Comments

Comments provide a vehicle for submitting, storing, and retrieving text commentary associated with Planning and Consolidation data cells. This allows users to annotate data so other users can view supporting information associated with a particular data point.

Integration

The Comments function is fully integrated in Interface for Excel, Interface for Word, Interface for PowerPoint, and Interface for the Web. Therefore, you can enter and view comments from within any interface that manages data.

Features

You can use comments in the following ways:

You send/retrieve a comment using the action pane.
You can see comments on a series of data such as a specific report or Content Library document that is not driven by the current view.
You can retrieve a comment for a specific cell in Interface for Excel, but not in Interface for the Web live reports.
You can use functions to retrieve comments based on a fully specified or partially qualified current view. See EvCGP and EvCGT.

Adding Comments

You can add comments using the EvCOM function or through the action pane. The Add comment link is available on any action pane from which the context of the page allows you to enter a comment. In the Microsoft version, you can set the comment length using the COMMENT_MAX_LENGTH parameter. The maximum length is 4,000 characters. For more information, see Application Parameters.

Note Note

If you use EvCOM, you must pass along all the dimension members and application with the text within the formula syntax.

End of the note.

When adding a comment, you may specify the following items:

Item	Description
Context	Select how to apply the comment: The published page (Interface for the Web) This option is available when a published report or input schedule is active. The comment becomes associated with the active report or input schedule. The active report or schedule cell (Interface for Excel) This option is available when a live report or schedule is active. The comment is applied to the data region associated with the selected cell. The selected Planning and Consolidation data (Interface for Word/Powerpoint) This option is available when you select Insert data object. The active current view This option applies the comment to the current view shown in the action pane. Custom current view This option allows you to specify a specific current view to which to associate the comment. From the Comment for These CV Values table, select the application. For each dimension, select the check box next to the dimensions for which you want a specific member or all members to apply. Leaving a check box unselected ignores the members for that dimension for this comment. To select a member using the Member Lookup, click a dimension link. See Member Lookup.
Priority	Select the desired priority level or No Priority. The reports show comments in order of their priority level.
Keywords	Use keywords to organize and search for comments in the database. This field takes blanks and empty strings.

Viewing Comments

If you have a live report or input schedule open, you can view any comments that are associated with it. You can also view comments associated to the current view of a selected cell within that report or input schedule, or view any comments for a specific current view. To view relevant comments, you must answer some questions so the system can filter the database.

Item	Description
Context	Select how to apply the comment: The published page (Interface for the Web) This option is available when a published report or input schedule is active. The comment becomes associated with the active report or input schedule. The active report or schedule cell (Interface for Excel) This option is available when a live report or schedule is active. The comment is applied to the data region associated with the selected cell. The selected Planning and Consolidation data (Interface for Word/Powerpoint) This option is available when you select Insert data object. The active current view This option applies the comment to the current view shown in the action pane. Custom current view This option allows you to specify a specific current view to which to associate the comment. From the Comment for These CV Values table, select the application. For each dimension, select the check box next to the dimensions for which you want a specific member or all members to apply. Leaving a check box unselected ignores the members for that dimension for this comment. To select a member using the Member Lookup, click a dimension link. See Member Lookup.
Comment History	You select the checkbox to show multiple comments for the specified search criteria. Leave the checkbox blank to return only the most recent comment that meets the criteria.
Priority	You select one or more priority options to return comments associated with that priority.
Keywords	You can enter a keyword (up to 50 characters) to return only comments with a matching keyword.
Comments from what origin	You can select one of the following: Comments from anyone. This option returns comments entered by all users. Comments from myself. This option returns comments that were entered by you. Comments from another user. This option returns comments entered by a specific user. Enter a valid user in the User edit box.
Comments by date range	You can select the Search by date range check box to specify a date range for which to return comments. Use the From and To drop-down lists to specify the desired date range.

Clearing Comments

You can delete comments from the comment history, except for the last comment entered, using the CLR_COMMENTS_HISTORY application set parameter. For more information see Application Set Parameters.

You can also delete or remove comments with conditions through the ClearComment package in Data Manager.

Comments Summary Page

When you add a comment or choose your view options, you can display them on the Comments Summary page. If other comments exist for the same data region, those also appear in the summary page. If associated data regions contain comments, those data regions also appear in the page. If you define view options, all associated comments are displayed.

To change views, you can do one or more of the following:

To change what displays in the Data Region with Comments table, choose the Display Criteria hyperlink at the top of the page. See Viewing Comments, above.
To delete a comment, select the check box next to the comment in the Comments for the selected data region table, then choose Delete selected comments from the action pane. Only the owner of the comment or a user with administrative rights can delete a comment.

Comments Summary Table

Item	Description
Comment	Displays the entire comment. If you are the originator of the comment or if you have administrator rights, you can modify the value directly in the cell. When you finish modifying the text, choose Update Comment.
Priority	Displays the priority for the comment. If you are the originator of the comment or if you have administrator rights, you can modify the value directly in the cell by selecting another option from the drop-down list.
Keyword	Displays the keyword associated with the comment. If you are the originator of the comment or if you have administrator rights, you can modify the value directly in the field.
Originator	Displays the comment originator’s name. The value in this cell is display only.
Date	Displays the date that the comment was saved to the database. If the comment is updated by the originator or an administrator, the updated date appears in this cell. The value in this cell is display only.
Show (drop-down list)	Allows you to specify the comment blocks to display in the table.

Activities

Adding Comments

To add a comment, open the report or input schedule and select the cell in which you want to add a comment. From the Report State action pane, select the Add a new comment link. Specify the requested information, then enter the comment (up to 265 characters).

Viewing Comments

To view a comment, from a live report/input schedule or a selected cell in a report/input schedule, select View comments from the action pane. Specify the requested information to view the Comments Summary page.

More Information

EvCOM