Finally starting to get into Universal Reports and very excited about the potential, However, my first couple of tests for a very simple report have not gone well in the sense that using basic expand and collapse on consolidated elements causes the formatting to flake out (both in PAfE and as a websheet). This report was created directly from the cube viewer in PAfE so no manual intervention.

This obviously makes me nervous about using them in production. Curious to hear about other's experience on reliability and if you are successfully using them in a production environment. 

Current version?

To answer your question I think there are 2 aspects to your question

1) Stability - Let's see what others advise. I am running an early version that had issues, since resolved

2) Functionality - My only comments are

  a) that if you want to use Hierarchies then Universal Reports are the only option, but the functionality is still short of what might be expected in multiple ways

  b) if you are not concerned about using Hierarchies then it can offer some different capabilities but cannot replace the legacy reporting methods

Finally starting to get into Universal Reports and very excited about the potential, However, my first couple of tests for a very simple report have not gone well in the sense that using basic expand and collapse on consolidated elements causes the formatting to flake out (both in PAfE and as a websheet). This report was created directly from the cube viewer in PAfE so no manual intervention.

This obviously makes me nervous about using them in production. Curious to hear about other's experience on reliability and if you are successfully using them in a production environment. 

Current version?

To answer your question I think there are 2 aspects to your question

1) Stability - Let's see what others advise. I am running an early version that had issues, since resolved

2) Functionality - My only comments are

  a) that if you want to use Hierarchies then Universal Reports are the only option, but the functionality is still short of what might be expected in multiple ways

  b) if you are not concerned about using Hierarchies then it can offer some different capabilities but cannot replace the legacy reporting methods

Finally starting to get into Universal Reports and very excited about the potential, However, my first couple of tests for a very simple report have not gone well in the sense that using basic expand and collapse on consolidated elements causes the formatting to flake out (both in PAfE and as a websheet). This report was created directly from the cube viewer in PAfE so no manual intervention.

This obviously makes me nervous about using them in production. Curious to hear about other's experience on reliability and if you are successfully using them in a production environment. 

Hi,  Just a small correction,  Hierarchies are supported in Quick Reports, PAfE Explorations, Cube Views and PAW Dashboards.  These report variants, don't have all the functionality that Universal reports have it is true.  If you want complex Dynamic Report like functionality in PAfE with Hierarchies then you probably need Universal, though Quick Reports support expanding rows etc.

(Sorry, just want to qualify your statements in case someone gets the wrong idea....)

Current version?

To answer your question I think there are 2 aspects to your question

1) Stability - Let's see what others advise. I am running an early version that had issues, since resolved

2) Functionality - My only comments are

  a) that if you want to use Hierarchies then Universal Reports are the only option, but the functionality is still short of what might be expected in multiple ways

  b) if you are not concerned about using Hierarchies then it can offer some different capabilities but cannot replace the legacy reporting methods

Finally starting to get into Universal Reports and very excited about the potential, However, my first couple of tests for a very simple report have not gone well in the sense that using basic expand and collapse on consolidated elements causes the formatting to flake out (both in PAfE and as a websheet). This report was created directly from the cube viewer in PAfE so no manual intervention.

This obviously makes me nervous about using them in production. Curious to hear about other's experience on reliability and if you are successfully using them in a production environment. 

Steven

My comments were intended to be limited to PAfE and while you are correct, I think there is further nuance to it. I see Quick Reports as legacy (With the conversion utility to migrate to UR) and Universal Reports as the only 'current' hierarchy capable reporting method in PAfE, Explorations really being an analytical function (Yes you can do lookups etc but why would you use that over Universal Reports?)

But let's add to your collection and say that TM1Val is there to support the important need for cell based reporting with hierarchies. 

I recall about 7 years ago I put together a matrix to explain the capabilities of the various modes in PAfE as I initially found it very confusing. I cannot imagine how someone new to the product would really be able to work it out.now.

Back to the question of whether UR is ready for prime time?

