Its been a busy day for template builder emails and questions today. They have centered around good ol Windows 7 64bit and Office 10. I fairly recently moved up to Win 7 64bit just so that I could install more addressable memory to run more software ... a virtual machine running Oracle BI another running content manager server and running JDeveloper locally to build some integration and XP with 4Gb is at best on its knees and Im crying into my coffee. The trade off has been Win7's insistance on protecting me from myself. Im an Admin on my machine and I still find Win7 telling me I do not have access to a certain directory. Good or bad, I left Windoze one night to churn through every dang directory on the disk and give me rights to everything!
So now I do not get any security problems, the drawback is, that this is not real life right? I meet so many folks on my travels where their machines are locked down so far that they can not even sneeze without calling an admin for permission first. I completely understand, security is the top of organization's priorities and some folks do need some protection from themselves. Even my families machines are pretty locked down, although my sons are getting far too good at getting around my security. I often get cryptic questions from them checking when we got married or if I have a suggestion for a new password for them ... try again boys :)
Today I got two separate questions around template builder, one for an issue on 64bit windows and another for Office 2010. The former was that teplate builder was throwing a nice cryptic message when trying to preview a template.
To be fair, its probably not something that the dev boys and gals could have planned for. Checking the error with MS did not illicit much help but the 'Access is denied' got me thinking about all the pain Win7 has put me through until my sledge hammer approach to security on my machine.
A quick reply to get the questioner to check their permissions on the template builder install and sub directories et voila they were back in business!
One down, one to go!
I should add at this point that this combo of Office 2007 and Win 7 64 bit is not officially supported so do not try it :0) Certification matrix for 11g is here.
The other issue was a little more complex and even more out there, running template builder on Office 2010, this is most definitely not officially supported. Not having Office 2010 meant that I was next to useless. However, the industrious questioner went out and tried some stuff ... alright they hacked about a bit and found a solution. First the problem, 'template builder (no version mentioned) does not work with Office 2010' ... simple enough but a nightmare to even start to tease apart.
Another mail today with the solution. I have not checked it but at least two folks out there have and confirm that it worked for them:
I had an issue trying to use BI Publisher tool using MS word 2010.
Issue:
When trying to build a temple in MS Word 2010 using BI Publisher (Add-in), it came back with an error " Macros not enabled for this add-in"
Resolution: I found the article below from a source on google
Note: Presently Oracle does not support Oracle BI Add-in with Microsoft Word 2010
The solution
The solution shown here really works (tested on several computers), so I'm writing this down to be more like documentation for future reference to anyone stack on this case. Idea is to remove old *.EXD files from any location in %USERPROFILE% folders that might exists. (In my case, it was in the following location: C:\Documents and Settings\sandeep.penumalli\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms)
D:\Users\DamirV\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms>
So all you have to do is:
1. Rename existing "MSComctlLib.exd" file to "MSComctlLib.exd_bak"
2. Open Word 2010
3. Open menu Add-Ins|Oracle BI Publisher|Log On
Last action will create new MSComctlLib.exd file in background:
D:\Users\DamirV\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms>dir Volume in drive D is Data Volume Serial Number is 505E-794F Directory of D:\Users\DamirV\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms 01.02.2011 11:45 01.02.2011 11:45 01.02.2011 13:51 167.456 MSComctlLib.exd 12.03.2009 15:17 165.808 MSComctlLib.exd_old 31.08.2010 10:34 11.776 WINPROJ.box 01.02.2011 11:19 7.168 WINWORD.box 3 File(s) 184.752 bytes 2 Dir(s) 51.699.859.456 bytes free D:\Users\DamirV\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms>
4. Notice different file size and file date of "MSComctlLib.exd". This is now Office 2010 version of EXD file which was not able to be created because of previous version. And that is all.
Thanks to Leta from Oracle Uni and one of her students Sandeep Penumalli over at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for digging out that gem. Let me add, Office 2010 is not officially supported yet (nope, I dont have a date) so dont try it, got that? good :0)