IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility

The IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility handles two cases:

Note: The tools does not support upgrade of IFS Business Reporter reports based on Excel 2003, i.e. the file extension XLS is no longer supported. There is no automatic support for converting XLS file to XLSX files and replacing them. A documented workaround is found here >>

 

IFS Business Reporter clients released after IFS Applications 7.5 targets higher .NET versions than in previous client versions. The following table gives a summary of IFS Business Reporter versions and used .NET versions.

IFS Applications version Targeted .NET Version Targeted VSTO Runtime version
APP 7 .NET 2.0 Visual Studio Tools for Office Second Edition Runtime
APP 75 .NET 2.0 Visual Studio Tools for Office Second Edition Runtime
APP 8 .NET 4.0 Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime
APP 9 .NET 4.5.2 Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime
APP 10 .NET 4.5.2/ 4.8 Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime

Due to the .NET technology shift it is necessary to update existing IFS Business Reporter reports if upgrading from IFS Applications 7.5 or earlier.

A new function named IFS() was introduced in the Office 365 version of Microsoft Excel 2016 from the February 2016 update. This function conflicts with a IFS Business Reporter specific function with the same name, used in IFS Business Reporter reports design in all versions before 3.2.8 version on Applications 9 track. Since there is one version of IFS Business Reporter supporting all versions of Microsoft Excel, it was necessary to modify IFS Business Reporter as part of IFS Applications 9 Update 3. The modification means that all existing IFS Business Reporter reports have to be updated to be compatible with IFS Business Reporter version 3.2.8 and higher. Upgrading existing IFS Business Reporter reports will be facilitated by the IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility

The IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility takes care of both the described cases by supporting upgrade of IFS Business Reporter reports stored on the local machine or on a public folder as well as reports that are already saved, published or archived in IFS Applications.

Note: Starting from IFS Application 10 Update 26, .Net Framework 4.8 must be installed on the client machine to support both IFS Business Reporter and IFS BR Execution Server. For prior IFS Application 10 updates, .NET Framework 4.5.2 remains the required version.

 

Contents

 

How to Install IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility

The IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility is automatically installed when IFS Business Reporter client is installed. After successful installation the Tools sub folder will be created under IFS Business Reporter folder

Workaround Related to Reports in XLS Format

Since Business Reporter does no longer support the XLS format, it is not possible to use the IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility for this file type. There is however a workaround:

  1. Make sure that Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition Runtime (VSTOR) is installed. This older version of VSTOR is necessary in order to identify XLS reports as Business Reporter reports and can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24263
  2. Nest step will be to make the XLS reports available on disk, i.e. downloading them from the database via Business Reporter and/or use already saved reports on disk.
  3. Open each report and then save it as an XLSX file
  4. When all reports have been successfully saved as XLSX files, the IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility can be used to upgrade the reports to be compatible with the current version of IFS Business Reporter.
  5. Test the converted reports and then save/re-publish them.

When an old report in XLS format is opened there can be different messages. Two of the these messages are displayed below.

The above error normally means that the report contains customization information but it cannot be loaded since the path to the customization is not valid.

The above error means that the customization couldn't be loaded with the current .NET version.

The general guideline is that regardless of message, always ignore the error by clicking OK in the message box, then save the report in XLSX format and finally run the Upgrade utility.

How to use the IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility is explained in the following sections in this document.

 

Upgrade IFS Business Reporter Reports

The IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility enables upgrade of IFS Business Reporter reports that are saved in the local machine as well as reports that are stored in IFS Applications. Reasons for upgrading IFS Business Reporter reports are

  1. After an upgrade of IFS Applications a technical shift related to the .NET framework makes it necessary to change the way the IFS Business Reporter customization is handled
  2. A conflict between a MS Excel specific function and a IFS Business Reporter specific function, makes it necessary to upgrade reports created with a IFS Business Reporter Reporter earlier than version 3.2.8

    Note: Customers using a IFS Business Reporter and upgrading to Applications 10 must upgrade their IFS Business Reporter reports if the used IFS Business Reporter version is earlier than 3.2.8

     

     

Upgrade Reports Saved in the Local Machine


  1. Make sure all the reports are editable (check the Read-only attribute of the files).
  2. Open IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility from the earlier described sub folder in the start menu
  3. Select Upgrade reports saved on disk.

