Excel services part 5: all about “interactivity”

re: Excel services part 5: all about “interactivity”

Jim Rech — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 23:51:37 GMT

David-

I'm still not clear whether users can make entries in 'cells'. I don't see that as a supported interactivity so I guess not, but could you spell it out for me. Thanks.

Jim

re: Excel services part 5: all about “interactivity”

David Gainer — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 04:35:34 GMT

Hi Jim - users can not type directly into the grid they see in the browser. However, the person saving the spreadsheet to the server can specify one or more cells as "paramteters". When they do this, the user will see a task pane beside thier spreadsheet in the browser - see http://www.isamrad.com/dgainer/s5_11-11-2005.png for an example - and the user can type into the task pane and press Apply. This will be the equivalent of typing into the cells marked as parameters ... the sheet will recalc, all dependant cells will update accordingly, and the resulting spreadsheet will be returned to the user's browser. Does that make sense?

re: Excel services part 5: all about “interactivity”

John Greenan — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 13:34:01 GMT

Looks good. Here's a question. At the moment it looks like Excel 12 will be a big, heavy duty, complex application that's been re-thought and re-imagined so it should be easier to use than Excel 10 (XP).

It would appear that excel services/excel in a browser is a super lightweight version of Excel. So in complexity terms you have a hierarchy excel 10>excel 12>excel services (most to least). And in functionality the hierarchy is 12>10>ws. All good stuff, but is the aim to reduce complexity or increase functionality. Please don't say both (I know the answer is always both, but bear with me).

So, where's the longer term goal? I can see a few options:
1. move more functionality to the browser based front end
2. Move functionality to the "right" place - some stuff would be browser only, other stuff .exe based only.
3. Go all weird and wacky with AJAX or whatever the techie flavour of the month is.

Maybe this is outside of the remit of this blog, but I'd love to hear from someone on the inside about where Microsoft really wants to take Excel over the next few versions.

Initially most firms that I consult to regard spreadsheets as being in the tactical/throwaway category of IT development, but when I hear about stuff I wrote in Excel 95 still being in use it comes to the fore that the lifecycle for spreadsheets is a darn sight longer than most folks think. So, looking over that sort of timeframe is not redundant or silly.

re: Excel services part 5: all about “interactivity”

Tianwei — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:59:45 GMT

David, this is great. With these few question answered I can envision Excel service being adopted earlier than the Excel 12 itself:

1. Any browser upgrade needed? What's the earliest version of IE this can work on?

2. Any client side install needed? Be it browser components or Office components?

3. This is going to be a little touchy: how about other browser support (FireFox, etc)?

If minimum or no client side installation is needed then we power users/developers would love to use it to introduce to the broader audience via a much streamlined deployment of applications.

re: Excel services part 5: all about “interactivity”

David Gainer — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 00:27:11 GMT

John, we do spend time a lot of time considering the long-term strategy for our products. While we can never commit to what the future holds, we generally try to put functionality in the "right" place, as you say. In this first version, Excel Services' web interface is designed for browsing and exploring spreadsheets. It is great when you don't have access to an Excel client, or if you want to ensure lock-down and no access to the file (e.g. financial reporting, extranet, regulatory compliance). It is also a great way to integrate Excel content into dashboards and additional context in the portal. But we still believe that Excel client is the best place to author spreadsheets and perform modeling and analysis. For longer-term thinking, you will have to wait for my next blog ... this one is about Excel 12 features ;-)

Tianwei, this will work with IE 6 and above. No browser components or Office components required whatsoever. We plan to support additional browsers, but the level of interactivity available may vary between browsers depending on their support for javascript.

re: Excel services part 5: all about “interactivity”

Steve — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 14:07:04 GMT

I know you posted that Excel server will not allow users to modify cell contents in the brower - I presume that this still applies to cells with list restricted data? If so, will it be possible to list restrict the user-definable parameters (to ensure data is available in a vlookup, etc)?
Also, will the browser support any Excel UI components, e.g. macro-linked buttons?

re: Excel services part 5: all about “interactivity”

David Gainer — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 23:35:45 GMT

Steve, unfortunately this version we did not get to hooking up parameters to restricting data or input validation. There is a way to create pick-lists for parameters using a new SharePoint Portal feature called "filter parts" that I will talk about in a few posts. With respect to the Excel UI components the answer is also no.

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