www.sharexxx.net - free books & magazines Beginning Excel ® Services Liviu Asnash Eran Megiddo Craig Thomas 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 3 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 6 Praise for Beginning Excel ® Services “A must read for anyone wanting to learn how Excel Services revolutionizes the world of spreadsheets!” Richard McAniff Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Office “This book will guide you through everything you need to know about the great new func- tionality in Excel Services. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is Microsoft’s platform for business applications. Excel Services provides great new business intelligence functionality and helps users control and manage their spreadsheets. We’re already seeing these tools and services unleashing tremendous creativity in the developer community.” Kurt DelBene Corporate Vice President, Office Business Platform Group “Microsoft Excel’s sophisticated calculation and analysis capabilities, combined with ease of use and programmability, have led to wide deployment in Capital Markets for critical applica- tions such as pricing and risk management. To date, management and auditing, of what can be highly complex linked workbooks, have posed challenges. “Excel Services, part of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, now provides a power- ful solution for management of mission-critical spreadsheet applications by centralizing workbook content and calculations and providing controlled web browser access to Excel applications and data on a client/server basis. “We at HCL technologies see huge take-up of Excel Services in Capital Markets and are making significant investments in developing deployment capabilities. If you want to learn more about Excel Services, you must get this book.” Peter Bennett Principal, Capital Markets, HCL Former CIO of London Stock Exchange “Excel Services is a critical enhancement to the analysis tool that the world knows and loves. This is the definitive book on Excel Services, from the team that dreamed it up and built it.” Bill Baker Distinguished Engineer, General Manager Business Intelligence, Microsoft Corporation 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 1 “A crucial introduction to the most important addition to Office in years.” Avi Bryant Co-CEO, Dabble DB “Microsoft Excel is a critical business tool in most organizations. As our customers use Excel in ever more demanding ways, they have asked the Excel team for a server to enable sharing of spreadsheets, to simplify controlling critical business information, and to provide web- based access to their spreadsheet models. In Office 2007, the Excel team introduced Excel Services — a server-based version of Excel — to meet precisely those needs. “Eran, Liviu, and Craig — the authors of this book — led the development of Excel Services 2007, so they are uniquely qualified to explain what Excel Services is, how to deploy and run it, and how to get the most business benefit from the technology.” David Gainer Group Program Manager, Microsoft Excel “Now, the analysis and models in your spreadsheets can instantly be part of a scalable enterprise-class application. I spent eight years working at Wells Fargo and Ernst & Young, and I have seen hundreds of examples of spreadsheets being used as part of a reccurring business process. Beginning Excel Services clearly and concisely shows you how to use Excel Services to start to automate those spreadsheet-based business processes and thus save sub- stantial amounts of time, effort, and money.” Rod Boothby Senior Director, Solution Marketing, Teqlo Inc. 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 2 Beginning Excel ® Services Liviu Asnash Eran Megiddo Craig Thomas 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 3 Beginning Excel ® Services Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-10489-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the publisher. 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Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 4 To my amazing wife, Nurit, who inspires me in everything I do. You mean everything to me. And to my son, Edan, who reminds me that everything is possible. —Liviu Asnash To my wife, Inbal, for making me laugh when I need it most, and our two beautiful daughters, Yael and Adi, for making me smile every step of the way. You make life fun and wonderful. And to the Maximal team who “make things happen.” —Eran Megiddo To my wife, Mele, and daughters, Emma and Cecelia, for inspiring me each and every day. I’m truly blessed. I love you all very much. —Craig Thomas 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 5 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 6 About the Authors Liviu Asnash is a Principal Development Lead at Microsoft, and currently manages the development of Excel Services (which is part of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007). Asnash has more than 15 years of experience in enterprise-level software development. In the past five years, he has worked on Microsoft Office in areas related to Business Intelligence, Excel, and Excel Services. