In this release, we are introducing a visual way to view and manage the models and model artifacts in your application. The Model Manager functionality is available in the Web version of Spotlight.

The Model Manager makes it simple to see all of the models that you have access to and their associated artifacts by grouping them together.

The Model Manager makes it easy to see how models relate to each other and where the dependencies are.

Connecting from Host Analytics Applications

Users connecting to Modeling from Planning, Consolidation, and Reporting applications can link directly to the Model Manager.

An administrator must enable the Model menu item for these users.

Users connecting to Modeling directly from their Browser will automatically see the Model menu item.

Ability to Delete Members and Associated Data from a Locked Model

With this release, you can delete dimension members and associated data from a locked model without clearing and regenerating the model. For example, you have a Revenue Forecast model and you want to remove an old product, you can do so without clearing or regenerating your model.

This option is available only in SpotlightXL.

To delete a dimension member from a generated and locked model:

Select Model, Setup.
Select the model from the Model drop-down.
Lock the model.

Note:

The model is still generated but is now locked from data changes by users.

Select Model, Dimension.
Select the dimension that you want to delete the member from. Make a note of the correct spelling of the Member Code and Member Parent.

Select Delete from the Action field.
Type the Member Code and Member Parent.

Click Save.
A message appears and asks you to confirm. "Deleting dimension members will clear all the rollup and deleted leaf member's data. Would you like to continue?"
Click Yes to confirm.
A message appears and informs you that the operation has been submitted for execution. Notification will be sent via email once the process is complete.
The data for all associated rollup members is deleted with this operation. You need to unlock the model and then run the necessary calculations to obtain the new rollup data.
Select Model, Model Administration, Validation.
Select the model from the Model drop-down.
Review the status of the validation report to determine if there are any model artifacts that need to be updated. You may have reports, views, calculations, formulas, or maps that referred to the deleted member and that need to be updated. Repeat the validation until you have made corrections to all the artifacts.

Ability to Delete Attributes from a Generated Model

With this release, you can delete attributes from a generated (and unlocked) model without clearing and regenerating the model. There are no effects on data in the model.

This option is available only in SpotlightXL.

To delete an attribute from a generated model:

Select Model, Setup.
Select the model from the Model drop-down.
Make sure the model is unlocked.
Select Model, Attribute.
Select the dimension that the attribute is associated with.
Select the attribute that you want to delete.

Click Delete from the menu ribbon.

A message appears asking you confirm.

Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
Select Model, Model Administration, Validation.
Select the model from the Model drop-down.
Review the status of the validation report to determine if there are any model artifacts that need to be updated. You may have reports or views that referred to the deleted attribute and that need to be updated. Repeat the validation until you have made corrections to all the artifacts.

In release 2.2.2, we added an option for External Data Sources called Clear Model. This option was added to the Source Model page. In this release, we are moving the Generate Model menu item also to the Source Model page. Previously, it was on the Source Map page.

User Prompted Upon Trying to Save Changes to Rollup Members in a View or Report, both SpotlightXL and Spotlight

In Views and Reports, users can save changes only to leaf-level data. However, sometimes it is not obvious if the cells they are changing are leaf-level or rollup members. In this release, if a user tries to save data changes to rollup members in a view or report, a message appears informing them that the changes have not been saved. The change they made remains on the screen but has not to be committed to the model.

This validation is added for views and reports, both in Excel and Web versions.

When the rollup notification appears, if the Save action was set to also a run a calculation, the calculation will not be run.

Note:

If you want the calculation to still be run on a view or report with all rollups, then disable the Save action.

If the view or report consists of combination of leaf-level and rollup-level cells, then the validation is not run. The leaf-level cells will be saved and the rollup level cells will not be saved.

If Save is disabled in the view or report, no data is saved but if the Save action was set to run a calculation, the calculation is run.

In Reports, this validation is applicable only when Enable Save is set to Calculation Model. If Enable Save is set to All Models, no validation is performed.

