-value Workback is not affected by time aggregation.
Fixed-value Workback
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Workback Icons and Rollover Images
Workback Icons and Rollover Images
Workback useability has been improved with the addition of method icons,
indicating behavior, and rollovers, giving an “in a nutshell” popup graphic of
the methods.
There are three method types, each displaying an icon for better
understanding:
Method Type & Icon Methods and Descriptions
Cell Value Weighted
Hierarchy Based
Scenario Seeding
• Standard – weighted average according to the
current cube's values.
• Time Based – weighted average based on
another time period in the same scenario.
• Cross Scenario – weighted average based on
the same cube coordinates in a different
scenario.
• Distribute Evenly – equal division, recursively,
at each level of the hierarchy.
• Leaf Based – equal division between all leaf
cells.
• Fixed Rate – specified value placed in each
leaf cell.
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Auto-Enable Visual Cues on Report Open
Auto-Enable Visual Cues on Report Open
Visual cues indicate which cells of a planning report are editable.
A new property called Activate Visual Cues on Report Open has been
added to the report template dialog. This new property can be specified at the
report level and defaults to off.
This setting only affects the initial state of the visual cues. Once the report is
opened, the visual cues can be turned on or off, as usual.
For existing report templates created prior to the addition of this feature, the
property defaults to off, providing the familiar functionality.
2
Release Notes 19
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2
Excel Add-in Integrated Windows Authentication
Excel Add-in Integrated Windows
Authentication
When Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) is on in Microsoft’s Internet
Information Services (IIS), the Excel Add-in login property Use my Windows
login name and password can be enabled. Once enabled, this property
disables the username, password, and domain fields and authenicates login
using your Windows login information.
Users can still manually enter their Excel Add-in login information by disabling
the Use my Windows login name and password property.
<server name>
<user name>
BusinessObjects
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Unified Authentication
BusinessObjects Planning and BusinessObjects Planning Extended can now
use unified authentication, saving users from having to be authenticated more
than once.
The following authentication types are supported:
• Enterprise (secEnterprise)
• Windows Active Directory (secWinAD)
• LDAP (secLDAP)
Enabling BusinessObjects Authentication User Accounts for
BusinessObjects Planning Extended
There are three parts to enabling BusinessObjects Authentication User
Accounts (using the Site Security Configuration Tool) for BusinessObjects
Planning Extended:
• Enabling the BusinessObjects Authentication account type for the current
BusinessObjects Planning Extended site
• Enabling the automatic creation of BusinessObjects Planning Extended
users with BusinessObjects Authentication accounts
• Disabling the redirection to Login Servers
Unified Authentication
2
Local Client Configuration
Local clients (such as Administrator/Analyst, Script Executor, Site Monitor,
and so on) use the shared planning.ini file to configure unified authentication:
The minimum required settings in the shared Planning.ini are:
[BOE Security]
File=
Section=
The optional settings in the shared Planning.ini are:
[BOE Security]
Authentication=
DefaultDomainName=
Trace=
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Unified Authentication
Parameter Description
File
Section
Path to the web service(s) configuration file; relative to
the folder of Planning.ini. There is no default value for
this setting.
Examples:
File=WS-BOE.INI
WS-BOE.INI is located in the same folder with
Planning.ini.
File=BOE\WS-BOE.INI
WS-BOE.INI is located in the BOE subfolder of the
folder with Planning.ini.
Name of the section in the configuration file identified
by File. The content of the section describes the web
service that will be used to authenticate the users.
There is no default value for this setting.
Example:
File=WS-BOE.INI
Section=BOE-Security
The local applications will read the settings from
section [BOE-Security], configuration file WSBOE.INI, located in the same folder with Planning.ini.
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Parameter Description
Authentication
Comma-separated list of enabled BOE-specific
authentication types. Each member of the list is a
semicolon-separated pair of identifier and name of the
respective authentication type. The following
identifiers are valid:
• secEnterprise
• secWindowsNT
• secWinAD
• secLDAP
For example:
Authentication=secEnterprise:Enterprise,se
cWinAD:Active Directory
Authentication=secWinAD:ActiveDirectory,se
cLDAP:LDAP
The default value for this setting is:
secEnterprise:Enterprise,secWinAD:Windows
Active Directory,secLDAP:LDAP
DefaultDomainName
Trace
Name of the surrogate domain which will be used for
user identities where the domain part of it is missing.
The default value for this setting is BOE.
For example, if a user logs on to BusinessObjects
Planning Extended using an Enterprise-like account
such as JOHN, then the login name will be
BOE\JOHN.
The setting enables (1) or disables (0) the debug
tracing of the execution flow. The default value of the
setting is 0 (the tracing is disabled).
Unified Authentication
2
Web Client Configuration
There is no need for any additional configuration on the web client side. The
only place where additional configuration is required is the BusinessObjects
Planning Extended web server, where ISAPI Filter needs to be installed.
