Error opening Perspectives in Win7 Excel 2010

[lotsaram]

Having some issues with packaging Perspectives 9.5.2 FP1 only with the combination Win7 / Excel 2010.

If during installation "load perspectives automatically with Excel" option is checked and Perspectives/Excel is launched via Start > All Programs > IBM Cognos > TM1 > Perspectives for MS Excel then the following is observed:
- Excel launches
- TM1 Perspectives splash screen displays
- Excel error message "Run-time error '1004': Method 'Open' of object 'Workbooks' failed"
- Only option is to click End in the error dialog. No TM1 ribbon.

- If Perspectives is subsequently launched via the start menu then it opens no problem.

- If rather than opening Excel / Perspectives via Perspectives shortcut but rather Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Excel 2010 then Excel and Perspectives both launch successfully.

- If the IBM Cognos TM1 Perspectives add-in is deselected in the Excel add-ins dialog then Excel / Perspectives launches normally without error by selecting Perspectives via the start menu.

- If the IBM Cognos TM1 Perspectives add-in is deselected in the Excel add-ins dialog then Perspectives launches normally via the start menu if Excel is already open.

My interpretation is that the error is returned because Excel (or the OS) is trying to launch Perspectives a 2nd time when tm1p.xla is already open (... I don't think there is any other conclusion ) But this doesn't happen with Win XP / Excel 2010 or Win XP / Excel 2007 combinations! (Win 7 / Excel 2007 combination is untested since this is not a valid build)

Has anyone else seen this and can confirm? Is there any known technical resolution? Is there an APAR with IBM?

(Yes users could be trained to either have Perspectives auto load and use the Excel shortcut only or to not auto load Perspectives and launch via the Perspectives shortcut. But really it shouldn't make a difference how the application is launched and if this can't be solved it is only going to cause frustration for users and noise for support.)

[Alan Kirk]

My interpretation is that the error is returned because Excel (or the OS) is trying to launch Perspectives a 2nd time when tm1p.xla is already open (... I don't think there is any other conclusion ) But this doesn't happen with Win XP / Excel 2010 or Win XP / Excel 2007 combinations! (Win 7 / Excel 2007 combination is untested since this is not a valid build)

Has anyone else seen this and can confirm? Is there any known technical resolution? Is there an APAR with IBM?

(Yes users could be trained to either have Perspectives auto load and use the Excel shortcut only or to not auto load Perspectives and launch via the Perspectives shortcut. But really it shouldn't make a difference how the application is launched and if this can't be solved it is only going to cause frustration for users and noise for support.)

Interesting how there are different courses for different courses. I recently did a training video on launching the TM1 add-in but although I mentioned the possibility of using a shortcut I didn't mention that shortcut. An oversight on my part since I hardly ever go down into the All Programs section of the Start menu, so cluttered is it with cr@p from programs which need to create a new folder for every one of their individual tools (hello Cyberlink) or worse shove individual program icons in at the root level (Windows Live, I'm looking at you, but not only at you.) I'll have to edit it. (And a big thanks to YouTube for not having a facility for replacing a video with an updated one, just deleting and loading the "new" one.)

But to the question at hand... I can't reproduce this error consistently. On the login that I use for the aforementioned videos (which does have Excel 2010 as the default, and it's on Windows 7) I got the error message that you're referring to three times. However there were other times, using exactly the same settings, when I didn't get it. Indeed, that's most of the times that I tried. I tried it with all of the different macro security settings as well but couldn't find any consistency there either. Most of the time I would get:
- A first splash screen.
- If security was set so that the bin folder wasn't trusted and macros were disabled with a prompt, I'd get the prompt to enable them. I noted that at that point the tab hadn't been added.
- Enabling the macros would then trigger the splash screen again.
- The add-in would then be loaded as normal.

With the folder trusted or macro security turned off, I'd see the splash screen twice and the add-in would be loaded as normal.

As I said there were three occasions (with macro security on) that I got the error out of a couple of dozen startups overall, but that's all. In each one I shut down and restarted Excel 2010 without making any setting changes, and then I'd not get the error in the next session.

Such randomness of course doesn't suggest a cause; my best guess is that it has to do with timing. Clearly Excel would need to be unloading and reloading the .xla (since it can't have two files of the same name loaded) and my guess is that in some cases (or in your case, most if not all cases) it's not managing to do the first before it tries to do the second.

I hear what you say about user training but to be honest I'd probably go that route; either they want the thing loaded in Excel automatically or they don't, and I can't see why they should be mixing and matching like that.

[lotsaram]

I recently did a training video on launching the TM1 add-in ...
... I hear what you say about user training but to be honest I'd probably go that route; either they want the thing loaded in Excel automatically or they don't.

You what? ... and I thought my users were challenged. Certainly sounds very detailed and leaving nothing to chance. It's something I may unfortunately have to look into. (Unfortunately as I can think of many things I would rather be doing with my time.) I agree using the start menu is something I would never do myself. Since Excel (with TM1 auto-loaded) is something I use every other hour the excel icon on the quick launch in windows task bar is all I ever use myself.

But to the question at hand... I can't reproduce this error consistently. On the login that I use for the aforementioned videos (which does have Excel 2010 as the default, and it's on Windows 7) I got the error message that you're referring to three times. However there were other times, using exactly the same settings, when I didn't get it. Indeed, that's most of the times that I tried. I tried it with all of the different macro security settings as well but couldn't find any consistency there either. Most of the time I would get:
- A first splash screen.
- If security was set so that the bin folder wasn't trusted and macros were disabled with a prompt, I'd get the prompt to enable them. I noted that at that point the tab hadn't been added.
- Enabling the macros would then trigger the splash screen again.
- The add-in would then be loaded as normal.

With the folder trusted or macro security turned off, I'd see the splash screen twice and the add-in would be loaded as normal.

Interesting. In (the locked down) environment I have available to test in the error was consistently reproducible (i.e. 100% of the time) even with the folder trusted. However if Excel macro security was set to the lowest "allow all macros" then the error went away, but in the locked down OS for users where they have no local admin rights this setting is hardwired to "disable all macros with notification" and hell would freeze over before they were allowed to change it.

Looks like my own "how to launch TM1" training video may be the only option ..

[gaston]

This sounds very similar to what I was experiencing.

Symptom: Excel error message "Run-time error '1004': Method 'Open' of object 'Workbooks' failed"

My environment:
TM1 9.5.2 Perspectives
Excel 2010 (32-bit)
Windows 2008 R2 (Citrix host)

Resolution:
Disable or Remove excel add in from Excel Add-In Manager. The registry entry that loads the add-in can be manually removed from the following registry key: \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\Add-in Manager

Cause:
I'm not exactly sure, but it might have been because I had Excel 2003 previously installed on the machine. I uninstalled Excel 2003, reinstalled Excel 2010, and starting getting the symptom right after clicking "enable" on the security prompt comes up to enable/disable macros.

[Charles Ang]

Hi,

Sorry for take this old issue up.
But currently I am facing the same issue.
My environment is SQL Server 2008 R2, Excel 2010 and TM1 10.1

I have searched the issue mainly state is TM1 9 have this issue and the solution is upgrade it to 10.1
Do have any solution can provide?

Thanks,