Overview

This article will detail new features, enhancements and bug fixes found in this version of Solver Private Host, v5.2.40514. This user guide documents all changes to the application since the previous version of Private Host (5.2.30708) and is not a comprehensive list of all changes made since the first version of Private Host.

For changes from an earlier version of Private Host to this version, please reference the corresponding release notes for that version.

Each section of this guide documents all new features, enhancements and bug fixes for this version. Should you have further questions on a feature documented, please contact Solver Support (support@solverglobal.com).

 

Contents

1. Upgrade Considerations and Deprecated Features
2. Portal Settings and Administration
3. Reporting
4. Planning
5. Publisher
6. Data Warehouse and Connectors
7. Technical Info

Who Should Read This

This article contains both technical and product feature information. It is recommended that all users of the Solver implementation review this article to understand the new features and changes introduced by this new version of Solver Private Host. 

Software Download

Please request a copy of the installer by submitting a ticket via support.solverglobal.com.

 

System Requirements, Installations and Upgrades

Please reference the Solver Private Host Installation Guide before installing or upgrading to this version of Private Host. The upgrade involves database changes to the below list of Solver Databases and backups of these databases (names may be different for your implementation) must be taken prior to performing the upgrade.

• Solver_Repository
• SolverDW

Additionally, please take a snapshot of your Services server.

Solver Support and/or your partner can assist in these installation tasks. Please reach out to Solver (support.solverglobal.com) or your partner for more information.

 

 

Upgrade Considerations and Deprecated Features

The following are key changes to be reviewed and be aware of prior to upgrading to this version of Solver Private Host.

Report Rendering Upgrade

This version of Private Host introduces a significant upgrade to the report rendering service. This upgrade will

1. Improve report execution times.
2. Make all charts “live”, changing as you change numbers in a render report in Excel.

We encourage all organizations to upgrade during a non-critical reporting period to verify that this upgrade to the report rendering service does not conflict with existing report designs.

This change can introduce breaking changes to reports. Should you have any of the following issues after upgrade, please contact Solver Support for assistance.

1. Formulas do not calculate properly.
2. Cells do not calculate after updating a dependent cell.

Required Report Designer Upgrade

This version does require a mandatory Report Designer upgrade and system requirement changes. Please make sure that all Report Designer users can install this Excel Addin when prompted and/or if this needs to be deployed automatically by your IT, that they have been informed of this task.

• Excel 2013+ 64bit only
• Windows 10+ or Windows Server 2016+ 64bit only
• There are cases where the users do not get prompted to download the software. In this case, just go to http://<yourURL>/reportdesigner/download to get the new Report Designer.

Remove the Use of Temp Tables during Integrations

For the technical users out there, who are viewing the integration process from the SQL side, you may have noticed that data being loaded in via an integration staged the data the <tableName>_temp and <tableName>_temp_raw tables.

With this upgrade, these tables are no longer created or updated and should not be referenced for troubleshooting purposes.

 

Removal of Data Manager

We have removed Data Manager from this version of Private Host. 

 

Remove Support for Internet Explorer

With this version of Private Host, users will no longer be able to access the site using Internet Explorer (IE). Users must use any of the other major browsers available (Chrome, Firefox or Edge) to access the Solver Private Host application.

Users will be directed to a screen that looks like this upon navigating to Solver Private Host in IE.

 

Portal Settings and Administration

New Features and Enhancements

Added Security Steps for Password Reset

Links for password resets will only work one time and expire after 15 minutes. Previously, the link would expire after 60 minutes.

Change Ownership

This version of Private Host introduces the ability to reassign reports to a different user. This feature can be useful should a user no longer be part of the Solver implementation and you need to take over ownership of the reports.

Change Ownership is available to anyone with "Can manage user" permissions. 

Application User Interface (UI) Update

This version of Private Host introduces a user interface update for improved navigation. It also introduces and update the menu terminology to better describe the intended purpose of each features.

Below is a screenshot of the menu changes.

 

Bug Fixes and Other Enhancements

ID	Feature	Description
	Licensing	Assignments menu should only show if the customer has purchased Budgeting
URDEV-290	General	Increase Download Prompt notice to 5 sec
URDEV-175	General	Settings > Administration > back button does not do anything
URDEV-370	General	Clarify distinction between Export vs download
URDEV-320	Administration	In some cases, the Data Connection menu does not appear
URDEV-170	General	If AD is enabled, use email instead of username to authenticate.

 

Reporting

New Features and Enhancements

Add Recycle Bin to Reports and Input Templates

This version of Private Host introduces a new process to delete reports, preventing users from accidentally deleting reports. Users will find that the “Delete” action from within the Report Templates and Input Templates has been replaced with a “Remove” action. Upon clicking Remove, the report is placed into a “category” called Recycle Bin (found at the bottom of you Categories list) where the user can choose to

• Restore: restore the report or input template to its respective menu.
• Delete: deletes the selected report permanently from Solver Private Host. This action cannot be undone.
• Empty Recycle Bin: deletes all items from the recycle bin. This action cannot be undone.

Add Support for Hyperlinks

This version of Private Host introduces the ability to support hyperlinks with the Excel and web applications. In prior versions, the hyperlink formula was supported only in Excel.

Improve Report Rendering

This version of Private Host introduces a couple features designed to improve report rendering.

1. All reports have “Keep formulas” enabled within their Report Properties. Keep formulas allows you to make modifications to cells within the web interface and the dependent cells then update.
   However, if you are looking to improve the performance of reports and never manipulate numbers post rendering, users can take advantage of this feature for a report rendering improvement.