Improvement to View and Report Permissions

View and Report permissions are defined in two ways: by the groups allowed to use it as listed on the Properties page of each view or report, and by who created it. In this release, the permissions are clarified.

Admins can use views and reports unconditionally.
Designers and Reviewers must have permission to access the model before they can access or modify or save as or delete the view or report.
A Designer or Reviewer who created a view or report can access that view or report as long as they have permissions to access the model.

The following table specifies all the variations of operations and what changes can be saved for Designer and Reviewer users.

	Designer User is the Creator of the View or Report	Reviewer User is the Creator of the View or Report	Designer User is not the creator of the View or Report	Reviewer User is not the creator of the View or Report
Save without making changes (no groups defined in Properties)	Y	Y	N	N
Save without making changes (belongs to all groups defined in Properties)	Y	Y	Y	N
Save changes to Properties but no change to groups (no groups defined in Properties)	Y	Y	N	N
Save changes to Properties but no change to group (belongs to some groups defined in Properties)	Y	Y	N	N
Save changes to Properties but no change to group (belongs to all groups defined in Properties)	Y	Y	Y	N
Save without making changes (belongs to some groups defined in Properties)	Y	Y	N	N
Add group to Properties page and Save (belongs to the group added)	Y	N	Y (if Designer User belongs to all groups in new list)	N
Add group to Properties page and Save (does not belong to the group added)	Y	N	N	N
Remove group from Properties and Save (belongs to the groups remaining)	Y	N	Y (if Designer User belongs to all groups in remaining list)	N
Remove group from Properties and Save (does not belong to the groups remaining)	Y	N	N	N
Remove all groups from Properties and Save	Y	N	Y	N
Save As to create a new view or report	Y	Y (if new group list is empty)	Y	Y (if new group list is empty)
Delete the view or report	Y	Y	Y (if Designer User belongs to all groups)	N

Metadata Viewer Option in Report Run

This option is available in Excel only.

When users are running a report, they may want to see additional information about the POV, rows or columns headings, or data cells. A Metadata Viewer is available to provide information about the model and dimensions that make up the SpotlightXL cells. Metadata Viewer is similar to the Design Manager in Report Design but everything the user sees in the Metadata Viewer is read-only.

To use the Metadata Viewer, select one or more SpotlightXL cells, then select the More menu, and Metadata Viewer.

The Metadata Viewer tells the user which model is being used and the particular dimension members that make up the data intersection.

Users can also select a whole group of cells and then select Metadata Viewer. The viewer then displays all dimension members in use.

If the user would like to identify which cells are associated with a particular dimension member, they can click the Member Select icon and then use the Filter Member option. The screen then refreshes and the user sees highlighted cells indicating which cells are from that dimension member.

If your report uses data from multiple models, you can select data cells from both models and see each in the Metadata Viewer. Select a model from the Model drop-down list.

Show Point of View Dimensions More Clearly in the Design Manager

This option is available in Excel only and applies to both Report Design and Excel-based Reports.

When Admins or Designer users are designing a report, they often use the Design Manager to pinpoint what dimension intersections are being used for the data cells. In this release, Design Manager is enhanced to better show how POV cells are being used.

In a simple report, select one or more data cells and then click Design Manager. The dimensions in the page axis (Company, Product, Project, and Measures) indicate the POV. (In the report below, Region is an attribute.)

In another version of that report, Time has been moved to the page axis as a POV. The report is showing Q4 2014, Budget and Actual.

We want the Actual column to use Exclude POV so that it always displays Actual for the whole year.

Select the cells in the Actual column and click Design Manager.
Check the Exclude POV box and check the Q4 2014 box next to the Time dimension.
Click the member select icon and change the dimension member to 2014 then click Select.

Click Update.
Save the report changes.
Select Run.

Now, no matter which member the user selects for the Time POV, the Actual column reflects the whole year.

Now here is the improvement in this release. When the designer uses the Design Manager, it becomes more clear that some cells are using the POV and some are not.

From Report Design, select all the data cells of interest, then click Design Manager.
Under the Time dimension, note that the selected cells are using both Exclude POV 2014 and a regular POV Q4 2014.

