A
Alex Valkov
Hi,
The newly released Analysis Services accelerator for Excel (http://www.microsoft.com/office/solutions/accelerators/exceladdin/default.mspx)
is a great step in the right direction for Microsoft BI and adds functionlity which has been badly needed for a same time.
There is one aspect which has me quite worried about the way reports are built and stored using the new addin. The addin is built around a number of new BI focused Excel formulas which enable data to be retrieved from cubes. The trouble is that the formulas directly reference the .odc files defined on the machine where the report was first created. This makes deployment of reports built using the new addin across an organisation quite problematic.
Either the original .odc file needs to be copied to each new machine or a file of the same name needs to be created by each user before they can use the report and drill down etc.
I can think of a few options where either a batch file is used to copy the .odc file or VBA is used to create the file and thus automate the process. Neither of these seems very elegant and I want to ask if anyone is aware of a better way to create the .odc files on the client machine in order to ensure the ditributed reports work.
The aspect I find strangest of all is that when using normal excel pivot-tables the analysis services connection is embeded into the excel file even though it also exists on the source machine as an .oqy. Why can't the same thing be done with the accelerator addin?
Regards,
Alex
The newly released Analysis Services accelerator for Excel (http://www.microsoft.com/office/solutions/accelerators/exceladdin/default.mspx)
is a great step in the right direction for Microsoft BI and adds functionlity which has been badly needed for a same time.
There is one aspect which has me quite worried about the way reports are built and stored using the new addin. The addin is built around a number of new BI focused Excel formulas which enable data to be retrieved from cubes. The trouble is that the formulas directly reference the .odc files defined on the machine where the report was first created. This makes deployment of reports built using the new addin across an organisation quite problematic.
Either the original .odc file needs to be copied to each new machine or a file of the same name needs to be created by each user before they can use the report and drill down etc.
I can think of a few options where either a batch file is used to copy the .odc file or VBA is used to create the file and thus automate the process. Neither of these seems very elegant and I want to ask if anyone is aware of a better way to create the .odc files on the client machine in order to ensure the ditributed reports work.
The aspect I find strangest of all is that when using normal excel pivot-tables the analysis services connection is embeded into the excel file even though it also exists on the source machine as an .oqy. Why can't the same thing be done with the accelerator addin?
Regards,
Alex