Excel file temporary name

[Lemine]

Hello,
Is there a solution to display the real name of a published excel file and not getting the temporary name like TM125.xls in the titlebar.

Best regards,

[Alan Kirk]

Is there a solution to display the real name of a published excel file and not getting the temporary name like TM125.xls in the titlebar.

As per the Request For Assistance Guidelines,

2) Ensure that you specify the component of the software that you're having a problem with. If someone states that they have a problem with (say) number formatting, people need to know whether that's in Cube Viewer, Web, EV, the API, or wherever.

I'm assuming that you're talking about getting a report out of one of the Applications folders and bringing it into Excel.

You should already be aware that an Excel file can be uploaded to an Applications folder in one of two ways; as a reference to the file's location on the network, or the file can be copied to the server.

If you're talking about using the Excel Perspectives / Client add-in, then If the application item is a reference then (obviously) the original file is opened when the user double clicks on the Application item. This will just as obviously have the real name of the file (which need not be that of the Application item, since the latter can be changed), since it IS the real file. It's Excel that determines the name that is shown there, based on what the file is saved as.

You probably know that if an Excel workbook is simply created as a new, unsaved file (as happens when you generate a slice), it will just be Book 1, Book 2, etc, etc, etc. That is obviously not what happens if the file is of the second kind, that is, where a copy of the file was uploaded to the server. In that case, TM1 creates a new file then saves it using a semi-random name (such as TM1125.xls, or TM1798E.xls, or whatever) in the local APPDATA folder of the user. That's why it shows the name that it does. Could Iboglix have programmed this file to be saved using the name of the file on the server? Sure, they could have, but think of the implications of that. The odds are that a lot of users will generate the file more than once. The best case is that earlier files will be overwritten. The worst case, if they did it in the same session and still had the earlier file open, is that Excel will spew a file access error. (Remember that the name shown at the top is the saved name, and to show the name that you want Excel would need to save both files under the same name. You cannot have two files with exactly the same name open in Excel and even if you could you'd run into file access errors since you'd be trying to overwrite a file that already exists while you still have that file open.

The presence of the temporary, random name is a good reminder to the user that "Hey, this is just a temp file, if you want to keep me, save me under a real name". It's probably more effective than leaving it as "Book n" since Excel users are so used to seeing those names (sometimes for workbooks that are saved) that they probably think less about whether they need to re-save it. At a guess that's why Iboglix went that way; the only other reason I can think of is to make sure that the file is actually saved just in case Excel crashes and does so before the Autorecover feature kicks in.

If you're talking about doing an Export from TM1 Web, on the other hand, in pre-10.2 versions that's handled similarly to files which are uploaded to the server (regardless of whether the item is in fact a reference or an uploaded copy). I don't have a 10.2 Web session running at the moment but I suspect that it still functions similarly from the user's point of view at least. And this is probably for the same reason; it prevents file conflicts from having multiple exports with the same name.

So the short answer would seem to be "No".