TM1 Forum

Hi all,
Just looking for some thoughts on converting perspectives reports to the Pafe version.
Here are some details:

Some of the perspectives reports contain quite a bit of VBA. The VBA does things like snaps out the entire book to a static excel sheet, converts the entire report to PDF, sets date ranges, etc. Some of the workbooks are more straight forward and are active forms which convert into Dynamic Reports without issue but some are larger and contain 20-30 different tabs.

What I'm looking for is some ideas of what anyone has gone through in tackling converting perspectives report to Pafe.
I realize there isn't a one-size-fits all approach and every report must be handled independently for the most part, but I'm looking for thoughts around starting points and general direction. For example should I start by stripping out all the VBA and then just get the reports to work in Pafe first they layer in all the supported VBA functions again?

I should mention the intent is to convert the perspectives excel books to Pafe with the end goal of bringing them into PAW as websheets, and building out a portal that way.

I also realize since there are 80+ reports that need to be converted that some may drop off and become redundant or there will be an opportunity to strip out all VBA from some reports if possible and clean things up and optimize the workbooks.

Any thoughts on starting out converting perspectives reports that contain quite a bit of VBA, to Pafe, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all.

At the risk of sounding facetious, strip the VBA and don't worry about it if like you say, you are ultimately going to create websheets.
Websheets only support Action Buttons and the VBA linked to whatever they do behind the scenes.

In reality, you need to carefully consider what TM1 related functions you were calling. Should you retain templates for use in PAfE that need to call various VBA procedures or functions, you will need to familiarise yourself with the PAfE API.

There are a couple of gotchas and I am sure others here can add to the list:

• TM1Refresh and the like need to be replaced with RefreshSelection, RefreshSheet, RefreshBook or possibly report type specific functions

• Calls that may take a while to complete need a Reporting.Wait to ensure that they complete before the code hurtles of to subsequent lines that are dependent on the result that is not ready yet

• Application.Run needs to be replaced with Reporting.EvaluateSynchronous or Evaluate if you have set Reporting.SinglePassMode = True

• Making reports static does not need reams of code like in the old API, you can use UnlinkSelect, UnlinkSheet etc.

• Macro functions like E_PICK are not supported and are unlikely to be

• Quick Reports and Explorations need the connection changed in your options as reports developed in Dev are linked to Dev until you change the connection to another. Custom/Dynamic should be fine, no hidden references to the initial connection developed on.

• PAfE imports and imposes a whole host of styles on new reports made from the viewer or inserted. Be aware as you be want to blitz or update them.

• Get familiar with the icons and their purpose e.g. Writeback Mode on the Dynamic section of the ribbon.

Hope that gets you pondering the way forward at least...

Good list by George.

Additionally, be prepared to redo most/all of your action buttons. The conversion tool isn't the best...