Cannot open xdi

[eddoria]

Hi all

When we went from Excel 2003 to 2010 we cannot open xdi files. We get the message "Excel cannot open the file 'businessunit.xdi' because the file format or file extension is not valid.

We can open it using Excel 2003 so not sure what has happened. I have searched for this but cannot find anything relating to this specific message.

We are using TM1 10.1.1

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Vera Hawkins

[Alan Kirk]

When we went from Excel 2003 to 2010 we cannot open xdi files. We get the message "Excel cannot open the file 'businessunit.xdi' because the file format or file extension is not valid.

We can open it using Excel 2003 so not sure what has happened. I have searched for this but cannot find anything relating to this specific message.

We are using TM1 10.1.1

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Vera Hawkins

Vera,

I haven't heard of this issue preventing the file from opening at all in Excel before, but the odds are that it's connected with the accursed extension hardening "improvement" that was made in Excel 2007. The first thing that I do when I get a new computer is to kneecap that functionality by disabling it in the Registry. The method for doing that is described in this MSDN article. (Note that the key will actually be:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\Security
rather than
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Security
if you're using Excel 2010 rather than 2007.)

However as I said the usual effect of Extension Hardening is to give you a useless, annoying, time wasting dialog rather than to stop you from opening the .xdi completely. That suggests to me that something else is in play as well.

If disabling Extension Hardening doesn't work, I would suggest that you open one of the .xdis in Excel 2003, then go to File -> Save As and check the Save As Type drop down to see what the format actually is. If it is Microsoft Excel Workbook (*.xls) then there's no obvious reason for it, but what I'm thinking is that they may, for some reason, be in one of the older formats like Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook which also uses the same file extension. If that is the case it's quite possible that Excel 2010 is spitting the dummy, expecting a 97-2003 .xls file format but actually getting the older one. If that's the problem you'll probably need to re-save all of your .xdis in the newer format. (Remember that you would need to put quote marks around the name (like "MyDim.xdi" ) otherwise it'll end up saved as MyDim.xdi.xls. Don't use the standard Dimension Worksheets -> Save functionality to do this since it's actually the Excel file that you're trying to update, not the dimension.) Obviously try this on copies of the .xdis first.

The last thing I'd try (not that this should be necessary) is to go to Windows Explorer, go to your server data folder, right click on an .xdi and make sure that the extension is associated with Microsoft Excel.

If none of this works, post again with details of how you went and we'll see whether we can think of anything else.

[eddoria]

Thank you heaps for the response. Indeed all our files are very old. Would be excel 95!! I will try and save as again.

Regards

Vera Hawkins

[eddoria]

I now cannot open it in Excel 2003 and with TM1 10.1.1 or 9.5.3 clients (this last was a support machine I had when we were upgrading). This is really annoying as I am not sure why this is the case.

I will try updating the dimension within server explorer and get it to update the xdi itself. Hopefully it does not wipe out the other information we have in it, ie attributes.

Vera Hawkins

[Alan Kirk]

I now cannot open it in Excel 2003 and with TM1 10.1.1 or 9.5.3 clients (this last was a support machine I had when we were upgrading). This is really annoying as I am not sure why this is the case.

I will try updating the dimension within server explorer and get it to update the xdi itself. Hopefully it does not wipe out the other information we have in it, ie attributes.

Vera Hawkins

Can you still open it using the standard Excel File => Open functionality?

If you're going down this path (which will not blow away the attributes as such but will blow away any attribute maintenance formulas that you have in the .xdis) you should definitely:
(a) take copies of the existing files themselves before you do this; then
(b) Do what you propose which will then blow away the existing .xdis; then
(c) Copy the content of the original .xdis over the top of the sheet that the dimension editor creates.

Assuming that the problem is with the file itself that should get you back to where you started.

The only question then will be whether the problem of extension hardening is made worse by some kind of system policy which is preventing you from opening unknown file types... but that's only a guess.

If the files aren't too confidential (or large) you could post one here and I could take a look and see whether I can compile it in 2010.

[eddoria]

I cannot open it using Excel File Open or TM1 Open Dimension Worksheet.

I tried the regedit but it did not work.

I have made a copy of the xdi and changed the extension to xls. I then was able to open it in Excel and saved it as xlsx. I will now (in dev) update the dimension using TM1 dimension editor and have it update the xdi itself. Then as you suggested I will copy and paste from the xlsx to the xdi and try and use Excel to Save Dimension Worksheet.

The only other fact I would mention is that the server has Excel 2007 installed. Not sure that this could cause an issue.

Clients are mostly Excel 2010.

Vera Hawkins

[eddoria]

Still cannot open the xdi!!!!

I updated using TM1 dim editor and it then updated the dim worksheet. Using TM1 ribbon selected Open Dimension Worksheet and still got the message.

I will need to check through the settings which have been locked down by IT.

Vera Hawkins

[eddoria]

I attached the xdi. I have been told that it is not really confidential.

[Alan Kirk]

I attached the xdi. I have been told that it is not really confidential.

There wasn't any attachment there.

You might also want to take a look at this page and see whether the issue is with your Trust Centre settings.

[eddoria]

It seems that the forum does not allow xdi to be added as an attachment.

Vera

[Martin Ryan]

You can zip it up and post it that way.

[Alan Kirk]

It seems that the forum does not allow xdi to be added as an attachment.

You should be able to now, though as Martin said you can always zip file types which aren't explicitly permitted.