Carriage return in text string for TM1 Web

[robertk]

Hi,

We are evaluating the use of TM1 web for board reporting and have come across the issue that carriage returns between paragraphs get lost when rendered to the web page.

The carriage returns are captured in the cube (when we paste the text to notepad from the cube all the carriage returns are there) correctly and displayed in excel correctly, however when viewed in the browser all the carriage returns are lost.

We are useing Excel2007 and TM1 version 9.4 FP1 64 bit version.

Has anyone come across this issue or managed a workaround that does not involve comment box 1, comment box 2....etc

Cheers,

Robert

[Alan Kirk]

We are evaluating the use of TM1 web for board reporting and have come across the issue that carriage returns between paragraphs get lost when rendered to the web page.

The carriage returns are captured in the cube (when we paste the text to notepad from the cube all the carriage returns are there) correctly and displayed in excel correctly, however when viewed in the browser all the carriage returns are lost.

We are useing Excel2007 and TM1 version 9.4 FP1 64 bit version.

Has anyone come across this issue or managed a workaround that does not involve comment box 1, comment box 2....etc

This sounds very familiar. I recall that we came across the same thing when we were developing our own board reports in 9.1. I could have sworn that I reported it as a bug but I can't find any ticket reference for it. It's possible that it slipped through the cracks in the various moves between systems (Applix -> Cognos -> IBM).

It's not (as far as I can see) listed as a "known issue" in the latest release notes either.

I'm still encountering the same thing in Excel 2003 / 9.1.4. It doesn't matter whether you use a "native" Excel line break, whether you embed the CR, LF or both characters via the Char function (they're just stripped out), or whether you even try to put the HTML paragraph break code in (that just gets treated as a literal string); you still won't get the line break rendering in the cell. As I recall we just gave up on any hope that it would get fixed and redesigned the report to use separate cells, which obviously isn't something that you want to do. Time for a bug report I think, not that that will solve your problem either unfortunately.

[robertk]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your reply. I was afraid that was going to be the case. And you are right, if TM1 Web is going to be useful for such things as executive/board reportign it's handling of comments has to be improved. It's great that the 250 character limit has been addressed by Excel2007 and 9.4, however it's pretty useless if you can't then break up the text into meaningful paragraphs.

I will now endeavor to navigate the IBM bug (or maybe they feel its an enhancement) reporting roundabout.

Cheers,
Robert

[Alan Kirk]

Thanks for your reply. I was afraid that was going to be the case. And you are right, if TM1 Web is going to be useful for such things as executive/board reportign it's handling of comments has to be improved. It's great that the 250 character limit has been addressed by Excel2007 and 9.4, however it's pretty useless if you can't then break up the text into meaningful paragraphs.

I will now endeavor to navigate the IBM bug (or maybe they feel its an enhancement) reporting roundabout.

I've already done it for 9.1. (Possibly a repeat performance, but since I don't have a record of having done so when I came across this problem previously I thought it better to do it again.) However it wouldn't do any harm for you to do it for 9.4 as well. Mind you, I note that the SR page doesn't actually ask you to submit a version number, which is "interesting".

I'm actually finding it easier to use the site now that I'm getting used to it; I only had to log in three times to do the submission this time.

Of course, there is still one thing that throws me. You have to specify which country to send the support request to. So lemmie see now...

SR_Screen.jpg (108.83 KiB) Viewed 19110 times

Antigua... Aruba... Austria... Barbados... heeeey, waaait a minute...

Hmm. So you can submit requests to an office in St Lucia, but the 19th largest economy in the world doesn't rate one.

Thaaaaat's nice.

So... make a lot of revenue out of the Netherlands Antilles do you, Big Blue?

I'm assuming that the request ended up going to the US (though I found myself in the "Enter A Request" page via a different link, so I don't know for sure); if so the fact that I titled it "TM1 Websheets Do Not Honour Line Breaks in cells" may freak them out a bit.

[achaves]

Have you had any further developments on carriage returns in TM1Web? We're experiencing the same issue and to echo robert's note, without the ability to break up the text, it does limit the usefulness.

Thanks,

Andrew

[mnasra]

Hi, I am trying to enter the carriage return in my text. I saw (in the above trail) that you can enter your text in Notepad and copy it to the string element.
Is there a direct way to enter the carriage return (in architect or normal perspectives?).

thanks
Micheline

[holger_b]

You can insert new carriage returns using copy and paste. That helps, although the display problem remains.

