The links below will take you to the release details and fixes

 

SC96 release notes:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7152874

 

Fixes:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6192099

Key call outs in this release

  • Lock row header column widths.

You can now  lock the width of the row header columns in Planning Analytics Workspace, preventing the Rows from changing width when expanding or collapsing consolidations on the rows.

    

To lock/unlock the width of the row header columns:

  • Go to Reports and Analysis
  • Open the book to be updated
  • Click on the view to updated
  • Then click Properties in the upper right hand corner of the screen
  • Navigate to the Customtab
  • In the Exploration features section,  enable the Automatic row header width
  • Activating the Automatic row header width button will trigger to the Row header columns to move when expanding or collapsing the consolidations in the rows
          •        

Deactivating the button will mean the Row header column are fixed and will not change in width when expanding or collapsing the consolidations in the rows

      Note – the Automatic row header option,  discussed above, is turned on by default which means column width for the rows will change when expanding or collapsing the consolidations in the rows

 

 

Changes in Books and Reporting

 

  • Use AI to interact with books using natural language

At the time of writing the AI functionality has not been installed but here is how it should work

Initially in this release AI will be introduced into a book  The users will be able to use AI to interact with their books using natural language

Please refer to the link above for more information on this topic

 

  • Use unnamed members in set consolidations

A set consolidation (formerly know as the Subset calculations) can be based on named and unnamed set members

Previously a set consolidation could only be based on existing, named set members, so if an element was missing in the set, the set needed to be recreated to proceed.

To create a set consolidation, click the Set consolidations menu option. This option is available from multiple places in the application:

  • from the dimension tile overflow menu (shown above),
  • from the column and row right-click menu,
  • from the Fields panel tile menus.

In the Set consolidations dialog box, you can select the set (named or unnamed) and calculation type. By default, the Calculation name changes based on your selections.

If you type a custom name, the name stays constant, no longer reacting to your selections

Now, to add an unnamed set member from the Set drop-down menu, click Set Editor at the bottom of the list

Once, in the Set Editor, select different members to add to the list of set for your calculation.

They will be added to the end of the list in the Set box and can be used in the calculations.

Final step – click Apply to create an unnamed set with the currently displayed member or Replace to create an unnamed set with the selected members

 

  • Additional click options on an action button

    • You can configure the behavior of an action button when it is clicked again while already running a process.
    • In previous versions of Planning Analytics Workspace, clicking an action button when it was already running a process canceled the process.
    • Now you can configure the additional click behavior for an action button by using the Additional click options setting on the Run Process tab of the button Properties panel.

How the new functionality works:

  • Cancel process – When an action button that is already running a process is clicked again, the process is cancelled, and a related message is displayed. This is the default behavior.
  • Do Nothing – When the action button already running the process is clicked again, as the name suggests nothing happens – the process is not cancelled.
  • Run processes in parallel – In this instance, if the process is already running, a new process will be started and will run in parallel with the first process.

 

  • Improved error messages and error handling for Universal Reports

Error Toast messages displayed in Universal Reports in Planning Analytics Workspace websheets has been improved

Please refer to the SC96 release notes link above for more details.

 

  • Show and hide format areas

You can now show and hide format in Universal Reports and Dynamic Reports in Planning Analytics Workspace websheets.

There are two new buttons on the toolbar that allow you to show and hide the Universal Reports format area and the Dynamic Reports format area. With the format area shown, you can customise the named ranges.

Clicking the first icon will show the format area on the websheet and the second icon will hide the format area

GQ commen– I tried testing this – it was very slow and obviously cannot be used if Grouping or Freeze Panes are being used on the Websheet

Changes in Modeling

  • Use improved auto-complete and validation to simplify rules creation

      When writing rules, clicking CTRL+SPACE in the rule editor will present a list of relevant components to assist  you in completing your rules

Additionally, you can now click the Validate business rules icon   to fully validate your rules. This performs a validation equivalent to saving the rule.

  • Schedule chores using Daylight Saving Time (DST)

The Chore editor now includes the DST Sensitive option on the Schedule tab.  

When the DST Sensitive checkbox is selected (default), the chore time is automatically updated when Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts or ends for the region in which the Planning Analytics database is located.

  • Create users in a Planning Analytics Local database

You can now create individual users in a Planning Analytics Loca database using the Users and Groups editor.

Please refer to the SC96 release notes link above for more details.

  • Localise objects on your database with the Localisation editor

Localisation refers to the ability to renaming Cubes, Dimensions, Processes and Chores to other languages within a Planning Analytics instance.   For example if a PA instance is being use by staff in Australia and China,

the names of the cubes, dimensions, Processes and Chores can be shown in English for the Australians and Cantonese for the Chinese.

Please refer to the SC96 release notes link above for more details.

  • Preview a location data source in the process editor

The location data source relates to the use of multiple languages as mentioned in the point above.

Please refer to the SC96 release notes link above for more details.

 

Changes in Administration

  • View the version of Planning Analytics Workspace for a Lifecycle Management snapshot

On the Lifecycle management tab you can now see the version of Planning Analytics Workspace in which the snapshot was created in.

As always, please take the time to read the link as there are more changes and details in this release not covered above.

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