    Click Next to continue.

  4. Click Add to select all the IFS Business Reporter reports that you want to upgrade. It is also possible to drag and drop reports to the selection area.
    It is mandatory to provide a backup location where a backup copy of all reports will be stored.

    Click Next to start the upgrade process.

  5. Processing all the reports may take some time.

    The operation can be aborted by clicking Cancel if required.

  6. When the operation is completed, the result for each processed report will be displayed as shown below.


Upgrade Reports Stored in IFS Applications


The IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility tool can also be used to upgrade reports that are already saved, published or archived in IFS Applications related to the following functional areas:


Note: IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility does not provide direct functionality to upgrade reports that are attached in IFS Document Management. However, the following section describes how to upgrade reports connected to IFS Document Management using two different workarounds. >>


  1. Open the IFS BR Report Upgrade Utility from the earlier described sub folder in the start menu
  2. Select Upgrade reports saved in database.

    Select one or more options from the list below:

    1. Published/Saved BR Report templates
    2. Archived BR Reports in Info Services
    3. Archived BR Reports in IFS Budgeting Process
    4. Export Archive

  3. Click Next to continue.
  4. When the Login dialog box for IFS Applications appears, supply necessary credentials to log in to the required environment
     

    Note: To enable Admin Gateway access from IFS Business Reporter - Upgrade Utility, press <Left Shift> + <A> + <D> while clicking "Next". Enter the regular full URL to the target IFS Applications instance in the Connect to field.

  5. In the populated list, select the reports to be upgraded

  6. Click Next to continue.
  7. Processing all the reports may take some time.

    The operation can be aborted by clicking Cancel if required.

  8. When the operation is completed, the result for each processed report will be displayed as shown below.


Upgrade Reports Connected to IFS Document Management

IFS Business Reporter reports that are connected to IFS Document Management cannot be upgraded directly using the IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility. Follow one of the workarounds described below.

Workaround 1

Use this workaround If you have access to IFS/Asset Information Integration Manager™ tool provided by Asset Information Integration Manager and if you are familiar with that. If not, use Workaround 2. Use this tool to export IFS Business Reporter reports to a local folder, then upgrade them using the IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility. Next, upload all the reports back to IFS Document Management using the Import functionality provided by the IFS/Asset Information Integration Manager™.

  1. Open the IFS/Asset Information Integration Manager™
  2. Define export parameters.

  3. Click Export.
  4. You will get a log (informing you whether the export is successfully performed or detailing any errors that may have occurred).
  5. Find exported IFS Business Reporter report files.
  6. Upgrade them using IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility. Click here >> for more information.
  7. Define import parameters and save.

  8. Click Import to upload upgraded reports to the server.

    If the documents were in Released status in IFS Document Management, you will find new revisions created for those.

Workaround 2

  1. Open IFS Enterprise Explorer, and navigate to Document Management and the Document Revisions window.
  2. The documents that are in Released status cannot be edited. Select those documents, right-click and then click Create New Revision to create new revisions for them.

  3. To temporarily change the file association of .xls and .xlsx files to IFS Business Reporter Report Upgrade Utility, follow the steps below.
    1. Right-click on any .xls file and, depending on the programs installed on your computer and complete one of the following steps:
      • Click Open With to choose the program that you want.
      • Point to Open With, and then click Choose Default Program to choose the program that you want.
    2. If you clicked Choose Default Program, the Open With dialog box will be displayed.
    3. Click Browse

      The file selection dialog will be displayed.

    4. Navigate to the Business Reporter installation location (C:\Program Files (x86)\ IFS Applications\IFS Business Reporter by default) and select BAReportUpgradeUtilityLauncher.exe

    5. Select the  Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box and click OK.
    6. Repeat this operation for a .xlsx file also.
  4. In Document Revisions window, select the revisions that should be upgraded.

    Right click and then click Edit Document under File Operations.

  5. All the files will be checked out to Local Check-Out Path defined under User settings.
  6. The files will be automatically upgraded during the check-out process.
  7. Select all the revisions, right-click and then click Check In Document under File Operations to check in upgraded reports.
  8. Change the file association for .xls and .xlsx files back to Microsoft Excel.