PAfE with blank windows from PAW

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Ganos Lal
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PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by Ganos Lal »

Hello,

we’re currently faced some issues using PAfE. If we connect to a database and then want to see a cube view or edit a set of dimension elements the new window from PAW stays blank. If we close it and reopen it a new login request pop up and the same starts from the beginning.

What we use is PAW 2.0.74 but it was already happening in 2.0.72 on a CentOS7 with several PAfE Versions from 2.0.66 up to 2.0.74.

What we’ve observed so far.
- First, we installed another PAW server and connected to the same database, but the same happens on Excel on the server.
- So next we tried another Excel. On the development server is Office 2019 x86 installed and there this behavior happens. On a client with Office 365 x86 it works well. From this we thought Excel is the problem and installed a new Office 2019 on another server and it works well, too.
- Because we had several issues with language in the past we switched region settings from German(Swiss) to English(US) and see there – it works. Switched back to German(Swiss) and it’s still working. Well until a server reboot.
So, we switched to English and after another reboot same behavior. The screen is blank, until switch the region settings.
Therefore, it seems that some initialization of the region settings is not working fine but we’ve no idea where the problem is. Are there any suggestions what we could try?

Thanks.
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burnstripe
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by burnstripe »

Hi, I think it is a DPI issue but I only have access to Excel Office 365 so unable to test a resolution.

However this screenshot is where I think you may need to make a change to fix the issue...

Find the excel.exe and right click to select properties.

In office 365 this issue is normally resolved by setting the interface to "optimize for compatibility". Stands to reason the issue you're seeing in Excel 2019 is the same, except this excel option isn't available there in standalone versions, excel 2016/2019 etc...
DPI.PNG
DPI.PNG (36.04 KiB) Viewed 2652 times
burnstripe
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by burnstripe »

I've reread this...

This comment
we’re currently faced some issues using PAfE. If we connect to a database and then want to see a cube view or edit a set of dimension elements the new window from PAW stays blank. If we close it and reopen it a new login request pop up and the same starts from the beginning.

Are you just having issues with PAX/Pafe or is this an issue that's also occurring in PAW?
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Ganos Lal
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by Ganos Lal »

Hi,

The compatibility tab is missing on the excel.exe on both systems (Win Server 2019 + Office2019 // Win11 + Office365).

It's only a problem in PAX/PAfE. PAW works fine.

Edit:
In the Logs we found this error repeating a lot of tiems (Error 503 Server unavailable) but we're not sure where it comes from and if this is our problem:

Code: Select all

{ 
 "Event" : "Method" , 
 "Action" : "Exit" , 
 "Timestamp" : "2022.03.30 07:06:28.486" , 
 "Severity" : "Error" , 
 "Method" : "SendRequest(String method, String path, String postData, AcceptReturnEnum returns, Int32 timeout)" , 
 "Class" : "Tm1Connection" , 
 "Namespace" : "Cognos.Office.Tm1.Connections" , 
 "Assembly" : "TM1.Common" , 
 "Thread" : 6 , 
 "Background" : true , 
 "Pool" : true , 
 "Domain" : "FullTrustSandbox(Excel-DNA: C:\\temp\\IBM_PAfE_x86_2.0.74.4.xll)" , 
 "Milliseconds" : 32 , 
 "Stack" : [ 
  "delegate CastDelegate.Wrap<T>(Object arg)" , 
  "Framework AsyncPool.Run(IAsyncTask async)" , 
  "Framework AsyncTask.Run()" , 
  "Framework PoolTask<ReturnType,ParameterType>.Invoke()" , 
  "Framework.Provider.TM1Rest EvalServiceProvider.CheckES_DoWork(Boolean available, CancellationToken token)" , 
  "Framework.Provider.TM1Rest EvalServiceProvider.DoEsCall(Element payload)" , 
  "TM1.Common Tm1Connection.Post(String path, String postData, AcceptReturnEnum returns, Int32 timeout)" ] , 
 "Throws" : { 
  "Type" : "Tm1WebException" , 
  "Message" : "The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable." , 
  "StackTrace" : "   at Cognos.Office.Tm1.Connections.Tm1Connection.HandleWebException(Tm1WebException x, Uri path)\r\n   at Cognos.Office.Tm1.Connections.Tm1Connection.GetResponse(Tm1Request request)\r\n   at Cognos.Office.Tm1.Connections.Tm1Connection.SendRequest(Tm1Request webRequest, AcceptReturnEnum returns)\r\n   at Cognos.Office.Tm1.Connections.Tm1Connection.SendRequest(String method, String path, String postData, AcceptReturnEnum returns, Int32 timeout)" , 
  "Catch" : [ 
   "TM1.Common Tm1Connection.SendRequest(Tm1Request webRequest, AcceptReturnEnum returns)" , 
   "TM1.Common Tm1Connection.GetResponse(Tm1Request request)" , 
   "TM1.Common Tm1Connection.HandleWebException(Tm1WebException x, Uri path)" ] } , 
 "State" : { 
 } },
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by macsir »

