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Excel link and db
A client (pref web client) for linking excels and sharing them as database | |
Not what google gives you in first 5 pages under excel db.
Make a smart user interface that can read and store header and data information, by chosing from an existing excel or several excels.
You have the ability to work on data-entry concurrently, (several people at same time) without locking
each other out, with transactions, using access like data entry forms.
You get data-change history (who changed what cell when), version control and most important: you get "paging" where only some of the data is shown at a time.
The only difference between this and any real database, is that some of the information (probably the most important) is stored in viewable excel files, which are what probably started the process.
You won't be allowed to insert excel rows, and if entered manually, mistakes will occur.
Probably best thing to integrate the UI within the excel UI.
Excel Services
http://blogs.msdn.c...5/11/09/490926.aspx
I think what you want is close to "What Excel Services is not", point 2. [jutta, Nov 21 2007]
Presence-AR Adapter for Excel
http://www.shared-s...dvanced_realit.html
I don't think this actually exists anymore - the company doesn't - but it's closer to what you want, right? [jutta, Nov 21 2007]
Wikipedia: List of online spreadsheets
http://en.wikipedia...online_spreadsheets
Their collaborative capabilities will vary, but most will have at least some. [jutta, Nov 21 2007]
The joys of collaborative software...
http://web.okaygo.c...s/letters/flashcom/
[zen_tom, Nov 21 2007]
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When you write "excel", do you mean "spreadsheets"? This is an idea for a shared (multi-user, collaborative) spreadsheet editor? |
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Why would you care how the information is stored, as long as you can access it in the form you want? |
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The change history would be a nice touch. I don't think many current systems do this. |
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"Make a smart user interface..." some jokes are too good to go unnoticed. |
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This exists in the form of databases. |
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Hot editing isn't great though - it's ugly and slow, and can be horribly annoying, and prone to all manner of nasty errors. |
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If it doesn't exist in the form of databases, simply have a database, and point a whole bunch of spreadsheets at it (using a simple ODBC link) and have them all update every 5 seconds (try to block out your ears at this point, as the network admin starts to scream hairy blue-murder). Then, try to change something, and watch as someone else tries to change it back immediately - in fact, I have seen something only mildly less infuriating - I'll try to find a link... |
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The sad thing is, this has been done several times. Its a bad
thing. (google excel site:www.thedailywtf.com) |
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//have a database, and point a whole bunch of spreadsheets at it (using a simple ODBC link)// |
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This approach would be less bad if the database in question were Oracle (or something else that gives you rollback segments? is there anything else?), since it would give you transactional integrity without massive lockup problems. |
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However, the users would need to understand the implications of transactional integrity, and the code around the ODBC link would need to be quite clever about when to trigger a rollback. |
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...and, even if you didn't refresh every five seconds, you would still be doing quite a lot of refreshing. Maybe this could be minimized if code in database triggers pushed incremental refreshes out to the relevant client PCs. |
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[AllCommenters], I'm not talking about collaboration. I'm talking about data entry and reports. You have all this information in excel sheets. Make an Access like program for linking tables etc. but not a PROGRAMMERS environment, rather a USERS environment, with the UNDERLYING DATABSE being the excel sheets. |
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It could actually be implemented *WITH AN ORACLE DATABASE* but thats completely transparent and not seen by the users. They just give the sources of data, taking sections of various (ok Jutta) workbooks in various spreadsheets. Yes Presence-AR '''sounds''' like what I wanna do... |
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And please don't use a relational database as a backend for
a spreadsheet. |
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