2. Report Rendering Refactoring for performance improvements.

 

Bug Fixes and other Enhancements

ID	Type	Description
URDEV-246	Report Templates	“Current Period” parameter logic is wrong
URDEV-116	Report Templates	Lookups on high resolution screens is cut off
URDEV-247	Report Templates	Textbox type parameters are missing the border
URDEV-335	Designer	Ensure period functions list is always alphabetical
URDEV-144	Designer	Typo in Drill-To builder
URDEV-257	Report Templates	Report Comment Sheet does not save
URDEV-164	Report Templates	Cannot delete comment sheet

 

Planning

New Features and Enhancements

Input Flow

This version introduces Input Flow which allows users to define an order in which Planning templates are automatically stored.

Update User Experience of Assignment

This version of Private Host introduces to the user experience to assignments. Users will find the following improvements:

1. Add a loading indicator as the assignment loads for the end user.
2. Add a prompt asking the user if they would like to save their work if a user were to click out of an assignment before saving.

 

Bug Fixes and other Enhancements

ID	Description
URDEV-154	Protected workbooks do not work in the web
	Prevent users from modifying Assignments after it has been submitted
URDEV-208	If logic for ignore logic does not work
URDEV-102	Cannot enter more than 150 LIDs for a specific account
URDEV-149	Do not lock sheet in Excel after it has been ran
URDEV-223	Ignore logic should not be case sensitive
URDEV-274	Apostrophe in users name causes report to not render

 

Publisher

New Features and Enhancements

There are new features or enhancements found in this version of Publisher.

Bug Fixes and other Enhancements

ID	Description
URDEV-161	Publisher Ticker is wrong
URDEV-430	In some cases, Publisher recipients did not receive their subscription.
URDEV-338	Sheet tab order for report packages differs when distributed in Publisher

 

Data Warehouse and Connectors

New Features

Tableau Integration

This version of Data Warehouse allows users to connect their Data Warehouse to Tableau through the use of the external API (purchased feature). Simply enable the external API from the Data Warehouse > Configuration menu and provide the necessary information in tableau.

Add Permission to Show/Hide Data Explorer

With this version of Private Host, administrators can choose to give access to Data Explorer within the Data Warehouse application. This is a permission found within Settings > Administration > Users > Permissions

As a reminder, Data Explorer is a full access data query feature. Give access to this menu to users who should be able to see all data loaded into the system.

Copy a Job

This version of Private Host introduces the ability to copy a Job. Previous version did not have this feature and it was required that the user manually create a job each time.

Task Filtering

This version of Private Host introduces the ability to apply a task filter to your integration task. In previous versions of Private Host, integrations can only be filtered on Dimension but with this feature users can not only filter on dimensions but that can also filter on attributes; giving more control of what data gets loaded into Solver Cloud.

Add Hourly Intervals to Jobs

This version of Private Host allows users to schedule jobs at an hourly interval as well. In previous versions of Private Host, users were only allowed to schedule job at a daily/weekly level.

 

Add Additional Operators to Data Explorer

This version of Private Host introduces additional operators when filtering in Data Explorer

• Is blank
• Is not blank

This will help users filter where an value can be blank, empty or NULL in the database.

Display System Labels in Configuration Menu

This version of Data Warehouse adds a System Label column to the Data Warehouse > Configuration menus to help users understand the underlying system name of fields in their database.

Load Dimension Codes List as User Scrolls

This version of Private Host introduces loading of a dimension as the user scrolls down the list if the dimension has more than 50,000 codes. Dimensions with less than 50,000 codes are not impacted by this feature.

Improved Service Fabric Stability

This version of Private Host introduces extensive improvements to Service Fabric for stability and application error handling. If you are experiencing any instability with run connectors, rules and/or jobs to load data, upgrading to this version will likely address these issues.

 

Bug Fixes and other Enhancements

ID	Feature	Description
PDWM-2601	PowerBI	PowerBI API does not work in cases where one tenant has multiple connections
PDWM-2758	PowerBI	Allow user to set External API Batch size.
PDMW-2576	DW	Fix typo on modal for deleting integration
PDWM-2484	DW	Trees do not import properly, hierarchy is incorrect
PDWM-2387	DW	Users cannot filter on UpdateOn or CreatedOn in Data Explorer
PDWM-2459	DW	Fix Typo on Dimension tooltip
PDWM-2270	DW	Currency Rate Configuration page can become unavailable
PDWM-2654	DW	Tenant Name can disappear from Job email notifications
PDWM-2523	DW	Job Task Dropdown does not load
PDWM-2586	DW	Cannot create attributes if DW Schema has UDF## naming convention
PDWM-2662	DW	Large module names lead to label getting cut off on Overview page
PDWM-2551	DW	Use entire screen for job tasks for better visibility
PDWM-1902	DW	Canceling a rule parameter lookup takes you out of the execute rule action
PDWM-2327	DW	Prevent the editing of the Period dimension label
PDWM-2064	DW	Fix Save and Cancel actions on Module Schema page, previously doing the same thing
PDWM-1993	DW	Monthly Rates menu can fail to load if uses changes Entity dimension label

 

Technical Info

• Portal Version - 5.2.40514
• Designer 5.2.40312
• Service Fabric Details
  • Connection 1.0.38
  • SignalR 1.0.45
  • Scheduler 1.0.83
  • Rule 1.0.37
  • Notification 1.0.24
  • JobLogger 1.0.26
  • JobDispatcher 1.0.90
  • Integration 1.0.102