Oracle Smart View turns Excel into a dynamic front-end for powerful financial systems like Oracle Planning and Essbase. The first step is telling Excel where to find this data. Your main tool for this is the Smart View Panel, which you can open from the Smart View ribbon in Excel. Think of this panel as your command centre for all data connections.

Connections are simply URLs that point to a specific server and application. Once you add a connection, it appears in your panel, ready to use. But not all connections are created equal. You'll work with two main types: Private and Shared.

A Private Connection is one you create yourself, for your own use. You manually enter the server URL directly into the Smart View panel. This is perfect for ad-hoc analysis, connecting to a test environment, or accessing a specific cube that isn't part of the standard, company-wide setup.

A Shared Connection, on the other hand, is managed centrally by your IT or finance administration team. Instead of pointing to a specific server, your Smart View connects to a central XML configuration file that contains a list of approved connections. This ensures everyone on your team is using the same, validated data sources for official reporting and planning. When you log in, the list of applications, like Planning applications or Essbase cubes, populates automatically.

To add a new private connection, you open the Smart View Panel, click the arrow next to the home icon, and select "Private Connections". In the text box, you'll enter the URL for the environment you want to access. The syntax is specific to the data source.

For shared connections, you follow the same process, but the URL you enter will point to the XML configuration file, not directly to the Planning or Essbase server. Your administrator will provide this URL.

Most finance professionals need to access multiple environments, such as a Production environment for live reporting and a Development (or Test) environment for building new reports or testing calculations. You can add URLs for all your required environments to the connection list in the Smart View Panel. To switch between them, simply select the desired connection from the dropdown menu at the top of the panel.

Once you select a connection and click 'Connect', a login prompt will appear. You'll enter the same username and password you would use to access the application via a web browser. Upon successful authentication, the panel will display the available applications and databases (cubes) for you to work with.

Your connection remains active until you disconnect or close Excel. It's good practice to disconnect from a session when you are finished, especially in a shared environment, as active connections can consume server resources. You can do this by clicking the 'Disconnect' button in the Smart View ribbon.