What is excel server

From time to time, someone does something with PHP that is truly unique — something that goes far beyond the norm of PHP applications listed at Hotscripts and leaves you truly impressed by the capabilities of this language.

One prime example is Jedox’s Worksheet Server, a truly unique combination of Microsoft Excel and PHP that enables users to build «online spreadsheets».

I first heard of Worksheet Server in December of last year and was so fascinated by the idea that I had to drop by Jedox (a couple of hours from home) to find out more. Since then, I’ve been messing with an evaluation copy of Worksheet Server, in spare moments, in an attempt to determine its significance as a tool for building Web applications.

If you’ve read Generating Spreadsheets with PHP and PEAR, you’ll know I’m not averse to using Excel with PHP when it makes a better choice than a normal HTML table for displaying data. Worksheet Server works in the opposite direction, the starting point being an Excel spreadsheet and the end result being a working PHP Web application.

This is a technological review of Worksheet Server as seen through the eyes of a PHP developer.

On today’s workbook:

• Introducing Worksheet Server: Worksheet what?
• First Impressions: thoughts as a naive Excel user
• The PHP Developers View: generated code and extending
• SUM(A1:A3): conclusions

Introducing Worksheet Server

The fundamental purpose of Worksheet Server is to enable Excel users to build Web applications using an environment in which they’re already confident. As a Web developer, the best way to think of Worksheet Server is as a design tool for building specialized PHP applications, where the tool just happens to be Excel.

Worksheet Server consists of two distinct software packages: a Web platform (Apache, PHP and the Worksheet Server code bundled in an easy-to-install form) and a set of add-ons for Excel itself, to help you design and publish applications. I’ll refer to the latter half as the «WS Excel Designer» to avoid confusion.

The Worksheet Server Life Cycle

The easiest way to grasp what Worksheet Server does is to consider the «life cycle» of an application built and deployed with it.

Step 1: Design

Design of an application begins with an Excel spreadsheet, 99% of the work being no different than creating a normal spreadsheet.

Special WS Excel Designer macros are available to perform tasks like adding hyperlinks and images to the application, so that they appear correctly as HTML in the Web environment. Further, Worksheet Server functions are also available, such as the MYSQLDATA function, which populates a cell with a result from a MySQL query. These are used just like normal Excel functions, but only take on meaning once they’re run on the Web server.

Step 2: Build

The designer, happy with the spreadsheet, «builds» the application for the Worksheet Server Web environment, using another WS Excel Designer macro.

In practice, a ZIP file is generated, which contains everything Worksheet Server needs to know about the application.

Step 3: Publish

In Worksheet Server (the Web server), administrators publish the application. They first log into the «Application Center» (a PHP application that manages multiple Worksheet Server applications), upload the ZIP file, «compile» it (a process which generates the PHP scripts for the application), then start the application (the application becomes available on a unique URL on the Web server).

Step 4: Security

The administrators log into the new application using the URL obtained from the Application Center. They create login accounts for end users, giving them privileges to access the application.

Step 5: Start work!

End users can now log in (over the Web) and begin to work with the application. They no longer work with separate local copies of the same spreadsheet; rather, they collaborate via a dynamic Web application. This looks largely the same as the original spreadsheet, but allows them to work concurrently (changes are reflected immediately) and may connect them with a wide variety of other remote data sources (databases, Web services and so on).

Step X: Re-design

If changes are required to the design of the application, the above cycle starts over, minus the effort of setting up user accounts. The designers continue work where they left off, using their saved .xls file (or an up-to-date copy they’ve downloaded from Worksheet Server), then re-publishing the application.

Worksheet Server acts as an active code generator (rather than a passive code generator — see this post for thoughts on active vs. passive code generation). The code running on the Web server is not meant to be modified directly (although there are opportunities for you to write «external» PHP code to interact with it). As such, Worksheet Server allows designers to make incremental changes to their applications without breaking anything.

