1.9 How do I connect to my Excel Spreadsheet?

To connect to an Excel Spreadsheet, an ODBC connection would have to be created. For instructions on how to create the ODBC connection for Excel, please see FAQ 1.8

2.0 How do I connect to my Access Database?

To connect to an Access Database, an ODBC connection would have to be created. For instructions on how to create the ODBC connection for Access, please see FAQ 1.8

When signing-in, I get "Invalid User Key Specification" (similarly "Secondary User Key", "Group Key") as an error.

This issue may stem from an incorrect security setup. You system administrator should ensure that the value for User Key/Secondary User Key/Group Key under Admin>>Users>>user-name>>User Key (or Secondary User Key, Group Key as appropriate) corresponds to the key appropriate to this user under the corresponding security field specified under the mapping's template (Templates>>template-name>>Change>>Advanced>>User Security/Secondary User Security/Group Security). This may also occur, even when the security setup is correct, when there is no data available to this user.

How come when I analyze by Salesrep, and I then switch and analyze by something else, I get different answers in the totals? The Numbers don't seem to add up?

A. When you mapped your sales rep table, it is replicating the primary key several times. When this gets joined with the main transaction table, it will add it up for each occurrence of the repeated primary key. This typically happens when you try and use the transaction table for the lookups. What you should do in this case is use something like Select some_key, max(description) from sometable group by some_key or Select distinct some_key,description from sometable. ( this will not work though if your key is the descriptions are not distinct ).

When I try and design a header, my custom images are not being served?
Sample Style Sheet:
.headerlogo { background-color:#E60101; background-image: url('header.gif'); background-repeat: no-repeat; width:180px; height:40px; text-align:left}

You need to put / at the front of your image url. in this case /header.gif

Why do I need to manually click Okay 5 or 6 times for my data to import?

This is because when access imports data, by default it will confirm when you try and delete or remove an object, or even append records. These confirmation messages can be disabled by opening the template.mdb file and opening up Tools->Options menu option, going to the Edit/Find tab and Unchecking the three check boxes labelled "Record Changes", "Document deletions" ,"Action Queries" under Confirm. This will typically happen if the user has been changed that access is running under. Alternatively the warnings can be disabled by adding the line DOCMD.SETWARNINGS (FALSE) to your data import script.

Why has my data stopped updating?

The main reason is this typically happens is that the password has changed for the scheduled task that calls the sir_nightly.bat update program. This can be fixed by going into your scheduled tasks and changing the password under properties to the most current password.

Alternatively the user may have been deleted from the domain. This can be fixed by changing the user for the scheduled task (properties) to a current user in the domain. You will also need to check the password.

Alternatively if you cannot find a scheduled task, it may have been deleted. You will need to recreate a scheduled task to run at the desired time. The batch file you need to run is usually called sir_nightly.bat in the IR or Interactive Reporting or SIR directory Generally if you can still see IR with old data, the symptoms mean, the nightly update batch file is not running at all. If they cannot even see old data, then the following needs to be fixed. If they cannot even access old data, and it is generating an error, trying to run a report it means The production.mdb has been deleted, but it is having trouble regenerating a new one. This typically happens because the network drive it is trying to connect to has been removed or is no longer accessible. ( Another possible reason is, an underlying system datasource ( odbc/dsn) has been deleted or had a password changed ). This applies for installs, where it is using a datapump type interface, to pump the data into access. If the setup involves a direct connection to a database, then if the database password has changed for the underlying user, or the user has been removed, ( or maybe even the database server ip address has changed ) , then it will generate some kind of database connection error. It is good customer practise to maintain a backup of any system database file for IR, and any datapump scripts and setup files, and a copy of their ireport.exe or sales_ir.exe, so that if they reinstall their server, that the IR setup can be reconfigured without delay. If you do not keep an offsite backup, then it means, if the customer reformats or reinstalls, they may need to re-implement their mappings.

I clicked on a query to look at it in the template.mdb, but not, my data import script does not work?

Access has tried to parse the query, and could not find the referring tables/ These queries are now destroyed. The tables that the query refers too, are only imported later in the production.mdb file . You will need to restore any queries from your backup template.

I have a problem connecting my Oracle database to IR?

This is probably a result of using the Microsoft odbc for Oracle driver. Try using the Oracle ODBC driver not the microsoft odbc driver. To check if this is the case do the following:
go to Settings->Control Panel -> Administrative Tools - Data Source (ODBC) -> System DSN
Look for your Oracle database there and see what driver option has been used. Change if necessary.

I am using version 2.3 and after renaming the variable names in the template only some of the calculated variables show in the report. What is the problem?

In version 2.3, renaming of the variables of a template is not working if a mapping has already been created based on this template. In this case, the calculated variables which contain the variables whose name changed do not appear to the report page. Cloning the template first and then changing the variable names does not work either if a mapping already exists from the original template. The only solution is to create a new template from scratch with the new variable names and then create a mapping from the new template.

In version 2.4 this limitation/problem does not exist. Renaming of variables in a template is properly performed and all the changes required in the template and all associated mappings are done automatically, without any intervention from the user or without the need of cloning/creating the template.