Recently I have started working with Excel Online within the organization I´m working. Currently as a team we are using the online feature of Excel and work together simultaneously in the same sheet. In order to avoid many, daily, actions, I created so-called Flows to either group or ungroup certain data and have less (= group data) or more (= ungroup data). When I discovered the option to automate certain flows (via Power-Automate) I tried making an automated Flow that basically executes on a daily bases one of the Flows (group data) in order to start the day with an organized and neat workfile.
I created the following Flow;
Recurrence:
Interval: 1
Frequency: Day
Run script:
Location: OneDrive for Business
Document Library: OneDrive
File: File location
Script: Script name
Connection in use: Excel Online (Business)
Owner: Myself (both of file and flow)
What I have tried is the following:
When I am just executing the flow manually within Excel Online, it works good. Without
problems. It takes like 20 seconds and never had any issues.
I have played with the settings of the flow to see if it has any impact
(interval, frequency, other location, etc), without succes. After
like 20 minutes of runtime it returns a "Failed error" and the script
does not get executed (Error = BadGateway).
Additionally, I read somewhere online someone who had the same problem and it got solved by
indicating a Timeout limit (tried PT30S,
makes no difference other than the Failed error pops-up sooner).
I checked the subscriptions linked to my account and, amoung others, supposedly I have the
following; "Power Apps for Office 365" & "Power Automate for Office 365" licenses. Reviewing the
"Power Platform Licensing Guide - June 2022 (2)" I am assuming I do have the correct licenses
in order to be able to execute these kind of flows (see below).
However, I cannot seem to make it work. Is there anyone out there experienced with the Power Automate (online) functions within the Office 365 online environment who can identify what problem I am dealing with here and how to solve it?
Related
I am trying to create a data entry "app" to collect daily readings across our site. Here are the three biggest constraints:
Software - ideally, we would use some software within the Microsoft 365 Suite, mainly because those are the only approved apps on site. It may be possible to use open source software, but that might raise some flags in terms of security. So my thoughts are to use either Excel or Access.
Cost - ideally, we do not want purchase any additional software licenses. I would try and create something with Power Apps, but we do not have the licensing for an Azure or SQL server to store the data. I could be missing something here though.
Mobile-Friendly - finally, it needs to work on an Android tablet. Currently, we collect readings using pen and paper. The whole idea of this is to move towards using a tablet.
The easiest approach would be to create an Excel spreadsheet, save it on OneDrive, and edit the spreadsheet. I don't love this option because we are collecting 100's of data points each day. This would end up with a very wide spreadsheet that will be cumbersome to navigate.
The other option I looked into was creating an Access database and accompanying form and storing it on SharePoint. However, it seems Microsoft has stopped supporting Access databases on SharePoint.
I have created data entry forms using VBA, similar to this, but these do not work on mobile.
Is it possible to create a data entry form in Excel that also works on the Android version of Excel? Are there other alternatives I am not thinking of?
I am engaged in just this kind of project also. I have written an app in PowerApps, built an Excel spreadsheet and stored it in OneDrive, and am running it (the app) on an iPad. The design differs somewhat from your description of directly presenting a spreadsheet to the user (which I think PowerApps could do) because I don't want users having direct access to the data.
Edit: You do not need Azure or SQL, unless you are storing tons of data. Excel can be a satisfactory data storage location for modest uses.
I found the learning curve for PowerApps to be quite steep, as it's a different paradigm than line-by-line coding.
I think this is a more user friendly way to collect data than trying to run an Excel form, and once you get it made and polished, you'll look like a pro :)
I am by no means an expert but if you need some tips I'll do what I can to help. It sounds like we are at similar developmental stages.
Is it possible to create a data entry form in Excel that also works on the Android version of Excel? Are there other alternatives I am not thinking of?
Microsoft Forms does the job when created from OneDrive on mobile browser. Side note: the form I just created and the response I submitted have now disappeared from my OneDrive.
I also saw some people using Power Automate to save responses from a form into an Excel file (every reponse).
I have some industrial data that i wish to present in a spotfire dashboard to a client. I want to make the dashboard so that it would update automatically and I have not been able to find a tutorial on Tibco's site or here for how to do this.
It would be great if someone could tell me how to make spotfire look in a particular place (server, desktop, wherever) for a new .csv file, open it and create a defined set of visualizations and then mail a pdf to the client.
I have been through the spotfire automation services manual but I can't find a specific guide to what I need it to do.
All help appreciated.
I went back and read thru the whole question again, including the other person's answer. In order to be able to do what you want to do, you need to have Spotfire Server and Spotfire Automation Services. Automation Services in a product that you have to purchase separately from Spotfire, although it is bundled with the Analyst client.
In your question you said -- It would be great if someone could tell me how to make spotfire look in a particular place (server, desktop, wherever) for a new .csv file, open it and create a defined set of visualizations and then mail a pdf to the client.
I made the assumption that you knew you needed Automation Services to do this. All of my answers have been based around the use of Automation Services. That's the only way to push an email to a user that I know of. After you setup the Automation Services job, you also have to use Active Batch to schedule the Automation Services job, which I noted as part of the original 3 step process.
I want to make the dashboard so that it would update automatically and
I have not been able to find a tutorial on Tibco's site or here for
how to do this.
What you want to do is schedule updates to your linked data. What this will do is re-query the data-source at the specified schedule (once a day, twice an hour, etc) that you specify and cache it on the web server.
Here is the documentation for that.