That hopefully makes it clear what Worksheet Server actually is. Of course, seeing the end result helps even more — the best place to look is Jedox’s online demos (note that both the application, and the Excel file used to create it, are available).

First Impressions

With an evaluation copy of Worksheet Server and a copy of the manual in hand, I took it for a spin, installing it and following the introductory tutorial that walks you through the building of a basic application. The manual itself is straightforward, and wastes no time overloading the reader with extraneous information. It’s focused on getting down to real work as quickly as possible. I wish more technical documents were written this way.

Set Up

Installing Worksheet Server is a two-stage process.

Step one involves the installation of the Web environment. You can run the server both on Linux and Windows (there’s no requirement for Windows-specific extensions, despite Excel being the design tool). I chose Windows, ignoring Linux on the other partition, as I figured it would save booting between the two while working with Excel on the same system.

The installation involves simply running the installer program and watching it set up Apache, PHP and the Worksheet Server software; there’s very little requirement for user intervention and no awkward questions that would stump a non-techie.

Being used to setting up PHP/Apache by hand, I was a little suspicious of what I’d find on closer inspection once the installation was complete. I was quickly relieved to discover not only the latest stable releases (e.g. PHP 4.3.6), but a sensible PHP configuration (e.g. register_globals switched off and error_reporting set to E_ALL). Jedox seem to know what they’re doing.

All the standard Windows PHP extensions are available along with additional extensions developed by Jedox in-house. A license file is required to run the Worksheet Server application (simply a matter of copying it to the correct location) and, once that was done, I was able immediately to login to the online «Application Center».

Step two involves installing the WS Excel Designer, which requires an additional license file to work properly. With the file in place, the quick way to do this is to simply start Excel, then open an .xla file that Jedox provides, which adds an extra menu, containing WS Excel Designer tools, for the duration of the session. The smarter route is to use the Excel Add-Ins manager to attach the new menu permanently. Note that Excel 2000 is a minimum requirement.

Overall, installation is very easy and is geared, clearly, for users who aren’t interested in becoming sysadmins.

Instant Application

Following the introductory tutorial, I was impressed by how easy it was to work with WS Excel Designer. It really takes only a few minutes for anyone who has experience with Excel to get a grip on the WS Excel Designer extensions. Generally, the process of building a Worksheet Server application is no different than that of a normal spreadsheet and the added functionality does not intrude on the normal «flow» of spreadsheet creation. Some experience is needed to understand how the spreadsheet will look when it’s finally deployed online, but this is more a question of fine tuning.

With my spreadsheet design in place, it was a simple matter of saving the spreadsheet using WS Excel Designer macro, then switching to a Web browser to upload it.

The «Application Center», which runs on the Web server and is used to upload and deploy applications, has a simple but clean interface, which is generally intuitive to work with. A little more reading of the manual is required to ascertain exactly what the different buttons and menus do, but I never found myself overwhelmed and, with a few clicks, had the application compiled and running.

Heading to the published URL, I first logged in through an administrator account and created a new user to access the application. Logging back in with the new account, I saw my spreadsheet, now running as a live PHP Web application.

I was very impressed by how little time it had taken to get this far.

Look and Feel

The visual design process within Excel translates directly to the generated Web application. In other words, the cell structure of a given Excel worksheet, the formulas and relationships between cells (even across multiple worksheets), the font sizes and colors will all manifest on the Web server.

Worksheet Server even allows you to add charts to the spreadsheet for publication, assuming you use the Excel Chart Wizard or some of the special functions WS Excel Designer provides. Online the charts are rendered with help from JpGraph.

Note that some «quirks» need to be considered, bearing in mind that Excel, as a presentation tool, doesn’t map directly to «HTML + Web browser». Jedox recommend setting the default font as Arial, which is widely supported both across browsers and operating systems, and encourage you to keep font sizes within a particular range, to prevent strange-looking results. They also advise you to keep worksheets to a reasonable page size (both horizontally and vertically), to fit the ergonomics of a Web browser and make the application easy to navigate (who likes intensive scrolling?).

