Use Excel Integration Overview

Excel Integration is the ability, at the framework level, to enable end-users to import data from Excel into DSP® pages.  Since this feature exists at the framework level, it can be applied to any page in any application in the DSP with the determination of the integration happening when the page is designed by the page Designer.

End-users of DSP application pages that need to import data from Excel into DSP pages will utilize Excel Integration.  It is targeted mainly at users of Data Construction pages and custom applications pages deployed at Customer sites by page designers. The page designers create pages for use by business users, SMEs, and other data contributors. Oftentimes, data contributors enter data in Excel and want to upload that data into the DSP.  The Excel Integration feature allows these users to work in this paradigm.

Excel Integration is necessary because data contributors at our customer sites have communicated a need to quickly take data from Excel and get it into the DSP.  The feature facilitates this workflow in a user friendly way that guides the user through the process of importing from Excel.  The feature is designed to be used by and intended for end-users without any technical knowledge.

To use Excel Integration:

Auto-inclusion of drill criteria

Excel Integration honors the binding and drill criteria on a page. When Excel Integration is used on a child page, the columns coming from the parent page are automatically set when the data is imported from Excel to the child page.

For example, a user accesses a parent page called Categories and selects a Category ID of Entertainment. The child page, Products, displays a list of products included in the Entertainment category.

The user downloads an Excel template from the Products page. The template includes the Category ID column.

When the user imports the Excel spreadsheet into the Products page, a warning displays stating that any values entered in the spreadsheet for the Category ID field will be replaced with the value Entertainment, (the binding criteria passed from the parent page, Categories).