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was the director of Research and Development at Maximal Innovative Intelligence, a software company that developed data visualization tools for Business Intelligence. Before that, he worked for six years on mission-critical server systems based on UNIX and Oracle technologies. Asnash holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science and an M.B.A. degree. He lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife and son. Eran Megiddo is an entrepreneur at heart and is the Principal Group Program Manager at Microsoft, responsible for the team that defines the functionality and product road map for Excel Services. Megiddo has been designing and developing data analysis software for more than 14 years. Prior to joining Microsoft, he co-founded Maximal Innovative Intelligence, back home in Israel. Maximal developed data visualization and exploration tools that were eventually acquired by Microsoft. The tools were initially released as Microsoft Data Analyzer and are now part of Microsoft Office Excel 2007. The inspiration for Maximal was in student-assessment software developed at Memad Educational Systems, where Megiddo led the software development and product marketing efforts. He began his professional career as an offi- cer in an elite Israeli Military Intelligence unit. Megiddo enjoys spending his free time traveling and hik- ing with his wife and two daughters. He is an avid theatergoer, but on most nights, you will find him in the kitchen, where he enjoys cooking for family and friends. Craig Thomas is a Senior Test Lead who works for Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. For the Office SharePoint Server 2007 release, he is the Release Test Lead for Excel Services. He also leads a team of testers who focus primarily on server performance and reliability. Prior to joining the Office team, he was contributing to shipping Exchange Server 2003 with a focus on leading a test team responsible for the Outlook Web Access component of Exchange. Thomas discovered his technology passions later in life, after an 11-year career as a submariner in the United States Navy. He programmed with C and C++ early on, but now prefers C#, and keeps his coding skills fresh by staying involved with tools develop- ment, authoring test automation scripts, and, of course, writing custom solutions for Excel Services. 104899ffirs.qxd 1/28/07 4:30 PM Page 7 [...]... misconceptions by discussing what Excel Services is not The remaining chapters of this book guide you through installing, setting up, and using Excel Services This book does not cover what is new in Excel 2007, nor does it cover Microsoft Office SharePoint Server broadly The focus is on Excel Services functionality Part I: Overview of Excel Services Figure 1-1 Who Hasn’t Heard of Excel? Excel is by far the most... you will have a firm understanding of the benefits that Excel Services offers end users, how administrators can set up and manage Excel Services, and how developers can leverage Excel Services programmatically This chapter introduces Excel Services It first explains what problems Excel Services was designed to address It then discusses what Excel Services is at a high level, and the key scenarios that... with Excel Services Installation Types Platform Requirements Hardware Software Excel 2007 Client Installing an Evaluation Copy 29 29 30 30 31 32 32 Setup Wizard Configuration Wizard 33 37 After Setup Completes 38 Excel Web Access Excel Web Services 39 42 Summary Chapter 3: Architecture Getting to Know Excel Services Understanding the Architecture 42 45 45 47 Office SharePoint Server Architecture The Excel. .. to Use This Book Read the first two parts of this book to get a good understanding of Excel Services To practice this understanding and to go through the step-by-step instructions in Part III, you need a deployment of Excel 2007 and of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Chapter 2 helps you get started with Excel Services by walking you through deploying an evaluation copy of the server To do this,... Ser vices Chapter 1: Introduction to Excel Services Chapter 2: Getting Started with Excel Services Chapter 3: Architecture 1 Introduction to Excel Ser vices Microsoft Office Excel has existed on the desktop for more than 20 years It is by far the most broadly used spreadsheet tool available And in Microsoft Office 2007, Excel is significantly enhanced In Figure 1-1 , you can see that quite a bit has... Forms Services Business Intelligence Administration 10 11 11 14 15 15 16 20 Five Key Ways to Use Excel Services Distributing Workbooks Through the Browser Controlling and Managing Workbook Distribution Building Business Intelligence Portals and Dashboards Leveraging Workbook Calculation in Custom Solutions Offloading Workbook Calculation to Excel Services Who Is Excel Services For? What Excel Services. .. Is Str uctured The first part of this book, “Overview of Excel Services, ” includes the following chapters: ❑ Chapter 1, “Introduction to Excel Services, ” explains the problems that Excel Services addresses It then discusses what Excel Services is at a high level and what key scenarios are targeted ❑ Chapter 2, “Getting Started with Excel Services, ” walks you through setting up an evaluation version... SharePoint Server that extends Excel to the server, enabling server-based workbook calculations, browser-based access to workbooks, and a web services interface to workbooks As with any new technology, there is a lot to learn, and many questions to answer This book will help you get acquainted with Excel Services The book is intended for people learning about, deploying, and using Excel Services After reading... This Book Covers This book covers the Excel Services functionality that ships as part of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Although it mentions other products (such as Excel 2007 and other features of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007) , explaining those products and features is outside the scope of this book Because this is the first version of the Excel Services technology, the book begins... presented by and calculated in Excel Given how critical Excel is for business and users, it is not surprising that the need for better management, distribution, and incorporation of spreadsheets in larger applications is ever-increasing Excel Services is an exciting new technology being delivered as part of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to address this need Excel Services enables the execution . great new func- tionality in Excel Services. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is Microsoft’s platform for business applications. Excel Services provides. to their spreadsheet models. In Office 2007, the Excel team introduced Excel Services — a server-based version of Excel — to meet precisely those needs.