Schedule Updates
Scheduling updates using Spotfire Server (be sure to navigate down the sub items on the left)
Monitoring Schedule Updates
It would be great if someone could tell me how to make spotfire look
in a particular place (server, desktop, wherever) for a new .csv file,
open it and create a defined set of visualizations and then mail a pdf
to the client.
For this, you still want to use scheudle updates for the first part after you have linked your analysis to your csv file. Your file name will have to remain the same for spotfire to pick it up unless you customize this with some scripting. Once that is complete, you'll want to use Automation Services to complete your mailing a pdf.
Automation Services Tutorial
Automation Services User Manual
Generally speaking, this is a three step process.
1. In the desktop app, create a report (File -- Export -- to PDF -- prepared report. In this step you are creating the export and telling Spotfire specifically what to export. Where to find the report
2. In the desktop app, create the Automation Services Job (Tools -- Automation Services Job Builder). All jobs start with opening the file. Then you create the export. Then send the email. Sample active batch jobe
3. Now, you have to automate the task. This can be done with Windows Task Scheduler or Active Batch.
Those are the high-level steps. There is a lot of syntax and detail in each of the steps, but this should get you started. Please reply with more detailed questions on any one of the steps.
I am running an automated Data job on a windows server that outputs a SAS dataset everyday. On top of this, I have an Excel Report connected via Excel's Local Data Provider.
My problem is, that the Data Connection needs to be manually refreshed by a person with SAS installed on their PC. I have tried writing a piece of SAS code that opens the Excel file on the server and then triggers a piece of VBA that did the refreshing, before closing and saving. This works perfectly if I'm logged into the server. But it doesn't seem to work if nobody's signed in. I believe this has something to do with having an active user session.
UPDATE
The process that I use to connect to a local data source from Excel, looks like this:
Data Connection Wizard
Select SAS Local Data Provider from OLE DB Providers
Add the Route to my SAS Dataset as data source
Select My source table and create a Pivot Report
Is there any way to do something like this?
When you want to run Excel unattended, thus no interactive user is logged on, you can do this with a Windows service. You have to ensure some settings for Excel, as well as it is important how you start excel.
Be aware of Microsoft does not support, or even suggest you to do something like this. Excel is a client software, it is exactly the opposite of a piece of software that is easy to maintain running as as service. Read this excellent article Considerations for server-side Automation of Office about the topic. Even when a little old (talking about Office 2003) it is still state of the art.
Please consider these conditions:
You cannot use the System or Network account, you have to let the windows service running under an account that at least have excel started once. This cannot be done with the named ones (as they cannot be used as interactive users)
Excel has to be opened at least once with the user under with the windows service account will run. You'll have to configure dcom settings, open vba once to initialize it, and most probably set some settings like "trust vba model" to be able to programmatically access Excel
last but not least when starting Excel you have to start it with loading the user profile. The Process.Start method in c# allows exactly that by just setting a boolean value to true.
Doing it like this, Excel should just start fine and update data connection with the VBA.
You may want to implement that windows service in c#, as it is really easy, have a look: Creating a Basic Windows Service in C#.
When using c#, be aware of you have to correctly dispose interop objects, pretty good described in How to properly clean up Excel interop objects
In a previous question (Options for cloud based MS Access backend) one poster, Albert D. Kallal, stated:
"...you could certainly consider to up-size your Access back end tables up to office 365 and continue to use your Access front end. And more amazing is with Access 2010 this means you get a "off line" and disconnected mode. This means that your application will continue to run EVEN WITH NO internet connection. The instant you find a wifi then the data sync process starts again. And this sync is not file based, but record based and is really replication built into the product and this setup requires ZERO extra code on your part."
I am looking for any pointers as to how I may do this. I have found how to export tables into Sharepoint (but from what I can see, there is then no local copy of the tables) and have also found how to convert to a web app - but but I can't seem to find anything about how to keep my current FE, have tables in Office365, and still get the "offline" mode whereby I can still access local copies of the BE tables when I have no internet access, as posted by Albert.
Any help, or links to appropriate content, would be appreciated
Please note I am relatively advanced when it comes to Access, but am totally new to Sharepoint/Office365.
In our call center we use Excel VBA to extract integrated data through Avaya CMS supervisor. We have been using the same code for years.
One of our supervisors cannot run the report with her windows NT login. She receives the OLE timeout error when attempting. Every other user can run the report if they attempt to use their NT at the same computer.
We don't have anyone who knows VBA or Avaya well enough to troubleshoot (a temp was hired to code). I am intermediate level at best and find nothing wrong with the logic - as I said earlier it runs fine for me.
When I asked our dedicated IT department if this could be a user profile issue they informed me all supervisors have the same "cookie cutter" profile given to them. They state it has to be an issue with the VBA code.
Is there any other troubleshooting methods I can attempt at this point? Besides user permissions with Avaya and the code itself is there anything else that could interfere with VBA? Thanks in advance
It's possible that it could be an issue with the User Account Control (UAC), if that supervisor has it set on a higher level than others. When the UAC is turned on, it restricts what you can do in VBA. To check the UAC level, open the control panel, then 'User Accounts', 'Change User Account Control settings'
One alternative to using Excel VBA to extracting data is to use a web browser based reporting tool with full permission controls that exports regularly to Excel. NetLert's N-Focus Plus reporting tool can do that - it pulls data from CMS, stores it to a database on a server (as a result, you can store unlimited historical interval data), lets you set up any number of permissions for unlimited 'supervisors' so they only see their data or their groups' data, and they can export reports to excel or set up their own automatic daily/weekly/monthly report distribution. It also ties multiple CMS servers together in a single web-based interface, and does real-time and historical reporting... check it out at http://www.netlert.com/nfocus_video_overview.php