Different «skins» are provided when you compile the application, to allow you to apply general changes to the look and feel (mainly affecting the panels that appear at the top and bottom).

Generally, the Web version is a pretty fair copy of what I was working with in Excel. If you compare each original Excel file online (linked next to each demo) with its demo, you can see how the original design matches the end result.

Navigation

Top level navigation is provided by a panel added to the top and bottom of the display. These provide access to general Worksheet Server functionality. Depending on the application and environment, further functionality, such as downloading the spreadsheet in Excel format, exporting all the data in the application as an XML document or rendering the sheet as a printable PDF, is also available from the top panel.

Modifiable cells in the spreadsheet are displayed as form input text fields, and use JavaScript to control the cursor between enter-key strokes, making cell navigation similar to Excel.

Spreadsheets comprising multiple worksheets are navigable either via a drop down menu or by construction a special menu sheet in Excel. You can see the difference by comparing the Outline Demo with the Basel II Cockpit Demo.

I imagine Excel users should be fairly happy in this environment.

View Source

A comparison of the displays in Firefox and Internet Explorer shows they’re a pretty close match (without obvious accessibility issues).

A glance over the source HTML reveals many tables, which may not please everyone, but this is tabular data, after all. A scattering of upper case tag names suggests a little cleaning up may be needed, and the style attribute is used in many tags.

This does mean you’re pretty much required to modify structure via Excel, rather than applying clever CSS tricks, but, as I mentioned before, Worksheet Server is an active code generator; you’re not meant to modify the end result directly.

Limitations

Not all Excel functionality can be used when building Worksheet Server applications, and these limitations are identified clearly in the Worksheet Server manual.

For example, from Excel’s «Controls» toolbar, only the «listbox», «drop down» and «check box» controls may be used, while embedded images will be ignored (although charts may be added using the Chart Wizard or special functions).

No support is provided for Excel tools such as «Goal Seek» and «Scenarios»; Visual Basic macros are another no-go. The lack of support for Visual Basic may, at first glance, seem like a show-stopper. In practice, Worksheet Server replaces VB with a true multi-user environment backed by PHP when you need to accomplish something unusual. Remember, Worksheet Server is an application design tool, rather than some Excel add-on that blindly exports spreadsheets to HTML. Jedox recommend you start each application with a fresh spreadsheet, and encourage you to plan its design with the specific aim of delivering a Web application.

The only other significant limitation, for those that use it, is matrix functions are not supported.

Otherwise, all the in-built functions that you can embed in an Excel spreadsheet are supported directly online with a PHP function of the same name.

Hierarchical Data

One feature of Worksheet Server that will be new to Excel users is the notion of Report Entities.

Excel is designed to be a single-user application and the way it organises data is really only suitable for use by one person at a time. By contrast, Worksheet Server is geared to a multi-user environment and, to make this possible, it uses a feature called Report Entities. This allows a tree of worksheets to be defined, each generated from the same source spreadsheet, while allowing data to be grouped and aggregated.

The best way to understand how Report Entities work is by looking at the Outline Demo. Once you’re logged in, you’ll notice that a drop down menu is available from the top panel, allowing you to change Reporting Entity to either «Total», «North», «West» or «East». The «North», «West» and «East» regions represent Sales areas in this demo, and regional sales managers would use their respective Report Entity to enter sales data. The «Total» sheet is the top level Reporting Entity and combines the data from each of the child entities. This view would be available to the Chief Sales Executive, allowing him or her to see the big picture of sales and drill down to each region as needed.

Notice how all four Reporting Entities have the same design; all are generated from the same spreadsheet, built in Excel. At the same time, the figure displayed in the top left cell of the Total sheet represents the sum of the same cell in each of the child entities.

