Overview - Work with e.Spreadsheet Reports on iServer Express


Main Page | Discussion | Edit | History | Help | Switch to MediaWiki mode
<< Previous | TOC | Next >>

iServer Express offers e.Spreadsheets—a powerful tool for producing reports as Excel spreadsheets. Let's see how to run an e.Spreadsheet report on demand. This means that we want the report to query its data sources right now, create a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet with the results, and automatically display it in Microsoft Excel – all while you wait.

The download page offers two versions of iServer Express: one for BIRT and the other for e.Spreadsheet. As it turns out, the e.Spreadsheet functionality described here is available in both versions; you can try out this lesson even if you downloaded the BIRT version.

Contents

[edit]

Requirements

You must have Microsoft Excel® installed on your computer to view the e.Spreadsheet report documents in this lesson.

Use Microsoft Internet Explorer for this lesson. If you have been using Firefox or some other browser you should now switch to Internet Explorer. Skip back to Log into iServer Express using iPortal if you need a reminder about how to log in.

iPortal uses pop-ups to display e.Spreadsheet reports. If you get an error dialog stating that pop-ups are disabled, then visit Enable Pop-ups for iPortal.

[edit]

Locate e.Spreadsheet Examples

Navigate to folder “/Public/SpreadSheet Examples” to locate the provided e.Spreadsheet reports. (See this previous lesson for a reminder how to locate this folder.)

  • First click the “Public” folder in the folder navigation tree in the left sidebar.

You will see two folders displayed: “BIRT and Business Reports Examples” and “Spreadsheet Examples”.

  • Click on the “SpreadSheet Examples” folder.
List of e.Spreadsheet Examples


[edit]

Run and View an e.Spreadsheet Report

This folder contains several e.Spreadsheet reports under "Reports You Can Run." Let's run one:

  • Click on the report named “Employee Directory.”

The report will immediately start running: it will query the report’s data sources. Once the report is complete, it will open as an Excel spreadsheet. Excel will open either as a separate application or within your browser depending on your Excel version, browser type and computer settings.

Example SpreadSheet Report


[edit]

Run and Save an On-Demand e.Spreadsheet Report

Return to the “SpreadSheet Examples” folder. Notice the icons to the right of each file name:

File Icons


  • Find the report “Product Sales by Office” in the list.
  • Click on its “Run and Save” icon.

A window pops up, asking where the report document should be saved on the server.

Image:Gsg-runess-03.PNG


  • For now, accept all the default values. It will save the resulting report document to the administrator’s home folder.
  • Click the Finish button.

After a few seconds the resulting spreadsheet will appear in Excel.

Image:Gsg-runess-04.PNG


[edit]

View and Interact with e.Spreadsheet Report Documents

You can now interact with the Excel spreadsheet utilizing the full power of Microsoft Excel®.

  • Dynamically expand and collapse to greater or lesser levels of detail by clicking the expand (+) and collapse (-) buttons above the spreadsheet columns and to the left of the spreadsheet rows.

Since e.Spreadsheet produces fully-functional, analysis ready Excel spreadsheets with live formulas, live charts, data filters, pivot tables, conditional formatting, cell locking etc you can perform powerful what-if”analysis by changing the values in cells to see how those changes will affect the outcome of other formulas on the worksheet.

  • When finished, close Microsoft Excel and any unused browser windows.
[edit]

View a Saved e.Spreadsheet Report Document

The report run produced the spreadsheet we just viewed, and it also produced a copy saved in iServer Express. Let's view this copy. The saved spreadsheet holds the data retrieved at the time the report was run; no queries are run when viewing.

Let's navigate to the spreadsheet generated above. You saved it in the administrator user’s home folder:

  • Return to the browser window displaying iPortal documents.
  • Click on the My Folder link in the upper right corner of the page.

You will see the Product Sales by Office report document displayed in the listing.

Image:Gsg-runess-05.PNG


Let's view this saved spreadsheet:

  • Click on the Product Sales by Office report to display it in Microsoft Excel.
  • When finished, close Microsoft Excel and any unused browser windows.
[edit]

Learn More

The following product manual at http://www.birt-exchange.com/modules/documentation/ provides more information.

  • Spreadsheet Automation → iServer Express Report Server → Using Actuate iServer Express (PDF) →
    • Scheduling, running, and managing reports
    • Running reports with parameters
    • Generating reports → Running a job
  • Spreadsheet Automation → Excel Report Designer

Learn more about e.Spreadsheet at:

<< Previous | TOC | Next >>

Retrieved from "http://www.birt-exchange.com/wiki/Overview_-_Work_with_e.Spreadsheet_Reports_on_iServer_Express/"

This page has been accessed 875 times. This page was last modified 01:34, 13 June 2008.