How to reset Business Analyzer settings

Just recently, I ran into an interesting case where the consultant had installed and configured Business Analyzer for a user. However, during the configuration process, the consultant marked all available reports for all available companies, which put Business Analyzer into a tailspin as it attempted to load all this information. The consultant proceeded to shut down the application using the Task Manager program.

When he restarted Business Analyzer, the application went back into a tailspin, displaying only the loading screen with a "Connecting to Server" message for over an hour. Fearing this would be a permanent issue due to the number of reports and companies selected, the question was just obvious: how to reset Business Analyzer configuration settings.

The boring theory

If you have downloaded Business Analyzer from the Windows Store or are still running the Business Analyzer desktop client, chances are you had to go through a setup process. In Windows 8, this involves swiping the Edge UI to obtain the charms and clicking on Settings to obtain the Configuration pane.

Business Analyzer for Windows 8 configuration

Once in the Configuration pane you are asked to enter information about the Report Server from which reports will be loaded. Once the credentials have been validated, you will be directed to add reports accordingly.

Business Analyzer Reports Configuration

Selecting all reports from all companies under a specific instance (I'm running GP 2013) can have adverse performance effects if you are in an environment with multiple companies, as Business Analyzer attempts to obtain information for each report, for each company from Report Server. The important part though is, this information is stored locally, under the user profile folder, in the hidden AppData folder, where an XML configuration file is created (user.config). Since all reports were selected for all companies, building this file would normally take a considerable amount of time.

The Solution

To fix the problem all that's needed is to remove the Business Analyzer configuration folder, which can be found under:

"C:\Users\userid\AppData\Local\Microsoft\BusinessAnalyzer.exe_Url_..." 

After this, you can re-launch Business Analyzer and go back to the configuration options where you will be prompted to enter the server information and selected the reports to display once again. Easy enough!

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/