Installation of ISAPI Filter
In order to install and register the ISAPI filter:
• Open IIS configuration manager (MMC snap-in) and find there the web
server where the BusinessObjects Planning Extended web site is hosted
• Open the properties of the web server and switch to the ISAPI Filters
page
• Add a new filter to the list
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Unified Authentication
1. Click on Add
2. Enter the name, for example "Planning BOE Filter"
3. Navigate to {CP Programs}\WebServer\WebSite\Bin
4. Select WsAuthFilter.DLL
You can leave the priority as it is; by default, it is Low. You can also keep the
order of filters, if there is more than one, as is. If the feature is not working as
expected, you can try to move the filter up the list.
Web Server Configuration
The user authentication is handled by ISAPI filter installed for the
BusinessObjects Planning Extended web site. The filter reads its
configuration from WebConfig.ini located in the same folder where the DLL is
installed; typically, this will be WebServer\WebSite\Bin.
The mandatory settings in WebConfig.ini are:
[BOE Security]
File=
Section=
where
File is the path to the web service(s) configuration file; relative to the folder of
WebConfig.ini.
Examples:
[BOE Security]
File=WS-BOE.INI
WS-BOE.INI is located in the same folder with WebConfig.ini.
[BOE Security]
File=BOE\WS-BOE.INI
WS-BOE.INI is located in the BOE subfolder of the folder with WebConfig.ini.
Section is the name of the section in the configuration file identified by File.
The content of the section describes the web service that will be used to
authenticate the users.
Example:
[BOE Security]
File=WS-BOE.INI
Section=BOE-Security
In order to determine what HTTP requests are relevant for user
authentication, the filter also reads the following two configuration settings
from WebConfig.ini:
[BOE Security]
ProtectedResource=
ProtectedWebSites=
where
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Unified Authentication
ProtectedResource is a list of absolute file system path to the folder which is
part of the BusinessObjects Planning Extended web site. If this is a list of
paths, then they are separated by the | mark.
Examples:
[BOE Security]
ProtectedResource=c:\cartesis\planning\programs\webserver\we
bsite
or
ProtectedResource=c:\cp\webserver\website|c:\cpa\site
ProtectedWebSites is a list of web site names that the filter is supposed to
watch for. If this is a list, then the names are separated by the | mark. The
names will typically be enclosed with the slash characters; the filter does not
interpret the values in any way, it just compares the names with the actual
URL in the HTTP request.
Examples:
[BOE Security]
ProtectedWebSites=/CartesisPlanningAnalyst/
or
ProtectedWebSites=/CartesisPlanningAnalyst/|/CPA/
or
ProtectedWebSites=/CartesisPlanningAnalyst/|/CPA/|/CPW/
The web site names have the priority; that is, if the incoming request can be
mapped to both the web site and file system, then the web site setting will
have higher priority. This will affect how the user identity is handled.
In general, it makes sense to use ProtectedWebSites setting instead of
ProtectedResource.
The other two optional configuration settings are:
[BOE Security]
DefaultDomainName=
Trace=
where
DefaultDomainName is the name of the surrogate domain which will be used
for user identities where the domain part of it is missing. The default value for
this setting is BOE.
For example, if a user logs on to BusinessObjects Planning Extended using
Enterprise-like account such as JOHN, then the BusinessObjects Planning
Extended login name will be BOE\JOHN.
Trace - enables (1) or disables (0) the debug tracing of the execution flow.
The default value of the setting is 0 (the tracing is disabled).
2
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Unified Authentication
Using BOE Web Services: Configuration
A single file, WS-BOE.INI which is shipped on the installation CD, contains all
configuration options which are necessary to access the BOE web services.
Typically, site administrators have to change only one: the URL of BOE web
server:
[BOE-Security]
URL=http://{IP address or name}:8080/dswsbobje/services
In case of web user authentication, the site administrators may choose to
modify is the default BOE authentication type.
[Input]
AuthType=secEnterprise
(This setting has no effect for users of local client applications)
If there are other, additional virtual web sites created with the purpose of
having different BOE authentication types on per web site basis, then the site
administrators may add configuration setting as follows:
[Input/AuthType]
/BusinessObjectsPlanningAnalyst/=secWinAD
/CPE/=secEnterprise
/CPL/=secLDAP
Where BusinessObjectsPlanningAnalyst, CPE, and CPL are names of the
virtual web sites.
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Corrections Made
The following table contains an abridged list of corrections made in this
version of BusinessObjects Planning
Incident ID Subject
26478 [Metadata Integration] Unicode: Metadata: No members
imported on the Unit dimension.
27379 [DataExchange] Problems with Magnitude/Planning
Integration.
27983 [Data Exchange] Data duplication when adding a dimension.
27984 [Finance] Reverse sign for Normalized view check box
shouldn't be selected for Expenses line type.
28580 Line Item Detail shows problems posting when Compound
Scenario present in Column Template.
28836 When Japanese fonts are used in a report section displayed
as a chart, characters will be garbled.
28890 [Data Exchange] Nothing is exported to Finance when data is
entered on the NONE member of a mapped optional
dimension.
29859 Administrator: Clicking on Launch Dialogue Designer button in
script editor gives General Protection Fault.
30481 [CORE] - CalculationCompiler does not validate dimension
index of the RATE operand.
30655 [Data Exchange] Data not refreshed properly when publishing
to Finance.
30801 Users want to be prompted to check out scripts when typing
instead of only using the check out button.
Corrections Made
2
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2
Corrections Made
28 Release Notes
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