Updating Templates & Solutions

This is usually done as part of an upgrade between major version releases though can also occur as part of a point release upgrade if the time since the previous installation is quite long (ie: > 9 months).

The updating process is normally done AFTER the base software has been upgraded.

Updating Solutions

We do not support customer edits or additions to the solutions area as it is just too time consuming. When saving a report as a solution, users are shown a message to the effect that it will be lost during system updates.

Thus when we update the solutions area, we simply delete everything and then import the current solutions package.

Go to the "Advanced" tab, and Click "Export Solutions"

Then shift select the folders, right click, and select delete. This will remove all current solutions. Cancel the "Export" dialog.

Now click "Import Solutions", locate the new solutions file, and import.

Updating Templates

This is altogether more laborious. You will require "File->Options->Advanced Features" to be enabled.

1. Determine which Templates have been edited by the customer. Go to the "Advanced" tab, and Click "Export Templates". When the dialog comes up, click the "Date Modified" column header twice - this will sort the templates by modified date descending such that the most recently edited are at the top.

   

2. This will split the templates into two blocks

   • those that have been in someway edited at the top

   • and the rest, with a consistent time and date stamp all the way to the bottom of the list

   It is often easiest to shift select the second block of templates with the single date and delete them at this point. In doing any deletion - it is important to check for any Templates created entirely by the customer and leave them in place.

   This then leaves a list of edited templates. You could further reduce this list using the "Last Accessed" date - if it's a long way in the past, you could decide that the template is effectively "unused", delete it, and in effect let it revert too whatever we are shipping.

3. Click cancel to close the export dialog.

4. Open each remaining template and save as a report in a temporary folder.

5. Click "Export Templates" again, and use it to delete the remaining templates.

6. Click "Import Templates", locate the new templates file, and import.

7. Now, for each temporary report created in step 4, open both the temporary report and the new template. By right clicking on the header tabs and selecting "New Horizontal Tab Group" they can then be viewed one above the other and compared eg:

   

   Areas to check:

   • Particularly for GL templates, start by checking the "Dimension / Member Captions" dialog (Insert Tab) and look for any custom captions configured. Copy any custom captions across to the new template. Where those captions relate to Segment dimensions, put them in the Library, as it then becomes much quicker to add them to subsequent GL templates where they will likely be needed.

   • Check any changes to filter selections - consider whether they should be retained or forgotten.

   • Check selected columns - consider whether any differences should be retained or forgotten.

   • Check subtotalling

   • ... and any other obviously visible differences

8. Save any amendments back to the new Template. NB: When saving (using "Save As Template") it is very important that the current new template is selected in the dialog, rather than just the name edited in the name box. This is important to maintain the underlying report id used for determining Drill target reports. Failing to do this can break drills.

9. When done, delete the temporary reports created in step 4.

And you're done.