Quick Topic - Refreshable Web Queries

Transcription

1 Quick Topic - Refreshable Web Queries Unanet would like to thank Max Patin and AEgis Technologies for this Knowledge Center entry, which demonstrates how our customers are maximizing their use of Unanet. Note: this is functionality outside the scope of Unanet and not supported by Unanet Customer Support as it relates to third party tools. Title: Refreshable Web Queries Brief description: Refreshable Web Queries (RWQ) allow you to use default Excel capabilities to capture saved, shared Built-in or Adhoc report content from Unanet as well as incorporate non-unanet data sources (if you so desire) for combined reporting. Data can be refreshed at any time (honoring Unanet password authentication and access controls) without having to re-copy and paste into excel. This will allow users to leverage native Excel capabilities to create combined reports with conditional formatting that can be sorted, filtered and grouped. This can be extremely helpful if you need to combine data from built in Unanet reports into one consolidated report that can be sorted and filtered. Unanet-To-Excel (UTE), an additional option described in detail below, can be utilized to streamline your RWQ reports. What s covered in this document: How to link Unanet reports using Excel web refreshable query functionality Edit the query without repasting General Tips/Troubleshooting Adding Legacy Wizards Additional Options to Streamline Credentials OPTION 1 - UTE OPTION 2 Additional Information Help Docs - Reports Dashboard How to link Unanet reports using Excel web refreshable query functionality Step 1 - Save and run your Unanet report You must save the report prior to creating the web refreshable query. You can use any saved report, however if you are allowing other users access to your excel file, you may want to consider using a Saved Shared report so that they will have access via authentication. Run the desired report, and click on Save Shared Criteria (or just "Save Criteria" if you don't need to share with others) Provide the desired name and click on Save. Add the Shared (or Saved) Report to one of your dashboards. This is required because by doing so, you create a unique URL. Excel requires a unique URL for the RWQ to work. From the dashboard where you saved it, run the Shared (or Saved) Report. You will notice that when you run the saved report, the url will note a report number ( saved report it is. Step 2 - Copy any section of the report ). The report number ( R-User Report, A-Adhoc, S-Shared) denotes what type of It is not necessary to select the entire report. Later during the Import process, excel will ask you what section of the report you want to make part of the query. Step 3 - Paste into Excel using standard Paste functionality Either using right click and selecting copy or ctrl "c", you can copy from the report, then open excel and either right click and select paste or ctrl "v" to add the data to excel. Step 4 - After it has been pasted, you will see a link on the bottom right where you can select "Web Refreshable Query" Click on the icon and then click on the words "Refreshable Web Query":

2 Step 5 - Provide your Unanet credentials (only users who have valid credentials will be able to access your report) Step 6 - Select the section of the report you want to import and press "Import". By clicking on the arrow next to the selection you would like imported, you can pick and choose which Unanet data will be part of your excel workbook.

3 Step 8 - Click on the "Refresh" button on the Data tab in Excel to refresh the report at any time. By clicking on the "Refresh" button in Excel, you can update the data in this excel worksheet (or all worksheets by clicking "Refresh All") at any time. When you do, you will see the "Running background query..." in the bottom left hand side of your screen. Step 9 - Use the data

4 By placing multiple Web Refreshable Queries in one excel workbook, you can now combine data from multiple built in Unanet reports into one consolidated report that can be sorted and filtered. Edit the query without repasting You can edit the query without having to repaste by using Excel's native query edit. Either right click on the spreadsheet and click "Edit Query" as in the first screenshot below, or click on Data/Connections/Properties/Definition/Edit Query as in the second screenshot below.

