Dave Taylor wrote: > One of my customers is interested in extracting data from Universe > into Excel by himself without having to have a program written for > each import to Excel. > > If he learns the names of the files and their dictionaries, and which > attributes are multi-valued, or even sub-valued, (and of course > Excel), what strategies are available to him - eg. SQL commands, a > macro in Excel, Web Services (next rel. of Universe), some reporting > product designed to import data from Universe, etc.?
The "solution" will depend on a number of factors in the problem definition. For example, where are end-user PC's located which will be drawing info from Universe. Or will Universe be pushing data to Excel sheets for anyone to access? I won't recommend "how" a task like this can be done yet, but I will say as always that mv.NET is an ideal communications tool for this and multitude of other purposes. You can specify which files and fields you will use to populate your sheets and there are many deployment options. Rendering data in Excel is best done with a programmed solution rather than simply importing CSV files. A programmed solution will also facilitate a scenario where the user clicks a toolbar button in excel and they get a window with a listbox for files and another selection of fields which can then be mapped to Excel cells. With a programmed solution we can handle multivalued sets, create pivot tables, format cells, set column widths, insert headers, take advantage of templates, and perform a number of other functions that simply aren't possible with raw data imports. We can also code updates for existing sheets so that data is refreshed using the proper formatting whenever the user clicks another toolbar button. I don't know if you want something dirt simple and free, but for "real" business applications which don't involve a lot of manual reformatting, I highly recommend writing something as described above. A utility can be written to satisfy general purpose requests, so that a program doesn't need to be written for every unique requirement. Of course I can do this, and offer my services along with mv.NET for the communications. Less manual intervention and more features will require more coding effort. I see something like this being done in phases so that your client can see some immediate results and then decide what else they want to add as time goes on. This also seems like a good candidate for a product for resale since it would be so versatile - and people ask about this sort of thing all the time. HTH Tony TG@ removethisNebula-RnD.com ------- u2-users mailing list u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