To create Reporting Entities, all that’s required is that you define them in the online administration interface for the application, and specify the hierarchy. You can also determine which users have access to which entities; this allows you to restrict your Sales Manager for the «North» region to the relevant entity, for example. What’s impressive about Reporting Entities is that, once they’re defined as a tree, Worksheet Server takes care of all of the rest, automatically calculating the values of cells in top level entities without requiring any modifications to the original design.

Reporting Entities play a big part in making Worksheet Server applications into powerful, multi-user collaboration tools.

The PHP Developer’s View

That gives you an idea of how Worksheet Server looks to an Excel user — but how does it fit with PHP development as a whole?

Mental Olympics

The first conceptual hurdle a PHP developer has to overcome lies in the way data is represented in a worksheet server application. It’s likely that you see a table and immediately think «SQL result set, rendered in a loop», given that a large portion of Web applications are exactly this.

In a typical Worksheet Server application, the HTML table cells are a representation of an Excel spreadsheet. Each cell will typically be either «raw data» — values that were hard coded, entered by users or fetched individually from a database — or «compound data», the result of formulas applied to the «raw data» cells.

Behind the scenes, Worksheet Server stores the data contained in cells in serialized form to the filesystem. It manages file locking to prevent multiple users updating the same value at the same time, and takes the latest data from here each time a page refresh occurs.

The second mental leap required of developers involves understanding that you’re dealing with generated code; you are not intended to modify a Worksheet Server application directly. Instead, you need to use the defined «extension points» Worksheet Server provides, which I’ll discuss in a moment.

Calling PHP Functions from Excel

For simple applications, your involvement as a PHP developer may not be required at all. The WS Excel Designer puts a lot of functionality at the disposal of Excel users — they can even connect to a database, perform a query and embed parts of the result in cells using Excel special functions provided by Worksheet Server.

For example, to insert into a cell within Excel a single username fetched from a MySQL database, the following functions can be used, all of which are provided by Worksheet Server.

In cell A1 of the spreadsheet, you might have the following:

MYSQLINIT('mydatabase','harryf','secret');  

  
Cell: A1

The MYSQLINIT() function takes the connection settings for the database and provides a connection resource with which you can execute queries.

Next, in cell A2, you enter:

MYSQLEXEC(A1,"SELECT * FROM users");  

  
Cell: A2

Notice that the first argument «points» to the cell A1, where MYSQLINIT was used (and where the connection to MySQL was created). The second argument is the query itself.

Finally, in cell D15, for example, you enter:

MYSQLDATA(A2,15,2)  

  
Cell: D15

Here, A2 points to the cell in which the query was performed, ’15’ refers to a row number in the query result set and ‘2’ refers to the column number in the row.

The data fetched by this query is not available to the designer working with Excel. It is only available once application is published online. The Excel functions are translated to their PHP equivalents automatically, making the referenced data available to the users.

Of course, it doesn’t stop with MySQL — Worksheet Server provides similar functionality for the ODBC access to databases, OLAP functionality using a PHP extension the Jedox team developed itself, and very cool SOAP support which looks very much like the MySQL example above but is initialized using a WSDL URL. There are also drawing and graph functions, provided by Jedox, which make up for limitations when using Excel’s native functionality. All this is available to the designer working with Excel and requires no extra effort in PHP.

Out of a Job?

You’re probably asking, «If designers can do so much with Worksheet Server, what’s left for me to do?» Indeed, in basic applications, for which the default Worksheet Server functionality is adequate, there’s little or no need for a PHP developer to get involved.

But of course, software development is never that easy. Someone always comes up with a unique requirement, or there’s some essential data which has to be retrieved from some unsupported source, at which point knowledge of PHP is an essential requirement. What’s more, if PHP is already part of the landscape, why not integrate Worksheet Server applications with existing applications? Enter PHP developer…

The mechanisms Worksheet Server provides for extending its functionality and talking with other PHP applications are both straightforward and powerful. There’s no need to start messing with generated code.

