How to Add Comments in BPC

5/21/2018 How to Add Comments in BPC

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How-to GuideSAP EPM

How To UseComments

Version 1.00 March 2009

Applicable Releases:EPM BPC 5.1 Microsoft & EPM BPC 7 Microsoft


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1 Scenario

This How to Guide will focus on the fundamentals of creating, modifying and reportingon the Comments functionality within BPC. Comments are used within BPC as a vehicle

for submitting, storing and retrieving text commentary that is associated with BPC datacells or unstructured data elements. It allows users to annotate data so that other userscan view the comments associated with a particular data point. Comments can also beprovided based on a series of data such as a specific report or a content librarydocument which is not current view driven.

2 Introduction

Comments is a fully integrated function within BPC for Excel, BPC for Word, BPC forPowerPoint and BPC Web, meaning it can be entered and viewed from within anyinterface that manages data. Its functionality works alongside other BPC data

submission/retrieval functions and can be retrieved from all areas of BPC. Thecomments allow users to annotate the data so other users can view the supportinginformation.

The comment functions include the following:

Comment Manager interface makes it easy to search and report oncomments

Create ad-hoc reports and extract to Excel through Reporting Services

Can be assigned priority and keywords for setting search criteria

Flexible for either partial or fully qualified metadata

Reports contain full history of comment

Secured by member access Define cell-based formulas in Excel to retrieve and send (EvCOM)

This guide will provide step by step procedures on the various functions of Commentswithin EPM BPC for versions 5.1 and 7 for Microsoft.

3 Security Setup for Comments

Setting up security: Under Task Profiles, the PrimaryAdmin has the default functionaltask of ManageComments. Based on their interface within each particular applicationset, the PrimaryAdmin can also be assigned the additional interface task ofAddComment.

An Administrator that has been set up as been set up as the SystemAdmin has nodefault functional tasks that pertain to Comments, but they be assigned the availabletasks of AddComment and ManageComments by the PrimaryAdmin.

An individual that has been set up as a User would be assigned the task ofAddComment if deemed appropriate by the Primary or System Administrator.


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4 Adding Comments

Comments can be added through the Action Pane or by using the EvCOM functionality.In this example the steps will show how to add a Comment through the Action Pane.The Add comment link is available on any action pane where the context of the page

allows for entry of comments. For BPC Web, this includes live reports or inputschedules, and in BPC for Excel, the Add comment link is available in reports and inputschedules.

Steps to add a comment:

1. Within BPC for Excel, open the report or input schedule to which a commentneeds to be added.

2. After the report or input schedule has opened, click on the Add new commenttask from the Report State Action Pane.

3. This will bring the user to the Enter a New Comment Action Pane, where theuser is required to select the context of the comment from a choice of the threefollowing options:

a. The active report or schedule This option is only available when a livereport or input schedule is open. The comment will get applied to the dataregion associated cell.

b. The active current view This option applies the comment to the currentview shown in the action pane.

c. Custom current view Option allows the user to specify specific currentview associated with the comment. If this option is selected theComment for these CV Values: area of the action pane becomesavailable for use. The user selects the Application, as well as eachdimension and memberid for each dimension selected, to which they needthe comment applied to. If a dimension is left unselected, the memberidsfor that dimension will be ignored for this comment.

4. Click the button which takes the user to Step 2 of Enter a New Comment.

5. Select the priority of the comment from the drop down menu, in the What is thepriority of the comment? section of the action pane. The priority choices are:Critical, High, Medium, Low, and No Priority. Note: When reporting oncomments, they are shown in priority level order.

6. The next section is What keyword do you want to associate with this comment?This should be a meaningful word (up to 30 characters) that helps the userorganize and search the comments as the database grows.

7. The final step is to add the comments content which can be up to 256 characterslong.

8. Click the button, a dialog box will appear stating the comment has beenstored in the database.

5 Viewing Comments

Within an open live report or input schedule, a user can view any comments that havebeen added to that report. They can also view comments associated with a specific cellwithin the report or input schedule, or view comments that may have been added for aspecific view.


