Layout in Excel Addin

Khaleelah
Khaleelah Customer
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in Platform

Hello,

Can we disable the layout in Excel Add in in order for the user not to modify it. does it have any impact if the user changes the layout on the excel.

Thanks

Answers

  • Helmut Heimann
    Helmut Heimann Employee, Community Captain
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    edited January 6

    Hi @Khaleelah ,

    any user with the appropriate license will be able to modify a layout in the AddIn and this currently can't be disabled (as opposed to Board itself where you can disable that).

    And—of course—that can have an impact, most of all regarding performance. If a layout is changed in a way that needs much more resources this will be reflected in the system's performance. That's the same as with any other layout on a Board screen.

    I'd suggest to create an idea regarding the enablement/disablement of the layout editor in the AddIn similar to the according feature in a Board screen.

    Best,
    Helmut

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

    Thanks Helmut for your input.

    But does changing a layout on Excel changes the layout on Board?

    Rgds

  • Helmut Heimann
    Helmut Heimann Employee, Community Captain
    50 Answers 500 Comments 250 Likes Fourth Anniversary
    https://community.board.com/discussion/comment/19345#Comment_19345

    Hi @Khaleelah ,

    the layouts in EXCEL and in Board are separate layouts, one is designed in the XLS AddIn, the other in a Board screen's DataView.

    They query the same data but are independent from each other regarding their settings.

    Best,
    Helmut

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

    Great

    Thanks Helmut.

    At least the user cannot alter Board Layout via Excel Add in

  • Khaleelah
    Khaleelah Customer
    10 Comments 5 Likes 5 Up Votes Name Dropper
    edited January 6

    Hi @Helmut Heimann,

    I want to confirm a behaviour.

    I have a tested a scenario whereby i modified one value in a particular cell in excel and it would override board values even those which have not been modified.

    Example

    In excel

    Cell1 : 100 Cell2: 200 Cell3: 300

    In Board

    Cell1 : 50 Cell2: 340 Cell3: 150

    Now if i modify cell1 in excel to 150, board values would become

    Cell1 : 150 Cell2: 200 Cell3: 300 which is correct

    Now, it seems excel is getting automatically synchronised with values from Board

    In excel

    Cell1 : 150 Cell2: 340 Cell3: 150

    Im confused.

    Any clarification on above please

    Rgds

  • Helmut Heimann
    Helmut Heimann Employee, Community Captain
    50 Answers 500 Comments 250 Likes Fourth Anniversary
    edited January 9
    https://community.board.com/discussion/comment/19348#Comment_19348

    Hi @Khaleelah ,

    sorry, I didn't see this earlier…

    Both the AddIn and a DataView in a Board screen working with the same dataset and set to Data Entry enabled will propagate the changes a user makes and saves immediately into the underlying database.

    I think we might have misunderstood each other, earlier on—you were talking about changes to the layout, not the data itself.

    So, whenever you have more than one possible way of changing Board's data (separate Dataviews and/or separate AddIn worksheets working with the same dataset) any change will be propagated to the database regardless of the input method after the user saves their data entry.

    Any change to the data will be reflected in the second input screen/worksheet after refreshing.

    And keep in mind: the last one wins.

    Best,
    Helmut

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

    Hi helmut,

    Indeed we were discussing about the layout changes in the beginning :)

    Then i asked about the data. But i noticed a strange behaviour while saving the data in excel which i described earlier. I feel it is unstable. Most probably, we will not go forward with this option.

    The idea behind saving in excel was to allow the user to have multiple versions of their workings. This would have permitted them to reload a previous version of their work "by saving a value in an older version of the excel"

    If ever you have any other idea, kindly share.

    Rgds

    Khaleelah

  • Helmut Heimann
    Helmut Heimann Employee, Community Captain
    50 Answers 500 Comments 250 Likes Fourth Anniversary
    edited January 9

    Hi @Khaleelah ,

    the users can always save the worksheet under a different name to create a "version" of their input but that requires them to open the separate versions without connecting to Board in the AddIn. Additionally, that might lead to confusion when answering the question "what's the correct version?".

    Have you thought about creating an additional entity (let's call it "scenario"), adding that to the input cube and thus making it possible to save and compare different versions of the input data?
    You could have members like "Base Case", "Best Case", "Worst Case" and others—this would allow for other users to see those versionized scenarios as well.

    Additionally, the versionized data can be easily copied from one to another version using Dataflows, starting from the "Base Case", for example.

    Best,
    Helmut

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

    Hi Helmut,

    Thanks for the proposed solution. Will consider same.

    Rgds

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