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  • 1.  Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Posted Apr 11, 2018 05:41 PM

    I have just downloaded the Excel Add-in and I'm following the instructions on the YouTube video CA Agile Central - Exporting Initiative to Task Hierarchy with Excel - YouTube .  The problem I am having is that when I download from Agile Central to Excel 2016, I have a lot of special formatting characters that appear as text in the columns and rows.  I see where this issue was reportedly fixed yet I'm having it now.

     

    I did a search and replace using wildcards and replaced <*> and &*; with a space to remove all the special characters.  Now however, when I attempt to set up the merged queries, my data doesn't match when I link the "Feature" data from the User Stories to the "Name field in the Feature table.

     

    What can be done to prevent these special characters from downloading into Excel from Agile Central?



  • 2.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Apr 11, 2018 09:41 PM

    Hi Daniel,

     

    The problem you are experiencing is not entirely clear to me by your description. However, our Excel Add-in does not support Excel 2016. See the 'Prerequisites' section in this page: CA Agile Central Add-in for Excel Installation & User Guide | CA Agile Central Help , you can see it specifies: Microsoft Office 2007,2010,2013 (but not 2016).

    We also are aware of problems with Excel 2016.

     

    Considering that, my suggestion to you is to work with one of the Excel supported versions. My hope is you will not face this problem with a supported version of Excel, but if you will then you can report it (possibly opening a support case will work best) but at least we'll be in position to test it and push towards a fix.

     

    Please let us know if you're able to work with one of the support versions.

     

    Thanks,

    Sagi



  • 3.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Posted Apr 12, 2018 08:50 AM

    Since we are enjoying many benefits from upgrading to Office 2016, we have no intention of rolling back to an older version of Office so that a few people can utilize this Excel Add-in. Do you have any plans to continue developing this tool so that it will be compatible with the new versions of Office?

    From what I observed through the YouTube videos and my limited testing, the tool appears to adds significant value to the Agile Central solution. From the list of bug fixes from your knowledgebase, it appears you’ve had this "special character" issue in the past with other versions of Excel so hopefully you can apply the same fix for Excel 2016.

    There is another issue that I have found with the tool; it does not recognize the applied filter of “Owner =”. I’ve researched your knowledgebase system and can find no solution.  When I add a filter with Owner = <name>, I still receive all the Initiatives in the program and not just those associated with the name I enter.



  • 4.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Apr 15, 2018 04:37 PM

    Hi Daniel,

     

    1. Excel Add-in is absolutely a recognized and popular utility. I couldn't agree with you more. I am almost certain that a new version is planned for a near release and that it will support Excel/Office 2016. bulmi01 Michael, can you please look into this and reply here to inform Daniel if/when this version is planned for release - thanks.

     

    2. Regarding the Owner field:

    I tried it and it worked, see my screen show below from exporting Portfolio Item / Feature (very similar to Initiative). Can you please (a) try for Features and let us know if worked (b) include one/two screen shots in your reply showing how you're trying to export the Owner which isn't working for you - we will use it to reproduce in same way and let you know. 

     

    Perhaps one/two things you may want to double-check are: That the name you're using for Owner is accurate, also can you get it to work for other Artifacts (such as Defects or User Stories)?

     

     

     

    Thanks,

    Sagi



  • 5.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Posted Apr 16, 2018 04:52 AM

    I do know there is work planned for this quarter, but there is not a release date set yet.  There may be a beta available if you would like to be part of the beta DRG, please let us know and I'll ask the Product Owner to add you to the list if there is a beta program for the Excel Add-in.



  • 6.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Posted Apr 16, 2018 08:45 AM

    Yes, please add me to the beta.



  • 7.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters
    Best Answer

    Posted Apr 17, 2018 07:39 AM

    Dan,

     

    The Product Owner will add your name to the beta and contact you when the beta starts.

     

    Also, I wanted to confirm that if you check the 'Strip Xml from Strings?' in your query, it is still failing to remove the tags from your Export.

     

    Strip XML



  • 8.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Posted Apr 17, 2018 08:13 AM

    Unfortunately they upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 last night and this morning when I launched Excel 2016, the tool produced an error and was removed.  I will have to wait and see if I can get it reinstalled.



  • 9.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Posted May 04, 2018 03:06 PM

    I have downloaded the Excel Add-In again and resumed my testing.  Checking the "Skip Xml from Strings?" worked to remove the special characters.  Thank you for providing the information!  You can close this issue.



  • 10.  Re: Excel Add-In Special Characters

    Posted May 07, 2018 03:56 AM

    Excellent.  Thank you for letting us know.  You should still be part of the Beta when it is available.

     

    Michael