[Brian_Q]

Hi,
The issue has been fixed in TM1 10.2.2. It allows to enter multi lines (Alt+Enter ) in TM1 web just like in normal Excel.
Cheers.

[Alex]

Has anyone been able to enter multiple line as described by Brian_Q?

I tried that but it doesn't work in TM1-Web (Version 10.2.2 FP3 IF1).

Cheers,
Alex

[Alan Kirk]

Has anyone been able to enter multiple line as described by Brian_Q?

I tried that but it doesn't work in TM1-Web (Version 10.2.2 FP3 IF1).

I dunno whether to be more depressed that this issue has taken over 6 years to address, or that I've been at this job for over 6 years.

Here's what I've found; I can enter the value just fine with the line breaks using [Alt]+[Enter], and when I am in edit mode it will appear with those line breaks like so:

29-May-15_01.jpg (81.37 KiB) Viewed 16349 times

(What I cannot do, annoyingly, is get that naffing Measures dimension to show ANY element other than the first one no matter where I place it in the view, even if I choose a different element by selecting it and clicking on the stupidly designed green window frame icon which somebody decided was more intuitively obvious for "keep" than a green checkmark, but that's a bug for a different time.)

However for display purposes the entry is an exercise in futility since, you guessed it:

29-May-15_02.jpg (89.24 KiB) Viewed 16349 times

So it may be IBM's idea of "fixed", but I'm none too sure that it's thine or mine.

[Alex]

I dunno whether to be more depressed that this issue has taken over 6 years to address, or that I've been at this job for over 6 years.

I know exactly what you mean!

My previous post related to an Excel sheet in TM1-Web. But strange I even cannot enter multi line text in a cube view in TM1-Web as you did. I also tried it with Version 9.5.2, no success. When I press [Alt+Enter] the selection just jumps to the next cell below. Also in EDIT-Mode it doesn't work.

I am using IE 11, could that be a problem?

[Alan Kirk]

I am using IE 11, could that be a problem?

Nope, has to be something else. The illustrations above use IE11 as well; 11.0.9600.17801 to be precise. I tried changing the compatibility mode settings as well but that didn't seem to make a difference. I can still edit as shown, but not display multiple lines.

Any chance you have an add-on that may be interfering in your case? I can't think of anything else off the top of my head but its the end of a rather long week, so maybe someone else has some ideas.

[Alex]

I have started IE without add-ons, same result.

When I press [Alt+Enter] selection jumps one cell down AND IE switches to full screen mode. I googled that [Alt+Enter] is a shortcut in IE which triggers full screen the same way as F11 does.

In Chrome the selection just goes one cell down.

BUT I can send a text string with line breaks from an Excel sheet in Perspecitves with DBSS to the cube. If I export this value via Cube Viewer as snapshot the line breaks are still there. Same result if I do an input in Excel on a DBRW-formula, so this works basically.

But it doesn't work in TM1-Web...

But thanks for your replies anyway, Alan. Maybe the weekend will clear up our minds to solve this next week!

[Gabor]

Have you cleared all temp file under C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\tm1_64\tomcat\work\Catalina\localhost?
You can delete the "pmpsvc" folder or, in case you just use TM1 Web from the newer products, the whole localhost folder. Don't forget to clear your local browser's cache.
Both things together work wonders, if your web doesn't do what you want it to do.

[Alex]

Have you cleared all temp file under C:\Program Files\ibm\cognos\tm1_64\tomcat\work\Catalina\localhost?

Hm, there aren't any files in this directory.

You can delete the "pmpsvc" folder or, in case you just use TM1 Web from the newer products, the whole localhost folder. Don't forget to clear your local browser's cache

All done but with no effect.

[Gabor]

I haven't mentioned that in particular, but the application server needs to be stopped before deletion and after deletion it can be restarted again.
The temp files are always under the subfolders, that's correct.

[Alex]

A new week, still the same problems...

I haven't mentioned that in particular, but the application server needs to be stopped before deletion and after deletion it can be restarted again.
The temp files are always under the subfolders, that's correct.

Tried that also, no effect.

But I even cannot enter a line break in "normal" cube viewer via Architect (tested with version 9.5.2 and 10.2.2).

Only way is by using DBRW or DBSS in an Excel-Sheet. But as we want the users to report comments in TM1-Web this isn't sufficient.

[Alex]

Interesting. Now confronted again with the challenge to display multiple lines in TM1-Web it is working!

Maybe due to the fact that we are now on 10.2.2 FP4?