If you do not remember which cells are using which member, select one of the rows, then select Preview Filter Member from the Member Select icon.

The cells are highlighted for you until you click Cancel.

Similarly, if an end user is running the report and they want to see what dimensions are being used in the report, they can select Metadata Viewer from the More menu. Then use Preview Filter Member to see which cells are using 2014 and which cells are using Q4 2014.

In SpotlightXL, the menu ribbon for views and reports has been consolidated to move lesser-used commands under a More menu.

In Views, the Capture Data and Capture Data as SpotlightXL Formula commands are now under the More menu.

View and Report Menu Commands in the Ribbon Grouped into a More Menu

In SpotlightXL, the menu ribbon for views and reports has been consolidated to move lesser-used commands under a More menu.

In Views, the Capture Data and Capture Data as SpotlightXL Formula commands are now under the More menu.

In Design View, there is no More menu.

In Reports, the Metadata Viewer command, Capture Data, and Capture Entire Workbook commands are now under the More menu. See Metadata Viewer in Report Run Mode K-61 for information about the Metadata Viewer.

In Design Report, the Capture Data and Capture Entire Workbook commands are now under the More menu.

Performance Enhancement to View Loading and Save

We have made some optimizations and performance improvements in Views. This optimization will improve the view loading and saving times.

Excel-based Reporting Enabled for all Customers

Excel-based Reporting was introduced in release 2.0.2. Until now, customers needed to call Support to have this feature enabled in their applications. With release 2.3, Excel-based Reporting will be automatically enabled for all customers. If you were already using Excel-based Reporting, there is no change and you can continue to use it.

Excel-based Report Snapshot Option

Companies often need to produce reports electronically for consumption by people who do not have a license or live connection to Modeling. In this release, Excel-based Reports can be saved in a Snapshot format. The Snapshot format removes all SpotlightXL formulas from the report and saves all the data values as regular numbers, and dimension members as regular text, in Excel. There is no option to refresh the snapshot report because it is now static, and it is saved in a separate workbook from your Excel-based Report.

To create a Snapshot report:

Open the Excel-based Report.
Ensure that the data is refreshed and correctly reflects what you want to save.
From the More menu, select Snapshot.

Give the new snapshot report a file name because it will be saved separately.

After saving, the snapshot report will be on your screen so you can fine tune it before sharing it.

