1. User's Guide
  2. Ad Hoc Analysis
  3. Retaining Invalid Members and Comments After Refresh

Retaining Invalid Members and Comments After Refresh

You can retain invalid members in an ad hoc grid after refresh when your Service Administrator enables the Keep Invalid Members/Comments option in the application settings of your business process.

Data source types: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

When the Keep Invalid Members/Comments option is enabled, you can detect:

  • Unknown or invalid members on a grid
  • Text typed outside the grid; for example, your own notes

Additionally, you can set a cell style for comments that allows you to quickly and easily spot comment cells, including invalid or unknown members in the grid or pertinent notes you may have made on a sheet outside of the grid.

In the following example, the cell style for Comments is set to a pink background with bolded italic text. Two errors were made when entering member names. After refreshing the grid, note the invalid members in cells C2 and A4. Also note that the data entered remains on the grid and the data cells associated with the invalid members have no formatting applied.

Figure 9-22 Portion of an Ad Hoc Grid Showing Invalid Members

Portion of anAd Hoc Grid Showing Invalid Members

Users can replace the invalid members with the correct member names by using the Member Selection dialog or by hand-typing the correct member name. Refresh the grid again and note that the row member is placed correctly within the hierarchy and the data remains.

Figure 9-23 Portion of an Ad Hoc Grid After Correcting Invalid Members and Refreshing

Portion of an Ad Hoc Grid After Correcting Invalid Members and Refreshing

Guidelines and Considerations

  • In Oracle Smart View for Office, invalid members are considered comments. Use Cell Styles to set a distinct style for comments to quickly note invalid members and comments on an ad hoc sheet. For more information, see Cell Styles.

  • In multi-dimension rows and columns, changing the member in the first column in the first row dimension or any of the rows in the first member column of the grid will result in an error. Changes to any other member cells will work as expected.

  • When multi-dimension row or column headers consist of valid and invalid members, then previously non-qualified valid member names or aliases from these headers will be replaced with qualified member names on refresh. For example, you plan to enter Account and Sales South in row 90, but mistype Account as Accoun. Refresh, and you can see the invalid member row with the mistyped member name in column A, and the qualified member name in column B:


    Portion of Excel worksheet with "Accoun" in column A of row 90, and the qualitfied member name of Sales South in column B of row 90

    Fix the spelling error in column A and refresh. The members in Row 90 are displayed correctly:


    Grid after typing Account in column A and refreshing, column B now correctly displays Sales South

  • When the Keep Invalid Members/Comments option is not selected, then the invalid member reverts to the closest previous member in the grid, with the exception of the first row or first column in the grid, which is retained as a comment. Blank rows or columns inserted into the grid remain blank.

  • Service Administrators: To enable users to retain invalid members in an ad hoc grid after a refresh, in Application Settings, under Smart View Add-on, select the Keep Invalid Members/Comments check box. This check box is disabled by default.

    For more information, consult the application settings topics in your business process administration guide. For example, for Planning, see What Application and System Settings Can I Specify? in Administering Planning.