5 General Tips/Troubleshooting Save each report as separate sheet in Excel Workbook; it will keep expanding data from colliding Avoid using Excel functions on the refreshable data sheet; create a separate sheet as your final view Always select Edit Query first when opening the spreadsheet to save Unanet credentials If you get an error message like ""Your browser is configured to not permit javascript execution from this site. The Unanet application requires the use of javascript to enhance user interaction. Please check your browser settings or contact your administrator, or otherwise saying that your browser is configured to not permit javascript execution, you may try the following 2 solutions: Change your browser settings. This link may be of use to you: Alternatively, open the Excel spreadsheet you saved with the refreshable web query in it. 1. Right click on the spreadsheet and select Edit Query (screenshot in section above). Ensure that you have clicked the yellow box with black arrow to change it to green (as in the screenshot above). 2. On the data tab, hit the Refresh All button. 3. Here is a sample screenshot of the error:

6 Occasionally, updates to the Unanet software will results in changes to reports. An example of these changes may be a report modification to add another column. If this occurs, you may notice the data displaying in your Excel workbook unexpectedly, and you will need to update the RWQ. Legacy Wizards - skip to section below If you get an error like the screenshot below "Invalid managerpath specified", it is likely you have not run the report from it's saved location on a dashboard. Notice how the url does not contain at the end "runfrom=r" or "runfrom=s", which it would if the report had been run from the saved location on a dashboard. Note: RWQ and Excel are functionality outside the scope of Unanet and not supported by Unanet Customer Support as it relates to third party tools. Adding Legacy Wizards If you are not able to use the copy and paste method to get a web query into Excel, you may want to access the Legacy Wizard, From Web. The need for the legacy wizards appeared in a recent update of Excel. It used to be the case that you could go to the Data tab of the Excel Ribbon, then select Get External Data From Web (or something similar), and it would open up the Edit Query dialog box. The newer versions of Excel have a From Web button in the Get & Transform Data section of the Data tab, but it does not bring up the dialog box we need to bring in data from websites that require the type of credential authentication that Unanet requires. Instead, we must access the legacy wizards. To do that, these are the steps: In Excel, go to the File tab in the Excel Ribbon and select Options. Under Options, select Data, and the bottom of the Data section will have a heading that reads Show legacy data import wizards. Select From Web (Legacy) to activate this wizard.

7 After doing so, you will now see the Legacy Wizards option in the Get Data dropdown of the Get & Transform section of the Data tab in the excel ribbon. Screenshot below. Additional Options to Streamline Credentials One aspect of RWQ s is that you need to log in to Unanet via Excel each time you use them. To simplify the login process, you have a couple of additional options here. Note that neither of these options is required for use of RWQ's (If you use neither of the below, you will simply put in your Unanet credentials into Excel each time.) OPTION 1 - UTE Unanet offers a product, an add-in to Microsoft Excel, that utilizes Internet Explorer Automation via VBA and eliminates the need to log in each time. The product is called UTE, Unanet to Excel. The user is prompted with a userform containing username and password text boxes. After submitting that information, the add-in attempts to log in to the Unanet site in a secure manner. The add-in also includes additional features that give the user more control over the refresh process, as well as additional functionality to Excel. Additionally, if a user elects to do so, the username and password can be saved to their registry so that they do not have to enter their credentials each time they open the workbook. This offering is available from our Enterprise Engineering team. For more information, contact your Customer Success manager or consultant. OPTION 2

8 Note that Option 2 is not secure. Appending the username and password (username=xyz&password=zyx) to the URL will prevent the login screen from being required. For example, after following the steps outlined in establishing the RWQ, if you then go to Edit Query and append &username=xyz&password=zyx to the web address displayed in the URL banner and then reselect the table and click import, the new web address with the appended username and password will be saved. When you reopen the file and refresh the RWQ it will populate as normal. This is extremely helpful if you re sharing Excel files with other users. Note that the URL is encrypted once the DNS is resolved, so anything after unan et.com would be encrypted once the TCP connection is established if you are using HTTPS. HTTP on the other hand is NOT encrypted and you would be exposing your username and password to anyone listening in Additional Information Help Docs - Reports Dashboard KC - Push Reports section Note: RWQ and Excel are functionality outside the scope of Unanet and not supported by Unanet Customer Support as it relates to third party tools.