Topics
Action to take by end of day November 2, 2023
Actions to take November 3-8, 2023
Actions to take after November 9, 2023
Search dialog box
Export
Data display row limit
Look and feel
Ad hoc functionality
What you need to do
If you have bookmark links, you will need to take action by the end of November 2, 2023 to preserve your work. You do not need to take action on existing saved customizations and ad hoc analyses because they will be available after the upgrade.
If you update or create new bookmarks, customizations, and ad hocs from November 3 through 8, those will not carry over. You will need to manually document them in order to recreate them in the upgraded Cal Answers. See Actions to take November 3-8, 2023 for instructions.
Actions to take by end of day November 2, 2023
Ad Hoc Analyses (optional)
Bookmarks
Existing bookmark links will not be available after the upgrade. To avoid the effort of manually recreating your bookmarks, you can instead save them as customizations. All of the customizations you save by the end of November 2, 2023, will be available after the upgrade.
What is the difference between bookmarks and customizations?
Customizations and bookmarks are a way to save filters/prompts you have selected as well as any changes to the report format such as included or excluded columns, sort order, etc. The difference between the two is that customizations are for your use only and bookmarks can be shared with other users.
Save a bookmark as a customization
- Run the bookmark as usual to generate the report.
- Open the Page Options button in the upper-right corner and select Save Current Customization.
- Enter a name for the customization in the text box. You may want to name it in a way that reminds you to recreate it as a bookmark link after the upgrade.
- Select OK.
Ad Hoc Analyses (optional)
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The last modified date on ad hoc analyses will be the go-live date of the upgrade rather than the actual date you edited/created the file. If you want to save the created date, rename your file to include the date.
- You do not need to take any action to preserve your ad hoc analyses if you do not need the actual date you edited/created the file. They will be available after the upgrade as long as they are saved by the end of November 2, 2023.
Actions to take November 3-8, 2023
Please note that saved customizations, bookmarks, and ad hoc analyses created during the period November 3-8 will not be available in the new Cal Answers environment. Follow these instructions to create files with the selections you have made so that you can recreate them when the upgraded Cal Answers is available.
We recommend keeping updates and creations to a minimum during this period to minimize the amount of documentation you need to do. You can still run existing ones as often as you need to.
Saved Customizations and Bookmark Links
With the customization or bookmark applied, open the Page Options menu and select Print / Printable PDF.
A Print / Printable PDF option is also available at the bottom of the report, but we do not recommend this option. While it does have the filters/prompts that were used, you have to figure out the filter/prompt selection. We recommend the Printable PDF option in the Page Options because it presents the filters/prompts in the dashboard layout you are accustomed to navigating.
If you are using Chrome and encounter the GKEIW7NN error, you will need to remove or disable the Adobe browser extension to be able to generate the Printable PDF. Alternatively, you can use a different browser.
Ad Hoc Analysis
In the period November 3-8, follow steps 1-6 in the Copy XML from an Ad Hoc Analysis section of the Sharing an Ad Hoc Analysis job aid to save the XML from your ad hoc.
Actions to take after November 9, 2023
The Cal Answers URL is updated.
- Please clear your browser cache first before logging in to Cal Answers from the website or from your browser bookmark
- If you have bookmarked the Cal Answers login in your browser (not the bookmark link to a specific dashboard report), please update your browser bookmark with the login link on the Cal Answers website
Customizations, Bookmarks, and Ad Hoc Analyses
- The customizations and ad hoc analyses that you saved by November 2, 2023 are available.
- For bookmark links that you saved as customizations, you can now recreate the bookmark.
- For bookmark links and customizations you saved as PDFs, you can now use the information in the PDF as a guide to recreate the bookmark link or saved customization.
- You can recreate any ad hoc analysis for which you saved the XML.
Recreate the bookmark link saved as a customization
After the upgrade, you can create a bookmark from a saved customization if you want to share the customization with others.
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Open the dashboard report.
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Select the Page Options button in the upper-right corner and select Apply Saved Customization.
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Select the customization you want to open.
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Select the Page Options button and select Create Bookmark Link.
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The bookmark link is available to copy and share from the browser address bar.
Recreate the ad hoc analysis
After the upgrade, follow steps 1-8 in the Create an Ad Hoc Analysis from XML section of the Sharing an Ad Hoc Analysis Job Aid to recreate your ad hoc.
Changes to be aware of
Search dialog box
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The Search dialog box now defaults to searching by text that contains the text string you enter, rather than starts withThis is helpful when searching for specific text without needing to know the specific string.
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The Match case box is now unchecked by default. This is helpful when searching for specific text without needing to know the format.
Export
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To export to a formatted PDF or Excel file, select the Export link below the report and then select Formatted. The data formats are still under the Data menu.
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The export notification varies depending on the browser you are using. In Chrome, the notification now appears in the upper right corner. If you have elected to not show notifications, you need to look in the Downloads folder.
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When exporting to Excel, numeric data presents with two decimal places. If the original data has a different number of decimal places, you can use the Excel format function to present the data as desired.
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When printing to a Printable PDF, if you are using Chrome and encounter the GKEIW7NN error message, you will need to remove or disable the extension from your Chrome browser to generate the Printable PDF. If you need the extension enabled, try running Cal Answers on a different browser like Firefox so you can print to Printable PDF.
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When exporting the entire dashboard to Excel, you encounter the "We found a problem with some content in [file name]. Do you want us to try to recover as much as we can?” error message. If you trust the source of this workbook, select “Yes." You will then be presented with a confirmation message, "Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content." Close the message box and you will find the content is formatted as expected.
Data display row limit
Cal Answers displays a limit of 5,000 rows even when you select the Display All Rows button. To see all records, you must export the data.
If you see fewer than 5,000 rows, then all records are showing and you do not need to export the data. If you see 5,000 rows, there is a good chance there are more records and you should export the data. Export limit remains the same at 120,000 rows.
Look and feel
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Recent and Catalog tabs darken when you select.
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The selected dashboard tab now has a white background.
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Typing in prompts with a drop-down selection shows matching values in real time. Does not apply to prompts that do not show a drop-down selection.
Ad hoc functionality
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To access your ad hoc files, use the Catalog menu in the upper right corner. Additionally, you can access the ad hoc functionality by clicking New then Analysis.
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You must go to the Catalog to search for an item as the search box and Advanced link are no longer available on the main menu. If you want to search all of Cal Answers, enter your Search term, select All in the Location and Type drop-down lists and check the Sub-Folders box.