Embrace and Extend

The most basic form of communication between Worksheet Server and other Web applications is via the Hyperlink function, which provides the usual possibilities to pass variables to the «outside» using GET variables in the URL. That may not be too exciting, but it will solve many simple problems, such as being able to link back to a Web interface for the remote data source used to populate a particular cell.

The next mechanism is that, in taking advantage of files, Worksheet Server will attempt to include them automatically, if it can find them.

In the process of responding to a page request, Worksheet Server looks for the scripts before_recalc.inc and after_recalc.inc — these are included, respectively, before and after the contents of the cells are recalculated for the current request (assuming you have created them). Output generated in both of these files will be displayed before the HTML for the worksheet is displayed, but this is not really their intended purpose; instead, they allow you to set up the environment before recalculation occurs, then to respond to the calculation, perhaps updating a database that relies on the result.

Another script that Worksheet Server will attempt to include is userfunc.inc, which is the place to define (or include) your own PHP functions. These will be called for you in accordance with what was placed in the Excel spreadsheet itself, or from calls within before_recalc.inc and after_recalc.inc scripts.

It’s worth being aware that Worksheet Server applications make all cells in a sheet available as global PHP variables, with names like $S1_B2 (which refers to sheet 1, cell B 2). The words «global» and «variables» may set alarm bells ringing, and you will need to be cautious about defining variables of the same name. That said, how often do you find yourself naming a variable $S1_B2? Remember also that register_globals is switched off. Locating the variables in the global scope makes life easy for those adding their own Worksheet Server functionality. It’s likely that some Excel users will begin exploring PHP, out of need or interest, once they start using Worksheet Server.

A Custom Function

An example which illustrates the point can be achieved using the special Excel function, defined by Worksheet Server, called SHOWBUTTON(). This takes three arguments: a value and a name (corresponding to the HTML input tag attributes name and value) and a title that’s displayed as the mouse is moved over the button. It also generates a form button for users to click in the application. Imagine I place the function in a cell within the Excel worksheet as follows:

SHOWBUTTON("Stock Check","doStockCheck","Tell Warehouse to Check Stock")

Once I’ve done this, I can check to see if a user of the application clicked on the button, using after_recalc.inc as follows:

<?php  

if ( isset($_POST['doStockCheck']) ) {  

  
    // Call my own PHP function, defined in userfunc.inc  

    doStockCheck();  

}



  


                       
  

Now, in userfunc.inc, I can define the doStockCheck() function like so:

<?php  

function doStockCheck() {  

  
    // Include our own DB library  

    require_once 'lib/db/db_conn_manager.php';  

  
    // Fetch values from the global cell values  

    $productName = mysql_escape_string( $GLOBALS['S1_D6'] );  

    $requiredQuantity = mysql_escape_string( $GLOBALS['S1_D7'] );  

  
    // Build a query  

    $sql = "INSERT INTO stock_required  

                (name,quantity)  

            VALUES ('$productName','$requiredQuantity');";  

  
    // Insert the data  

    DBC::execute($sql);  

  
}

Here, you can see how the global cell variables might be used. The variables are defined and initialized in generated PHP scripts, complete with relationships between cells (using Worksheet Server’s implementations of Excel functions in PHP).

The functions you implement in the userfunc.inc script can also be «called» directly by naming them in the Excel sheet. In other words, a designer can identify the PHP function name you’ve implemented in a cell while working with the spreadsheet, and it will be executed on the Web server each time the value of the cell is recalculated.

As such, you could regard a Worksheet Server application as a giant «component» and use the functions you define to invoke code in the rest of your «framework», for instance, using your logging library to keep track of Worksheet Server users (note that Worksheet Server already has a native logging mechanism, but you may have a requirement to integrate it with your existing infrastructure).

Coping With Change

One issue that normally concerns me when I’m considering code generation tools is how well my «add on» logic will survive the changes to the generated code.

As already mentioned, Worksheet Server is an active code generator (you shouldn’t mess directly with the PHP in generates). The question is: will functions you’ve added by able to survive changes to the generated code?