John

Hi,  Just a small correction,  Hierarchies are supported in Quick Reports, PAfE Explorations, Cube Views and PAW Dashboards.  These report variants, don't have all the functionality that Universal reports have it is true.  If you want complex Dynamic Report like functionality in PAfE with Hierarchies then you probably need Universal, though Quick Reports support expanding rows etc.

(Sorry, just want to qualify your statements in case someone gets the wrong idea....)

Current version?

To answer your question I think there are 2 aspects to your question

1) Stability - Let's see what others advise. I am running an early version that had issues, since resolved

2) Functionality - My only comments are

  a) that if you want to use Hierarchies then Universal Reports are the only option, but the functionality is still short of what might be expected in multiple ways

  b) if you are not concerned about using Hierarchies then it can offer some different capabilities but cannot replace the legacy reporting methods

Finally starting to get into Universal Reports and very excited about the potential, However, my first couple of tests for a very simple report have not gone well in the sense that using basic expand and collapse on consolidated elements causes the formatting to flake out (both in PAfE and as a websheet). This report was created directly from the cube viewer in PAfE so no manual intervention.

This obviously makes me nervous about using them in production. Curious to hear about other's experience on reliability and if you are successfully using them in a production environment. 

Yes so back to the original question, I'll add a bit of color after having spent a lot more time with them. As to the "glitches", I referred to in my original post, I have not had it happen again so chalk it up bad luck. It does seem generally pretty stable. As a global comment, the potential of URs off the chain and I'm really anxious to see where this goes next. The addition of user rows and column (and associated user formulas) is a great and necessary enhancement for wider adoption. I am running into some limitation with those however as I articulated in another post (https://community.ibm.com/community/user/discussion/universal-report-user-formula-issue#bm798f8a6b-db63-4df7-87d0-65accfcf05b6) but perhaps that is just a growing pain. 

Another limitation that I find limiting vis-a-vis Dynamic Reports is that using only the available Excel conditional formatting in URs, one does not have available formatting options in either the "Alignment" or "Protection" tabs in the Excel formatting dialog that can be applied to formatting rows in Dynamic Reports. Significantly, the resulting lack of availability of dynamic cell protection greatly limits URs designed around user input. I could be missing something obvious however. 

Steven

My comments were intended to be limited to PAfE and while you are correct, I think there is further nuance to it. I see Quick Reports as legacy (With the conversion utility to migrate to UR) and Universal Reports as the only 'current' hierarchy capable reporting method in PAfE, Explorations really being an analytical function (Yes you can do lookups etc but why would you use that over Universal Reports?)

But let's add to your collection and say that TM1Val is there to support the important need for cell based reporting with hierarchies. 

I recall about 7 years ago I put together a matrix to explain the capabilities of the various modes in PAfE as I initially found it very confusing. I cannot imagine how someone new to the product would really be able to work it out.now.

Back to the question of whether UR is ready for prime time?

John

Hi,  Just a small correction,  Hierarchies are supported in Quick Reports, PAfE Explorations, Cube Views and PAW Dashboards.  These report variants, don't have all the functionality that Universal reports have it is true.  If you want complex Dynamic Report like functionality in PAfE with Hierarchies then you probably need Universal, though Quick Reports support expanding rows etc.

(Sorry, just want to qualify your statements in case someone gets the wrong idea....)

Current version?

To answer your question I think there are 2 aspects to your question

1) Stability - Let's see what others advise. I am running an early version that had issues, since resolved

2) Functionality - My only comments are

  a) that if you want to use Hierarchies then Universal Reports are the only option, but the functionality is still short of what might be expected in multiple ways

  b) if you are not concerned about using Hierarchies then it can offer some different capabilities but cannot replace the legacy reporting methods

Finally starting to get into Universal Reports and very excited about the potential, However, my first couple of tests for a very simple report have not gone well in the sense that using basic expand and collapse on consolidated elements causes the formatting to flake out (both in PAfE and as a websheet). This report was created directly from the cube viewer in PAfE so no manual intervention.

This obviously makes me nervous about using them in production. Curious to hear about other's experience on reliability and if you are successfully using them in a production environment.