Excel Add-ins

Predefined Excel Add-in Whitelist

Whitelisted add-ins are automatically loaded when you open Excel report objects within CDM.

The following Excel add-ins are automatically whitelisted:

CognosOfficeUDF.Connect
IBM Cognos TM1 Perspectives
IBM Cognos Controller Link
Cognos Controller Link for Microsoft Excel
Controller Conversion Utility
IBM Cognos Office Reporting BI Addin
IBM Cognos Office Reporting TM1 Addin
HFM Smart View

Other Excel Add-ins

You can also add additional add-ins to the whitelist manually. However, this does not guarantee they will work without issues in CDM.

To add an Excel add-in to the whitelist:

On the File tab, click Options > Office Add-ins.
Click Add.
Type the exact name of the add-in, then click OK.

Find an Add-in

You can run the following macro inside an Excel workbook to get the exact name of the add-in, so you can add it to the whitelist:

Public Sub Addins_List()
Dim icount As Integer
For icount = 1 To Application.AddIns.Count
Range("A" & icount).Value = Application.AddIns(icount).Name
Range("B" & icount).Value = Application.AddIns(icount).Title
Range("C" & icount).Value = Application.AddIns(icount).Installed
Next icount
End Sub

Office COM Add-ins

COM add-ins are automatically disabled when you open Excel report objects in CDM. You can enable the COM add-ins for an Excel report object, however, this does not guarantee they will work without issues in CDM.

Open the Excel object and check it out.
On the Data tab, click Add-ins Mode.

This process needs to be completed for each Excel report object, every time it is opened. You can adjust the CDM configuration to always open Excel report objects directly in the add-ins.

In the CDM installation directory, in the Config subdirectory, open Appsettings.config.
Uncomment the ExcelNativeViewMode key, and set its value to 2.
<add key="ExcelNativeViewMode" value="2" />.

Update Data Using an Add-in

Data can be loaded into CDM Excel objects through an add-in. This data can be used with CDM variables to push content to other objects.

Whenever such data needs to be updated, the following steps need to be performed:

Open the Excel object and check it out.
Update the data using the add-in functions.
Save or check in the Excel object.

The CDM application server will never update data via an add-in other than with the Oracle Smart View add-in described below.

Oracle Smart View

The Oracle Smart View add-in is a special add-in that may be used with CDM. It is generally used by customers that leverage Oracle HFM and, more specifically, Smart View formulas pointing back to an Oracle HFM database.

Unlike other add-ins described above, data can be updated automatically by the CDM Server, leveraging a defined Oracle HFM data connection and HFM Excel formulas.

Troubleshoot Add-in Issues

Certent is not responsible for ensuring an add-in works without issues within the CDM.

For the Predefined Whitelisted Add-ins, if an issue is encountered you may contact Certent CDM Support to help troubleshoot the issue. We may also ask you to engage with the respective third-party vendor (e.g., IBM Cognos) as well.

For any other Excel add-in from any other vendor that is not part of the list, you will have to reach out to the third party vendor that made the add-in. They may be able to adjust their add-in such that it will work with other applications such as CDM. While you can reach out to Certent CDM Support, the actual amount of support we can provide is limited as Certent does not have access, nor control over, these other add-ins.