Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Smart View Private Connection Issue - Resolved!

I had managed to go for the past 5 months, since I moved to Windows 7 64-bit on my laptop with Essbase 11.1.2, without the need to connect to Smart View.  This week, I decided I wanted to test something in Smart View and compare it with Dodeca but, low and behold, I could not create a private connection with Smart View to save my life.   After some investigation, I found some nasty messages in my apsserver.log (or, more specifically, in C:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\EPMSystem\servers\AnalyticProviderServices0\logs\apsserver.log):

[2011-04-16T20:34:42.184-05:00] [AnalyticProviderServices0] [ERROR] [] [oracle.EPMOHPS] [tid: 18] [userId: ] [ecid: 0000IxX6708EgKWzLwyGOA1De^CQ000001,0] [APP: APS#11.1.2.0] [[
java.lang.NullPointerException
 at com.hyperion.dsf.server.framework.BaseLogger.writeException(Unknown Source)
 at com.essbase.smartview.util.EssLogger.writeException(Unknown Source)
 at com.essbase.smartview.xml.XmlHandler.invoke(Unknown Source)
 at com.essbase.smartview.xml.XmlHandler.invoke(Unknown Source)
 at com.essbase.smartview.xml.XmlHandler.invoke(Unknown Source)
 at com.essbase.smartview.xml.EssbaseSmartView.doPost(Unknown Source)
 at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:727)
 at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:821)
...  blah, blah, blah!


I did a quick search of the web and found nothing relevant, so I turned to my friend and fellow ACE Cameron Lackpour..   Cameron had just finished working his way through the Oracle Knowledgebase notes on Smart View on Oracle support.  He came up with this nugget:

https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&type=NOT&id=1098634.1

It told me the cause of my ills was an incomplete configuration and gave me a couple of different methods to complete the configuration.  I chose to export and edit the datasources.xml file.


In the xml, I simply had to add my Essbase server name:



Once that was complete, I was able to create a private connection:

9 comments:

Cameron Lackpour said...

Yup, Oracle support had the answer -- they have a nice article about common problems with SmartView -- the link I sent you was one of them.

It's almost like their job is getting questions, figuring out answers, and then presenting answers to the common (and maybe not so common) technical problems we have. :)

I like to think finding this one makes up, a little, for my total lack of effective searching for the answer to the missing Business Rules node in 11.1.2 EAS last week. My karmic balance is now only its usual out-of-kilter self instead of falling over on its side.

Regards,

Cameron Lackpour

Tim Tow said...

What is a bit ironic about the solution is that we recently added a similar xml configuration to the Dodeca server. It provides the server(s) that are presented in the connection dialog when the Dodeca server is configured to use embedded mode connections (otherwise, we look at the servers configured in APS).

Tim

Navan Mehra said...

Hi Tim & Cameron

I read your article and thought may be you will be helpful in my case too. I am using Smart view 11.1.2 and using VBA to automate the process of login & refresh of excel sheet.

I am using a shared connection which is made available by workspace and the URl is like http://:19000/workspace/SmartViewproviders

I automate the process of login using HypConnect and set this code when workbook opens. Now the issue is, even though i provide the user id and password, it gives me a login prompt and do not accept the login/pwd mentioned in code. And point to note is, it ask for login only for the first HypConnect statement and not for subsequent statements.

Am i doing anything wrong? Do i need to use Provider services to achieve no manual intervention?

The workbook need to login, refresh data and disconnect for

Ashish said...

Hi Tim & Camaron,

Have you ever tried Shared Connection in Smart View 11.1.2.1? I am able to connect but it does not show any servers in the non editable drop-down.

Any Idea

Tim Tow said...

Ashish,

I haven't done that.. Have you tried posting that question to the OTN Board?

Tim

Anonymous said...

Hi,

We are having the same problem, and we try to modify datasources.xml file, but we can´t find it on the specified route.

Maybe we forget to configure something, what are we doing wrong?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

We are having the same problem, and we try to modify datasources.xml file, but we can´t find it on the specified route.

Maybe we forget to configure something, what are we doing wrong?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

so my comment here has nothing to do with essbase but i was hoping any one of you here knows about smart view.

i currently have 2 issues with smart view:

1. member name display (description only) and formula preservation --- whenever i set the member name display to "description only", the excel formulas that i have just disappears

2. zoom in, formula fill and formula preservation --- i check the formula fill option. i type in the excel formula then i zoom in. for some reason, the formulas don't get applied when i zoom in..


does any of you know the solution or the answer to those 2 above? Thanks!!

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Tim Tow said...

Please post this question on the Oracle/OTN Smart View forum and make sure you include the Smart View version.

Tim