Export to Excel in SAS Visual Analytics Modern look (HTML5)

[Jeove74]

Hi everyone,  

In many ways SAS VA is a great tool - especially after introducing HTML5 modern viewer which is faster to load large datasets and looks nicer than Classic Style.

But we face are facing an extremely annoying issue - after our recent upgrade to SAS VA 7.3 from 7.1 and are facing serious issues about to export object content in Modern style (HTML5) SAS Visual Analytics reports. This is simply not possible. 

If we change style back to Classic style (FLASH viewer), then it is still possible to right click an object and export object content to Excel. (see attached PPTx for illustration)

This is hugely annoying - why is this the case - and when will we have an fix for this issue. I find it very hard to believe that it is not possible to do a direct export to excel by right clicking on the objects in Modern style when it is possible in Classic style. This loss of functionality is a clear setback for us.  

Does anyone else recently upgraded to SAS VA 7.3 face the same issues?

Our local SAS Office has not yet come up with an solution. 

PS: I am of course fully aware of SAS Office Add-in - but our frontline users of VA is not interested in this solution, since it slows down performance of Excel. They have "fallen in love" with the classic style of exporting object data.

Kind regards, 

Jesper Bæk Overgaard

[MichelleHomes]

Hi Jesper,

I understand your frustrations and this was a topic that was discussed in another thread. https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Visual-Analytics/Export-crosstab-report-data-to-PDF-using-SAS-VA-... In this discussion, @Joy_SAS mentioned that it is a limitation with the modern viewer in 7.2 and 7.3, so you can't use it to export data or images.

You can change the style back to the Classic style (FLASH viewer) to access the export object content to Excel. From the SAS Visual Analytics User's Guide here are the options to  Open a Report in the Classic Viewer

It would be good to know whether the export data option will be available in the Modern style interface in a future release.

Kind Regards,

Michelle

[Jeove74 · Accepted solution]

Hej Michelle,

Thanks, I Discovered that myself 3 hours later by referring to the SAS VA 7.3 user guide ch 56/p.528 (bottom).

I suggest that SAS Development in Cary makes this a top priority to fix this ASAP - since the the functionality of the modern viewer is less than the classic.

My real issue is that performance of the Modern style is so much better than the classic style, so user experience is harmed significantly by telling users to switch to Classic style! (Flash does not go well hand in hand with our versions of 32bit CPU laptops... Sorry, corporate policy, hence performance is slow on larger datasets and bigger reports.

@Sas CARY: Can I ask for a quick fix please, very soon?! This really harms our adoption of the tool among our end users....

Thanks again Michelle 🙂

Kind regards Jesper

[MichelleHomes]

Good to hear you found it Jesper.

Hopefully someone from SAS can respond to this thread. I've heard similar feedback as you've experienced.

Kind Regards,

Michelle

[daha]

Hi Jesper,

Not directly related to your topic but just some additional infomation which might be nice for you to know.

Our SAS Consultants has reached out to us regarding the upgrade fra 7.1 to 7.3. We had a phone-meeting and in the end we decided not to upgrade as the changes were not significant when it comes to functionality in SAS VA. We have been aware of the HTML5 transition which should give a better user-experience speaking of performance, with all respect to JAVA 🙂 and also a few new features on the mobile-BI App. Likewise we were afraid to run into such "issues" as you have ran into, as the 7.3 was not a need-to-have version but more a nice-to-have although it has brought some bug-fixes which we have learned to live with as far as the following might take...

Our SAS Consultant told us that a new version is about to be released between Q1 and Q2 - 2016, but more likely it will be in the end of Q2, start of Q3 - 2016. Here the exploration and design (report) parts will be combined, theres was a presentation about this on SAS Forum las year, and we are aiming for this release. Hopefully the export-issue will be solved here.

/Dado Hajric

Vi sidder også i lille Danmark 🙂

[muralinori_sas]

Hi 

Export to Excel from the new HTML5 viewer will be available in a future release of Visual Analytics.  We hear your feedback and have taken action of fixing.   

Thank you for your feedback and keep it coming 🙂   

Murali Nori 

[Jeove74]

Hi Murali,

This is Good news - unfortunately rumours have it that a new release is First late Q2 / start Q3 (??). That is a little too long time to wait, Any chance of a magical hot fix for the 7.3 release coming out sooner?

Kind regards / Jesper

[muralinori_sas]

Hi Jesper, 

I wish I had a magic wand. there will be many more we could make them happen  

This requirement is on our list and will do our best to get it soon in future release.  (Not in a hot fix for 7.3) 

Regards, 

Murali Nori 

[Tuesdi]

Hi Murali.  Thank you for letting us know that SAS is working to add to a future release the capability to export to Excel using the SAS VA Modern look (HTML5).  For us, the modern look is useless without that capability and we have launched VA using the Classic Viewer.  I am hoping this has been moved to a high priority.  Thanks so much for your work to continually improve VA!

Tuesdi

[muralinori_sas]

Hi 

Yes.  we heard this input from you and others and taken it seariously.  

Murali   

[CharlotteFriis]

Hi Murali

Any news on this issue? when is the fix expected?

We are using VA and really need the possibility to send to Excel from the HTML5 Modern Look

Br.

Charlotte

[AbhiD]

if we just want to get the report to export data into excel we can open the report in excel using sas microsoft add-in.

and them export whatever section of data is required to be extracted from the report.

just a work around till the functionality is built into.

Rgds,

Abhi