Skip to main content

We have recently begun developing reports in BA.  We have published several for our end users to run on demand, but when the reports open in Excel they are blank.  This only happened for the end users without the BA Excel Add-in installed.   No errors are received, they just get a blank excel spreadsheet.

 

It was my understanding that the end users would only require the Execution Server and obviously be granted access through their permission sets to see the reports. Is there another piece to this that we’re missing that would cause everything generated for end users to be blank? 

Hi @tmurphy ,

 

Are these operational reports or Quick reports?


Operational reports


If you are referring to SSRS Operational reports, could you preview the report in MS SQL Server side?

 

  • Generally for Operational reports you may need to install MS SQL Server Extensions Installer. Among the extensions provided with this installer, following extensions would be useful for Operational reports.
  1.  SSRS Authentication Extension
  2.  SSRS Report Data Service Extension

       If no data is returned, it may be better to check from SSRS Report Data Service Extension. So make sure you have installed that as well.

 

  • Further when you develop reports, there is a toolset in the visual studio which is called as BIDS(Business Intelligence for Visual Studio) add in. Have you installed this in the existing visual studio installation. The most important thing here is to install the correct BIDS version which tally with the Visual Studio version.

           Example : If the VS 2012, you should install BIDS 2012.

  •  Report Data Extension is another extension you may need to install. 

 

When developing SSRS reports, the user will have to have access to a result set in IFS that can be used for previewing. This report must be distributed to the actual user logged in to SSRS. But at runtime, the built-in user IFSPRINT will execute all reports and use a special method for authenticating and impersonating the end user. A detailed example can be found in F1 documentation. Please confirm your report with this example as well.

 

Following links are from APPs 10 F1 documentation. If you need any other tracks, please let me know. 

1. Reference : Foundation1 / Development Guide / Operational Reporting / Ssrs As Operationalreport / Example Operationalreport / Example of Creating a Basic Operational Report using Business Intelligence Development Studio

https://docs.ifs.com/techdocs/Foundation1/050_development/025_operational_reporting/210_ssrs_as_operationalreport/211_example__operationalreport/default.htm


2. Reference : Foundation1 / Development Guide / Operational Reporting / Ssrs As Operationalreport / Using SSRS for Operational Reports

https://docs.ifs.com/techdocs/Foundation1/050_development/025_operational_reporting/210_ssrs_as_operationalreport/default.htm


Besides, the Excel Add in on the Add on pages is required to be installed in order to run IFS Business Analytics in Microsoft Excel. 

 

*Admin Update: Replaced wit links with docs links (April 2020)


@tmurphy All users will need the BA add-on installed their PCs to view BA reports. This includes running reports from IFS IEE. The application basically launches BA for the user in the background and renders the results in Excel (BA). This would likely produce blank results if the BA add-on was not installed on the user’s PC.


@chrisbrigg thank you for your reply.  We were told by several sources that using the BA Execution Server would eliminate the need for the end users to have the BA add-on installed on their PC’s.  


@Minoshini Fonseka Thank you I will try.


@chrisbriggthank you for your reply.  We were told by several sources that using the BA Execution Server would eliminate the need for the end users to have the BA add-on installed on their PC’s.  

@tmurphy There are 3 settings for BA_EXECUTION_SERVER_AVAILABLE on the BA System Parameters screen - I have written some notes on how they work.

 

NO

On-Demand Reports will open up in Excel on their machine - Users WILL need the BA Excel Plugin

Scheduled Reports will end up in the report archive/email depending on how the schedule is set up - Users WILL need the BA Excel Plugin

 

FOR_ALL_INFO_SERVICES_REPORTS

On-Demand Reports will end up in the report archive - Users WILL NOT need the BA Excel Plugin

Scheduled Reports will end up in the report archive/email depending on how the schedule is set up - Users WILL NOT need the BA Excel Plugin

 

ONLY_FOR_SCHEDULED_REPORTS

On-Demand Reports will open up in Excel on their machine - Users WILL need the BA Excel Plugin

Scheduled Reports will end up in the report archive/email depending on how the schedule is set up - Users WILL NOT need the BA Excel Plugin

 


@CallumW Thank you for that.  I will check.  Much appreciated.


@CallumW That was exactly what I needed.  Thank you


Reply