PAfE: IBM Connections: Avoid Automatic Addition of Connection URLs When Opening Workbook

When opening workbooks, the "IBM Connection URLs" used during the creation of the workbook (likely stored in the worksheet's custom properties "COR_Report" and/or "COR_Server") are automatically added to PAfE (CommManagerSettings.xml) without notifying the user. This occurs without giving the user the option to confirm or reject the addition.

This automatic addition can cause issues such as reduced performance and failed connections if the data source is no longer available at the previous location, for instance, when it has moved to a new URL.

Suggestions:

Alternative 1:
Ignore URL Information: Ignore the URL information of the workbook and only consider the TM1 Server information.

Alternative 2:
User Confirmation: Display a popup asking, "Do you want to add the IBM Connection <URL> to your PAfE Settings?" In best case this popup should have an option to be disabled in the PAfE client settings (for example not to have automated workbook refreshs to be interrupted).

Our real-life scenario:

Our Planning Analytics installation has been moved to new hardware, necessitating an adjustment to the Planning Analytics URL. This change has resulted in significant issues for both users and IT support:

1. Old Workbooks: Workbooks containing PAfE views have stopped functioning, and users are reluctant to recreate all their reports from scratch.

2. New Workbooks: Even new workbooks are experiencing issues due to conflicting IBM Connection URLs.

Resolving these connection problems is a complex technical process. To address this, we have developed a custom tool to modify the workbook's properties. We are now considering creating a second tool to clean up the URLs.