Forwarding to appropriate group
"Yee CN" <nospamxx_cn.yee (AT) attic-solutions (DOT) com> wrote

Yes it's possible. However the capability is not built into Excel. You need
to either 1) customize or 2) buy a 3rd party product that supports
writeback. Re option #2, the writeback feature in some of the products is
token at best, not akin to Essbase Excel interface.

public @ the domain below
www.tomchester.net


"Jamie MacLennan (MS)" <jamiemac (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

Thanks - can you tell what news server and which newsgroup it is.

Regards,
Yee

"Jamie MacLennan (MS)" <jamiemac (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

It's OK, I figured it out - stupid me

Regards,
Yee

"Yee CN" <nospamxx_cn.yee (AT) attic-solutions (DOT) com> wrote

Tom

Not being familiar with Essbase, could you explain the Essbase writeback
functionality and why you feel this has not been achieved within the
Microsoft Analysis Services environment. Are you sure that there is
functionality that has not surpassed the Essbase functionality?

Regards
Howard.Taylor@ domain below
www.o2olap.com

"Tom Chester" <publicNOSPAM (AT) tomchester (DOT) net> wrote

The Essbase Excel plug-in is very similar to Excel pivot-table for AS.
However Essbase is a lot looser - in the sense that the cell values
(dimension and cell data) are (re)interpreted when you do a retrieve. The
cells can be overwritten, which means you can corrupt the worksheet quite
easily.

This is how writing back is implemented - you simply write over the retrieve
values then do a postback - and the new values is posted back to the cube -
leaves and non-leaves cells.

I have been scaratching my head on how to do the same with SQL AS!

Regards,
Yee

"Howard Taylor [O2OLAP]" <Howard.Taylor (AT) no (DOT) o2olap.com> wrote

Howard, my comment had more to do with client-side functionality than
server-side. The Essbase Excel UI lets user tab around the spreadsheet
inputting values, then pick a command to update server -- the UI is simply
native Excel, which users tend to like.

From server perspective, AS architecture has pros and cons vs Essbase. On
the pro side, there is no re-processing to do once you writeback, whereas
with Essbase you might have a multi-hour wait. On con side, AS only allows
leaf-level cells to be written whereas Essbase allows any cell to be
written. Of course back in the old days, the Essbase cubes would frequently
corrupt when written to, but hey, why get picky?

public @ the domain below
www.tomchester.net

"Howard Taylor [O2OLAP]" <Howard.Taylor (AT) no (DOT) o2olap.com> wrote

Tom

From you explanation the Essbase functionality has been achieved by O2OLAP,
but has also been extended and possibly improved on how it does it. The only
possible things we have not done is use [Tab] to move around. But, like the
idea, or an extension of this for ease of use for the user.

Re your comment about only inputting at leaf-level cells, this is not the
case as you can input at any cell level but the correct settings have to be
set on each of the dimensions in the cube. Off the top of my head I think
this is the "Members with data" settings where you can make "non-leaf data
visible".

Thanks
Howard.Taylor@ domain below
www.o2olap.com

"Tom Chester" <publicNOSPAM (AT) tomchester (DOT) net> wrote

Yes and no. If you write to a non-leaf cell, AS allocated it to leaves. You
can observe by writing a non-leaf cell then looking at the incremental
writeback table.

public @ the domain below
www.tomchester.net

"Howard Taylor [O2OLAP]" <Howard.Taylor (AT) no (DOT) o2olap.com> wrote

Tom

Yes and no. It also comes down to how your application is handling writeback
and you also have to consider dimension hierarchies and their impact. Anyway
back to some things that cross the rubicon for OLAP reporting, AS and Excel.

Howard.Taylor@ domain below
www.o2olap.com


"Tom Chester" <publicNOSPAM (AT) tomchester (DOT) net> wrote