Oracle Smart View is an Excel add-in that pulls live data from Essbase, Planning and other Oracle EPM sources. Instead of exporting a report and pasting it, you “talk” to the cube directly from a worksheet. Ad hoc analysis is where most people start.
In this article
1. Connect
- Open the Smart View ribbon → Panel.
- Choose Shared Connections (or a Private Connection your admin gave you) and sign in.
- Navigate to your application and database (cube), right-click it and choose Ad hoc analysis.
Smart View puts a starting grid on the sheet — usually the top of each dimension, like Year, Account, Entity.
2. Understand the grid
- Row and column members are the labels in the grid.
- POV (Point of View) is every dimension that is not on rows or columns — for example Scenario = Actual, Currency = INR. It filters the whole sheet.
- Every number is a live intersection of all those members.
3. The six actions you use all the time
| Action | What it does | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom In | Show the children of a member (Year → Quarters) | Double-click a member does the same |
| Zoom Out | Go back to the parent | |
| Keep Only | Keep the selected members, remove the rest | Great for cleaning up after a big zoom |
| Remove Only | Remove the selected members | |
| Pivot | Move a dimension between rows and columns | Right-click → Pivot |
| Refresh | Re-query the cube with the current layout | Always refresh after typing a member name |
4. Clean up the output: suppression
Big cubes return lots of empty rows. Go to Options → Data Options and tick Suppress Rows: No Data/#Missing and Zero. The setting is saved per sheet.
5. Save and reuse
Save the workbook normally; the grid remembers its connection. Next month, open it, change the POV (e.g. Period = Oct) and Refresh. To refresh many sheets at once, see refresh Smart View with VBA.
Want to know what is happening behind the grid? Read Essbase explained.