My guess is that, in most cases, there’d be no need to alter code you’ve added, so long as the changes to the original spreadsheet a minor.

Of course, if the designer changes the name of a function call they’ve placed in the spreadsheet, it would require modification to its PHP implementation (but hopefully that would be planned in advance).

Otherwise, the only change that could have a significant impact would occur if you moved cells’ locations, so that code that accessed a given cell would no longer point to the correct location. It’s not common for users to move cells in an Excel spreadsheet once an initial structure is in place, so such problems should be infrequent. In the worse case, a simple fix would be to define a usefully named PHP constant that identifies a cell, allowing it to be quickly modified to reflect changes in cell location.

Access Control

As an alternative to its internal access control mechanism, Worksheet Server supports the use of LDAP for authentication. This should fit nicely with existing infrastructure found in medium-to-large organisations.

To switch a Worksheet Server application from its in-built access control system to an LDAP server, all that’s required is that you define a script ldap.inc that contains the functions GetLDAPUsergroups(), providing Worksheet Server with a list of available groups, and CheckLDAPAccount(), which takes a username and password and should return a value that indicates whether or not the user is valid. An additional (optional) spreadsheet function is also available; LDAPDATA() allows you to pass to Worksheet Server further information about a user, such as email address and phone number.

Of course, not everyone uses LDAP and, if you’re placing Worksheet Server applications on an existing Website, it’s likely you’ve already implemented your own security mechanism. The good news is that Worksheet Server doesn’t actually know whether the security data source, used inside the CheckLDAPAccount(), actually was an LDAP server. Instead, you could implement code to check the user against a table in MySQL, for example.

Generated Code

When an application is compiled in the online «Application Center», it creates a directory structure into which the generated PHP source is placed along with HTML templates, log files, serialized data files, user account databases and everything else that’s needed to run the application.

Worksheet Server defines its own file extensions for PHP source code, avoiding the ‘.php’ extension, and organising the scripts by their function. For example, an ‘.xcc’ file contains cell calculations that define the relationships between cells. A snippet of an ‘.xcc’ file for the Quick Demo application is shown below:

<?PHP  

$S2_C7 = $S2_C6+$S2_C5;  

$S2_D7 = $S2_D6+$S2_D5;  

$S2_E7 = $S2_E6+$S2_E5;  

$S2_F7 = $S2_F6+$S2_F5;  

$S2_G5 = SUMxl(ARRAY(1,4,$S2_C5,$S2_D5,$S2_E5,$S2_F5));  

$S2_G6 = SUMxl(ARRAY(1,4,$S2_C6,$S2_D6,$S2_E6,$S2_F6));  

// ...

You can see the global cell variables in use again, a line like $S2_C7 = $S2_C6+$S2_C5; meaning cell C7 is the sum of cells C6 and C5 while $S2_G5 = SUMxl(ARRAY(1,4,$S2_C5,$S2_D5,$S2_E5,$S2_F5)); is the equivalent of placing the Excel function =SUM(C5:G5) in cell G5 of a worksheet.

Other file extensions, such as ‘.xlr’ and ‘.xic’, contain application-wide PHP configuration settings and code to execute when a form post is made, respectively.

Of course, you need worry about none of this, as it’s all generated code, but it’s interesting to see how Worksheet Server is designed. Alongside these files, you can create the before_recalc.inc, after_recalc.inc, userfunc.inc and ldap.inc scripts discussed above, which Worksheet Server looks for automatically, and executes if they’re found.

The PHP source code that powers Worksheet Server is encrypted with Zend’s Encoder; this is, after all, a commercial product. While the PHP hacker in me found it a little frustrating not to be able to see what was happening behind the scenes, I can imagine this has the benefit of forcing developers to use the «interfaces» Worksheet Server provides, rather that falling prey to the temptation of making «just a few small changes».