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To view a comment/s:

1. After opening a live report or input schedule, select View comment from theReport State action pane.

2. The 1stof 3 View Comments panes will open, each of which contain shortquestions to be answered by the user. The first is, What is the context of yourcomments search?

a. The active report or schedule cell which will return commentsassociated with that cell.

b. The active current view which returns comments associated with theactive current view.

c. Custom current view returns comments from a different view than theone that is active. When this option is selected, the area in the actionpane below Search on these CV values: is available for selection. Thisallows the user to return a comment for a specific member or all membersof any dimension within the application. If a dimension choice is leftunselected, the members for that dimension are ignored and commentsfor any member of that particular dimension will be returned.

3. Click the button, which brings the user to the second View Comments

action pane.4. The next question is Do you want to include comment history? If you wouldlike to see all comments that have been made, based on the selection criteriafrom the prior question, select the Show comment history checkbox. Leave thebox unselected to return only the most recent comment that meets the selectedcriteria.

5. Comments with what priority Returns comments associated with the priority orpriorities that the user selects.

6. Do you want to search on a comment keyword Searches for comment basedon keyword (up to 30 characters). Only comments that match this keyword will bereturned in the search.

7. Click the button, which brings the user to the third View Comments actionpane.

8. The first question on the 3rd

action pane is Comments from what origin? Choices are:a. Comments from anyone This selection will return all comments that

were entered by any user, including yourself.b. Comments from myself This selection will return the comments that only

you entered.c. Comments from another This selection will return comments added by a

specific user. Choosing this selection will open a dialog box listing usersand you need to select the particular user/s whose added comments youneed to view.

9. The last criteria for searching on comments is, Do you want to search commentsby a date range? If you would like to return comments from a particular daterange, click the Search by date range check box, and then use the From and To

drop down lists to specify the desired date range.10. Click the button, at which time the Comments Summary Page will open.

6 Comments Summary Page


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After adding comments or choosing your view, the user can display them in thecomments summary page. If a comment was newly added, the summary page containsthe newly added comment data region, as well as the comment entry made to thedatabase. If other comments exist for the same data region, they will also appear here.If the user defined several view options, all associated comments are displayed.

The summary page contains 2 tables: Data Regions with Comments, and Comments forthe Selected Data Region.

The Data Regions with Comments table displays the dimensions of the application in thetable header, and the dimension members for the data region where there is acorresponding comment in i ts rows.

The Comments for the Selected Data Region table has 5 different options in its tableheader. They are:

Option Description

Comment Displays the entire comment. If you are the originator ofthe comment, or have administrator rights, you have ability

to modify the comment directly in the cell. Note: Be sure toselect Update Comments in the action pane whencompleted.

Priori ty Displays priority of the comment. If you are the originator ofthe comment, or have administrator rights, you have theability to change priority from the drop down list. Note: Besure to select Update Comments in the action pane whencompleted.

Keyword Displays keyword associated with the comment. If you arethe originator of the comment, or have administrator rights,you can modify the key word by typing directly into this cell.Note: Be sure to select Update comments in the actionpane when completed.

Originator Displays the comments originator.Date Displays the date the comment was saved to the database.

If comment has been updated, then updated date appears.

Other Options on the Comments Summary Page

View Comment Options action pane:

Add a new comment Will take the user back through the steps described in theSteps to add a Comment above, beginning with step 3.

Report on comments Will take the user back through the steps described in theView a Comment/s section above, beginning with step 2.

Delete selected comments - To the left of each comment listed in the Commentsfor the Selected Data Region table is an empty box. If you are the originator ofthe comment, or an administrator, you can put a check next to a comment youwould like to delete. Then select the Delete selected comments option, afterwhich a confirmation box will appear. After selecting Yes the comment youdeleted will be removed.

Update comments If you are the originator, or an administrator, and in theComments for the Selected Data Region you modified either the Comment, thePriority, or Keyword cell, select Update comments to ensure the modification hasbeen made to the database.


