TM1 10.2

[sophie]

Hi,

I would like to know if Microsoft Excel 2013 is officially supported in TM1 10.2.
Actually when I checked the URL http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocente ... 4579430418 , I could find that IBM has not even mentioned the microsoft excel compatability.
Can anybody help me?


Thanks
Sophie

[Alan Kirk]

I would like to know if Microsoft Excel 2013 is officially supported in TM1 10.2.
Actually when I checked the URL http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocente ... 4579430418 , I could find that IBM has not even mentioned the microsoft excel compatability.
Can anybody help me?

Thanks
Sophie

Hi Sophie,

Yes, I'm sure we'd all like to know that. Unfortunately it seems that while IBM was busy creating a slow-running, constantly-rendering-from-a-back-end-database[1] web page, they seem to have omitted any information about Excel. You went to the right place, the information just isn't there. This kind of thing, combined with slow, clunky, slow, fragmented, slow (oh wait, did I mention slow?) design is probably why the page has an average rating of 1/5 from 17 users. Personally I think that 1 is too generous a rating, but there y'go.

Meanwhile here, on what a real web page is supposed to look like, they have the supported environments for version 10.1. It's worth noting that as of that release Excel 2003's support was shown as "Compatible", not "Active". The meaning of "Compatible" is about as clear and forthright as a press release from a New Jersey governor (sorry Jim), but it's described as being:

Software environments for Cognos TM1 10.1 are listed as active, compatible or not supported. Environments denoted as active are the environments tested by Cognos. Although environments denoted as compatible may also be tested, testing may be limited or support may be based on upward compatibility statements from Cognos partners and third-party vendors. Older releases of environments may transition from active to compatible over time as significant testing would have occurred in previous Cognos releases.

(My emphasis.) I take that to mean "It'll run, but we can't guarantee it and won't give you any real support if you run into any problems with it." If it was already off the active support list in 10.1, it won't have gone back on in 10.2. I can also confirm that I've run Excel 2003 and 10.2 together, but I can't confirm that there will be no bugs.

If you want to get confirmation you could always raise a request with support. (My latest request, which was just for some documentation that had been omitted from the API manual, is no more than 2 months and 1 week old, so you should have an answer by the time Excel 2017 is released.) However my bet is that you'll get the same basic response, which is that it's "compatible" but not in "active" support. In other words, use at own risk.

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[1] The official name for the source of the page data is, according to the page "the IBM Software Product Compatibility Reports (SPCR) tool". Page, I re-dub thee "the IBM Software Product Compatibility Reports for Analytical Programmers (SPCRAP)" tool. It's probably "powered" (and I use the term sarcastically), by a DinosaurBase2 back end.

[Gabor]

I had checked the support matrix when TM1 10.2 was released last year, Excel 2013 was listed (means supported) at that point of time together with 2007 and 2010.
I cannot find this information right now. On the other hand, I have received a bug number (on another topic) yesterday, which confirms, that several links are broken in current 10.2 web based documentation.

[Alan Kirk]

I had checked the support matrix when TM1 10.2 was released last year, Excel 2013 was listed (means supported)

No it doesn't; it never has. As per the quotes that I included above IBM distinguishes between something which is actively supported, and something which is just "compatible", as in "we don't know that it doesn't actually work, maybe we tested it, maybe we haven't". Applix did something similar with Excel XP and Excel 2000 in the 9.1 release. If you look at the support matrix from that release it advises that Perspectives required Excel 2000 or above but with regard to 2000 and XP a footnote states that "Applix will make a best effort to address any issues but may be limited by the support available through Microsoft."

Similarly Office 2003 went off mainstream support back in 2009. Even extended support ends in April this year. The fact that something appears on a support matrix doesn't automatically mean that it's fully supported. With Excel 2003 so far out from the end of its mainstream support and so close to the end of its extended support, it would be more surprising for IBM to be supplying full support for it than not.

[qml]

Alan, are you sure you're not confusing Office/Excel 2013 with Office/Excel 2003? Reading your posts I can't help but think that you are.

[Alan Kirk]

Alan, are you sure you're not confusing Office/Excel 2013 with Office/Excel 2003? Reading your posts I can't help but think that you are.

{Cough...} Quite. Mea culpa. Time for some new contacts, I think. (Literally, actually; I'm not seeing the screen as clearly as I should. But I see it clearly enough to see that it's not there on SPCRAP.)