Hello Zvika While Atlas and SNAP appear to offer the same result (ie a report in Excel), its how these products are implemented is what really separates them. Lets assume you want to get a figure from AX into a cell in your spreadsheet, for example, a customer balance - a sum of all transactions. With SNAP you are required to identify the cell and give it a named range, eg "SNAPCustomerBalance". You are then required to WRITE some XML code in a shadow Excel file (same name as your spreadsheet but with a different file extension) where this Excel Named Range is the link between the two files. You need to do this per cell. Imagine you have 100 rows down and 12 months across, so repeat this step another 1199 times. There is no copy/paste option as you need to enter named ranges for each cell. Atlas on the other hand implements new formula into Excel where the result of the formula (whenever it is calculated) comes from AX. This formula can be copied and pasted just like any other Excel formula, so in the case above you use the Atlas formula designer for the first cell and then simply drag the formula down and across to the other 1199 cells. Being a formula you can see immediately where the data is coming from and you know its 100% accurate. With SNAP you can't tell if the figure in the cell has been delivered by SNAP or the keyboard. Atlas formula appear in the standard Excel formula bar meaning you can also "read" it to understand the datasource (table) and filters which built the AX query. Atlas formula also allow drill-down (into a popup form - not AX) of the transactions that make up the balance. For more... http://www.atlasxl.com.au/DetailFormula.htm More than 1000 AX Implementations and 10,000 users worldwide use Atlas today. Signup for a free trial at http://partner.atlasxl.com.au (please be patient with this site..it's 100% AX!), you will need to know your AX Serial number. Regards Steve
________________________________ From: Axapta-Knowledge-Village@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Zvika Rimalt Sent: Wed 19/11/2008 5:33 PM To: Axapta-Knowledge-Village@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Axapta-Knowledge-Village] Microsoft SNAP vs. Atlas XL I am looking at 2 Dynamics AX and Excel integration tools. I am fairly familiar with Atlas XL but never worked with Microsoft SNAP. Has anyone had an opportunity to use the Microsoft provided SNAP integration with Excel? And how did you find it in comparison with Atlas XL? Do you think there is additional value (more features, ease of use etc.) of using the Atlas XL add-on, rather than the Microsoft "native" integration? Zvika
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