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Changing the Display criteria - If you want to change the criteria displayed in thesummary page, you can click on the words Display criteria in the upper left hand cornerof the screen. This will change the action pane taking the user back through the stepsdescribed in the View a Comment/s section above, beginning with step 2.

The following screen shot is a sample of a Comments Summary Page:

7 Reporting on Comments

From the Getting Started BPC for Excel action pane which appears afteropening BPC for Excel, select Open System Reports.

Select Comments Report from the list of Application Reports in the SystemReports action pane.

The Report Parameters table is displayed with the following options available tobe filled in:

Option Description

Start Date The start date for the query.

Start Time The start time for the query.

End Date The end date for the query.

End Time The end time for the query.

BPC User An optional user name to report on. Leave blank to report oncomments from all users.

History Check if all history for the comment is to be included in report.

Priori ty All Report on all priority level comments.Critical Only report on Critical level comments.High Only report on High level comments.Medium Only report on Medium level comments.Low Only report on Low level comments.No priority Only report on No priority level comments.


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Dimension n1 to nx Optional member values for specific data regions. Leave boxesblank to report on all possible values.

Set Orientation Portrait Report in portrait layout.Landscape Report in landscape layout.

When the table parameters set up has been completed, select the green check mark inthe action pane and the BPC Commentary Report is generated.

The following screen shots show the table parameters, and a sample CommentaryReport that has been generated for one comment:


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8 BPC Ev Functionality relating to Comments

EvCOMReferences another cell and sends its value, a textual comment, to the database.

Syntax: EvCOM(CommentRange, AppName, Member1, Member2, etc)

Parameter Description

CommentRange The cell reference of the input cell.

AppName The name of the application.

[dim:]member1-n Specify as many members that you want. Any dimensionthat is not specified in the formula is taken from the currentview.Note: If the same member name is used in more than onedimension, you must specify the dimension name. Syntax

to be used is: dimension:member.

Example: EvCOM(D16,FINANCE,SALARY,ACTUAL,Jan2009In the above example, the textual comment in cell D16 is loaded into the FinanceApplication, the Salary Account, the Actual Category, and for the Time Period January2009.

EvCGP Get Partial CommentRetrieves comments based on a partially qualified current view. Members not

specified in the function are ignored. The comments returned were added to thedatabase using each of one of the specified members, [ALL], or [None].

Syntax: EvCGP(AppName, Member1, Member2, etc)



Member1-n The ID of the member from which to get associatedcomments.

EvCGT Get CommentRetrieves comments for a fully specified current view. Members not specified in

the function are taken from the current view. The comments returned were added to thedatabase using each of one of the specified members or [ALL].

Syntax: EvCGT(AppName, Member1, Member2, etc)



Member1-n The ID of the member from which to get associatedcomments.


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9 Exporting Comments

The following screen shots provide the steps required to export comments to a file. Theexport process begins within Reporting Services at the Report Directory, as shownbelow:

The above screen shot shows a list of all application sets with reports on this server. Theapplication set circled on the right hand side of the screen contains a comment that wewant to export. Click on that application set, and the following screen shot appears:

The above screen shot displays the applications within the app set, as well as the auditand security reports that have been set up for this app set. To continue this export wewill select the Finance application which is circled above. The result is as follows:

Reporting Services Server

Report Directory


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The above screen shot is similar to the Reports Parameter table discussed earlier. Forthis table, the user needs to fill in the start and end dates, as well as the priority level toextract. In this case we are extracting ALL. When completed, select View Report fromthe right hand side of the screen.

A report is generated for the user so that you can check the results prior to the extract. In

this example we have only one comment which matches the criteria we set, so only onecomment is to be exported. The next step is to select the format of the file for the Export.


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As seen in the above screen shot, there are 6 different file formats the Export can besent to. They are XML file with report data; CSV (comma delimited); TIFF file; Acrobat(PDF) file; Web archive; and Excel. Once the user selects the file format they want tohave the Export in, the Export option to the right of the format drop down menu willbecome available. Select Export, then name the export file and select the directory towhich it will be saved, and the Export process is complete.

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