Excel export option missing in Chrome and Edge

[thsVC]

One of our eSchoolPLUS users tried to switch to Chrome or Edge since PowerSchool will officially end support for Internet Explorer 11 beginning January 1, 2020.

She runs most of her Cognos reports in IE 11 and exports them to Excel. Neither Edge nor Chrome offer Excel as an option and all she sees is CSV, PDF, HTML and XML. We tried a different computer and a different user with the same results. Firefox shows the Excel option but seems to have other issues when used for eSchoolPLUS according to the user. We did not look at Safari. All tested browsers are up to date.

One specific report she was running to show me the options was the Graduation Requirements report.

Any help regarding this would be greatly appreciated since her workflow requires that Excel option.

Thank you.

[SowmyaN]

Hi @thsVC,

Would you please provide which Cognos version you are using for exporting?

[thsVC]

Hi SowmyaN,

Cognos version is 10.1.1.

Thanks.

[JBuch42]

Is there anything wrong with running the report as a csv then opening it in Excel? 

[thsVC]

Saving as CSV works but oppening it in Excel strips all the formating that makes the report usable for us. It would require a lot more work to get the CSV version into a usable document for while the Excel option gets us there right away. 

[SowmyaN]

I see you are using a previous version of Cognos i.e., 10.1.1. I recommend updating the latest version of Cognos i.e., Cognos version 11 as this is a common resolution. You should be able to reach out to a Designated Support Contact within your school district to discuss upgrading to the latest Cognos version.

[JeromeO · Accepted solution]

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@thsVC wrote:

One of our eSchoolPLUS users tried to switch to Chrome or Edge since PowerSchool will officially end support for Internet Explorer 11 beginning January 1, 2020.

She runs most of her Cognos reports in IE 11 and exports them to Excel. Neither Edge nor Chrome offer Excel as an option and all she sees is CSV, PDF, HTML and XML. We tried a different computer and a different user with the same results. Firefox shows the Excel option but seems to have other issues when used for eSchoolPLUS according to the user. We did not look at Safari. All tested browsers are up to date.

One specific report she was running to show me the options was the Graduation Requirements report.

Any help regarding this would be greatly appreciated since her workflow requires that Excel option.

Thank you.

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Cognos 10 will not support modern browsers very well (and to get REALLY technical, Cognos is an IBM product that's licensed by Sungard/PowerSchool).  Cognos 10 was released in 2010.  Cognos 11 was released in 2015, with continuing upgrades since then.

(the following is based on my personal experience as a self-hosted/on-prem customer of eFinancePlus, and not an official endorsement by PowerSchool)

While migrating to Cognos 11 is a solution, there should be more disclosure attached to that suggestion:

• It's not free.
• The interface is very, very different, especially in the building of solutions.
• On-site training is highly, highly recommended because of the amount of differences between 10 and 11.
• It's not a quick upgrade, as server infrastructure also has to be considered.

Moving from Cognos 10 to 11 is a big undertaking.  You'll need to weigh the pros and cons and determine whether going down that rabbit hole is worth not having to do CSV-to-Excel conversions depending on the amount of manual labor that would entail.

That being said, this doesn't mean that IE will stop working.  Continuing to use IE just means that you and your users to be 100% on your own.  If the Cognos reports continue to work, then you can keep using it.  Just be aware that if goofy browser-centric errors pop up in IE but don't in Chrome/Edge/Firefox/Safari, then neither PowerSchool nor Microsoft can or will help you.  If you have an IT support department, they may not be able to do anything either.

But since the root cause of the issue is the workflow, that's eventually going to have to be addressed sooner or later.