About eight months ago we posted an Xcelsius solution called Export2Excel on the myxclesius.com blog. Thanks to support and comments from the Xcelsius developer community and some serious investigating, it is a pleasure for me to announce that the new Export2Excelv3 for Xcelsius (Tomcat version) is now up and running. Version 3 works with Xcelsius 2008 SP3 and it supports multiple languages. You will find the Export2Excelv3 files at the end of this post.*
For those who are new to Export2Excel, this component allows BI Developers to add export functionality to an Xcelsius dashboard so that end users can then filter results by selecting part of their dashboard. It is a great option for users who want to look at data outside of the predefined dashboard components.
Xcelsius 2008 SP3
When SAP Business Objects released Xcelsius 2008 SP3, we noticed that there was a change in the exported xml string. Xcelsius is now exporting the xml on different lines instead of a single line. Thanks to the help of other contributors we reached a solution that involves reading and converting all the lines. As a result, our new Export2Excelv3 only works with Xcelsius 2008 SP3. If you still have the SP2, please contact us for the v2 file (also with multi-language support).
Export to Multiple Languages
The new Export2Excelv3 can export multiple languages (e.g. Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and languages with special accents such as ö ü ÿ ä ý). We decided to add this to the new version as some of the users were asking about this functionality. In addition we are doing a lot of work in the Middle East so it is interesting for Clariba to have the Arabic characters in case any of our customers are interested.
How to Configure Export2Excelv3
Follow the steps below to configure the Export2Excelv3 solution in your Xcelsius dashboard:
- Download the WAR file (Find the link at the end of this post)
- Copy the ExportToExcelv3.war into your Tomcat webapps folder
- Open the Data Manager
- Add XML connection
- Set the XML Data URL as http://<servername>:<port>/ExportToExcelv3/index.jsp
- Check the “Enable Send” function. This will contain the range of cells that you choose to export.
- Check the “Enable Load” function. Be sure that the Name is URLDummy (as highlighted in red in the screenshot below), and that the Range contains just one cell. This cell is the URL of the exported Excel file.
Note: Add a refresh connection and URL button on the Xcelsius dashboard to open this link.
Clariba Sample Dashboard
At Clariba, we have merged the functionalities of a refresh connection button and a URL button. As a result of this customized functionality, users can open an Excel file and begin their own analysis and comparisons if desired.
You will see the archive rar file for the code below. Just save and rename it to ExportToExcelv3.war and deploy it to your tomcat! If you have any questions or comments about the new version, just let me know.
Download: ExportToExcelv3.rar
* Copyright (C) 2011 Clariba. This free solution can be used, published or redistributed with appropriate credit to Clariba.