Known Issues

B-130	Model Manager: Created by is not displayed for restored models whose user is not present in the application.
B-148	Model Manager: Group Access changes are not tracked in Model Activity.
B-160	Model Manager: Dimension Browser does not preserve order of hierarchy.
B-163	Model Manager: Cannot add new members to a leaf member if the model is not generated.
B-177	Model Manager: Generated model limitations when updating hierarchy.
B-189	Model Manager: We recommend to perform Add, Update, Delete actions independently.
B-191	Model Manager: Dimensions with root member other than ~ rollup operator will show as ~ in hierarchy management.
B-196	Model Manager: Validate models with special characters.
B-200	Model Manager: Modify dimension on ungenerated model.
B-201	Model Manager: Add modified by field to model properties.
K-105	User can append dimension members to leaf member, converting it to rollup.
K-112	Metadata viewer and capture data do not work for some formatted reports with captions/text labels.
3166	Implement support for UTC offset in fractional hours.
3080	In some cases, strange artifacts appear on screen in Excel while saving a large report with freeze pane.
2971	Breakback does not hold the cells on the report which are locked.
2873	Breakback on rollup value from negative to positive may yield weird or incorrect results.
2611	Cascade Reports will not work as expected if the user deletes a Dimension or an Attribute from the Model.
2492	If a report which is saved in an excel work book(offline) is renamed then users need to reload that report into the Excel workbook. Best practice is to refresh all reports in the saved workbook before renaming any report.
2421	Excel "Compatibility Mode" is Unsupported
2354	Snapshot email link will not work for users with SSO integration if they are not logged into the application. As a workaround they should log into the application and then access the Snapshot email link.
2276	If user makes any changes to the report (ex:- formatting, adding rows or columns, deleting rows or columns) after running it and then take a Snapshot then user will not see all the changes made to the report and in some cases the snapshot will look weird. We recommend users to take Snapshots without making any changes to changes to the report after its executed
2113	Integration between Planning & Modeling applications from web interface is best supported in Google Chrome browser. Users cannot navigate from Planning to Modeling if Internet Explorer compatibility mode is turned on.
2080	If users are using Firefox browser, right clicking an item in the Folder structure may display an incorrect menu.
1845	If POV member defined is removed or renamed, it cannot be fixed in report design mode and error is displayed.
1492	Using special characters for the model name results in errors.
1464	When suppress rows/columns is enabled, If Dimension Members and Data Intersection are available in same column/row in a report then dimension members will be suppressed along with data intersections.
1457	In some cases Suppress blank rows/columns is not working as expected when Groups are expanded in the report.
1455	Suppress blank rows/columns is not supported in Spotlight (i.e. Web Interface).
1454	In Some cases Suppress blank rows / columns is not working as expected if groups and freeze panes are enabled in the Report.
1446	Unable to navigate to Design View after rename or remove HostAnalyze worksheet.
1406	Excel 2016 charts containing 3D Clustered Column, 3D Stacked Column, or 3D Stacked Bar are not supported.
1322	Unable to cascade with substitution variables.
1321	Substitution variables are not working as expected in Cascade Report.
1273	Cascade Report has inconsistencies with Filters.
1144	Freeze Panes location should not be outside of the sheet viewable range.
687	Modified Report definition by removing months column still retain after Refresh.

The following known issues are specific to Excel-based Reporting.

3161	Substitution variable override is not supported for worksheet with use of both display label and code settings
2518	Reviewer user has no access to Publish Excel-based reports.
2302	If there are any Snapshots in the workbook then Convert Entire Workbook option will not convert the workbook.
2199	Filter member options are not available if only 1 cell from a model exists, in formatted report and EBR.
2097	When using Design Manager, Update button is enabled only after entering a valid New Value and hitting enter.
1887	It takes over 1 - 3 min to open 22 MB Excel workbook.
1755	Locking / Scaling is not applied when converting a Formatted Report to Excel-based Report.
1699	It may takes up to couple of hours to Capture Entire Workbook with 30 worksheets and ~7000 data cells or more cells
1698	Message shows 'Please contact administrator...' when select Refresh after session timeout.
1683	Specifying a relative cell address to a cell in another tab in EBR creates an absolute cell address.
1672	Provide an option to reset the Excel workbook so users can upload using a different Report Template.
1624	Unable to download the same report as it is being used by another process.
1550	Errors when Capture Data as SpotlightXL Formulas with a cascade report.

Resolved Issues

K-98	Data optimization between Planning and Modeling can now be enabled on request.
K-77	Issues in Audit Log when navigating between different pages.
K-55	Error occurs with Breakback on a view or report from a model that contains an Attribute with no members.
K-32	Display Labels for Attributes are not retained during model refresh.
C-18	When editing a model formula, an exception error occurs upon saving.

Was this article helpful?

What's Next

October 17 Maintenance Release

Table of contents

Visual Representation of Models using the Model Manager on the Web
Ability to Delete Members and Associated Data from a Locked Model
Ability to Delete Attributes from a Generated Model
External Data Source Menu Changes
User Prompted Upon Trying to Save Changes to Rollup Members in a View or Report, both SpotlightXL and Spotlight
Improvement to View and Report Permissions
Metadata Viewer Option in Report Run
Show Point of View Dimensions More Clearly in the Design Manager
View and Report Menu Commands in the Ribbon Grouped into a More Menu
Performance Enhancement to View Loading and Save
Excel-based Reporting Enabled for all Customers
Excel-based Report Snapshot Option
Known Issues
Resolved Issues

2.3 Modeling Release Notes, November

Visual Representation of Models using the Model Manager on the Web