Interesting, I guess it might be a bug. I used to have similar blank logging window when using PAfE to log into TM1 server with SSO authentication. However it can be resolved by using the login function on top-right server selection button from the task pane.
In TM1,the answer is always yes though sometimes with a but....
http://tm1sir.blogspot.com.au/
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by burnstripe »

There's some suggestions r.e. Regional settings in here

https://community.ibm.com/community/use ... gestviewer
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Ganos Lal
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by Ganos Lal »

We renamed "%localappdata%\cognos\office connection" and started from the beginning with a new PAfE profile.
After that we do some testing and everything works. So far, so good. For testing we reactivated the old folder and still everything is working.

Seems very weird but actual it seems fine. Just not sure how lasting this solution is. May we come back to this thread ;)
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by JohnO »

We have the same problem. It came about with the new add-in (ie; SIngle file add-in) which we only recently upgraded to. No issues before that.

Our users are not using the add-in, they are only using PAW. So it has only been an issue for me so far.

There is a documented issue if you search but it hasn't solved our problem. And our problem seems intermittent.

I logged a ticket with IBM, they want us to install wireshark however I only had the add-in installed on a Windows Server and our infrastructure team would not permit the install. I have since installed on my laptop and it worked until now it doesn't. The other day the add-in on my machine was working without issues but now I have the problem. Now it is installed on my machine and not working we can probably do the required wireshark tracing on my machine,.

So to be clear: Blank screens for both the viewer and subset editor and also it keeps requesting login details.

I am assuming it has something to do with our environment.
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Ganos Lal
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by Ganos Lal »

The Ticket is still ongoing at IBM, so far we discovered that it seems to be the qualification of the used URL. If we use "http://servername" the blank windows error may occur sometimes, but not always. If we use fullqualified "http://servername.domainname" it seems to work fine.

We stay in touch with IBM for this.
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by JohnO »

Ganos Lal wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 2:40 pm The Ticket is still ongoing at IBM, so far we discovered that it seems to be the qualification of the used URL. If we use "http://servername" the blank windows error may occur sometimes, but not always. If we use fullqualified "http://servername.domainname" it seems to work fine.

We stay in touch with IBM for this.
Where have you made this change, within PAX itself or elsewhere?

Our ticket is still in progress, we have performed wireshark trace and provided logs etc. IBM are currently suggesting that group policy settings could be the cause.

The apparent randomness is what is confusing. Within one session (but requiring constant logins) we have it not working then working then not working.
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Ganos Lal
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Re: PAfE with blank windows from PAW

Post by Ganos Lal »

@JohnO It's the Connection URL you enter in PAX, it need to be FQDN.
IBM confirmed that they made the same observation about the connection URL and they are checking why this is.
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