Can you Procedurally Export to Excel?

wdeer
wdeer Customer
10 Comments 5 Likes Name Dropper 5 Up Votes
in Platform

We have a budget cube that is loaded to via the smart import object. After a bit of transformation on our end, we want our users to have the ability to export this data in xlsx format (same format they initially loaded to in the smart import object) for their own purposes. We would like for there to be an interactive selection on version so they can choose which budget version to export.

Is there a way to do this via procedure? I've down this before with extracting cubes but it generates a txt file and drops it in Azure. While it's close to what we want to do, we need the data in xlsx format and downloaded directly to the user's desktop.

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Accepted Answer

  • Helmut Heimann
    Helmut Heimann Employee, Community Captain
    50 Answers 500 Comments 250 Likes Fourth Anniversary
    Answer ✓

    Hi @wdeer ,

    there once was an option to update an existing XLS file on the server (not the desktop). This doesn't exist anymore.

    The only way to achieve that by procedure would be to export the data to a text file and let it be converted into XLS by a script. But that would mean that said script would have to sit on the server in a cloud environment, which probably is not possible—and, the file would still be on the server; you'd need a broadcasting action to send it to a user.

    My advice is to let the user apply their selections and export the data to an XLS file manually via the context menu

    image.png

    I know that's not the solution you were hoping for but it's the most pragmatic way.

    Another possibility might be using the Microsoft API. We have a how-to paper that describes how to use the API to interact with MS Teams. Adapting that to convert a text file to XLS would require some effort and I'm not sure if it can be done—just a hint to explore. You can find the paper here

    https://community.board.com/discussion/16636/how-to-send-notifications-integration-with-ms-teams

    You can, of course, create a new idea regarding this enhancement ;-)

    Best,
    Helmut

Answers

  • wdeer
    wdeer Customer
    10 Comments 5 Likes Name Dropper 5 Up Votes

    Thank you, Helmut. The closest I was able to get is export dataset procedure and it's exactly how I want the file (except for being csv instead of xls but close enough), but it still stores it in Azure. I like your suggestions but agree it's probably not best to over engineer it. I'll proceed with the context menu idea. Have a good one!

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