SUM(A1:A3)

The basic idea behind Worksheet Server — using Excel as a design tool for Web applications — is highly ingenious. It’s the sort of thing developers discuss over coffee: «Wouldn’t it be cool to…». The difference, in Jedox’s case, is that those developers actually went ahead and did it.

Despite a relatively short exposure to Worksheet Server, the impression I got was of a mature software product (the version I was working with was 2.1.x). I didn’t run into any serious bugs or headaches; everything I tried worked as expected. Judging from the type of features Jedox has added to recent releases, the team has established a solid code base and is now able to address «nice-to-have» suggestions from users.

What impressed me most was how quickly powerful applications could be built using this product. Assuming you have experience with Excel, the design process is simply an extension of spreadsheet creation. Adding functionality to a published application using PHP is also straightforward — all the PHP functions are at your disposal.

Worksheet Server has clearly been developed with deep understanding of Excel and how people use it. There’s no «mystery functionality» and the feeling I got was of an application that real people would use.

On a side note, one thing that surprised me was how well PHP fits with the expectations of Excel users, and how closely it parallels Visual Basic when used in Excel. I can imagine advanced Excel users finding PHP an incremental step (rather than a giant leap) when extending Worksheet Server.

What also struck me was how Jedox has built its product on a stack of Open Source software (Apache, PHP, PHP libraries etc.) to deliver a slick, finished product that can be viewed as a whole, rather than as loose collection of parts. What’s more, Worksheet Server combines the power of Excel and PHP to provide the best of both worlds. This combination in itself makes Worksheet Server a unique application and makes a fascinating case study of where future markets may lie for commodity software development.

Of course, Worksheet Server is a commercial product, and looking at the pricing it’s clear this package isn’t meant for the home user. Some, at the more radical end of Open Source, may argue the fundamental «wrongness» of using Open Source as a foundation for commercial product, but the rest of us, who like to eat and have a roof over our heads, realise that money has to come from somewhere. Worksheet Server adds significant value to the Open Source on which it’s built, smoothing rough edges and giving end users a highly finished product. Clearly, there has to be a return on investment; without it, software like Worksheet Server would never happen.

Worksheet Server is also good news for PHP developers, as it brings our favourite platform to users who are likely unaware of its existence, and has the potential to create new job opportunities in industries in which PHP is yet to have an impact.

Ultimately, Worksheet Server brings Excel to the Web. It turns the single user spreadsheet into a dynamic application with full access to the «Enterprise» (databases, Web services, etc.). Companies whose employees rely on Excel as a tool for reporting and manipulating data spend a great deal of time and effort managing collaboration, struggling to merge data from multiple copies of the same sheet, and puzzling over how to get current information from all sorts of corporate data sources. Worksheet Server solves all those problems, leveraging the Web to bring huge advantages to corporate Excel users, and is (as far as I’m aware) the only product of its kind.

What Is Excel Automation?

How to Use Excel Macros to Automate Tasks

How to Use Visual Basic to Do Excel Automation

Visual Basic is more complicated to use than macros because it requires some knowledge of the Basic programming language. When macros are created, Excel saves them as Visual Basic; existing macros can be edited in the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), which is the interface in Excel.

How to Do Excel Automaton without Macros

How to Automate Excel Reports

How to Automate Excel Dashboards

Dashboards can also be automated via any of the available methods. For a dashboard, steps like accessing a source file, copying data from cells in the source file to cells in the dashboard, and updating the date and time are all feasible.

How to Automate Excel Using Visual Basic

You can use Visual Basic to automate tasks in Excel. Visual Basic gives users more control over the steps than do macros; however, users need to have knowledge of the programming language. You can find more information on how to get started with Visual Basic here.

How to Automate Word Documents from Excel

How to Learn Excel Automation

What Are Excel Automation Servers?

How to Use the Excel Object Model in Automation

Other Tasks that Can Be Accomplished via Excel Automation

Connecting Data Across Your Work with Cross-Sheet Formulas in Smartsheet