A Microsoft Excel Interface can be installed on Visual KPI Server or on any machine that is available to the Visual KPI Server via HTTP. If the interface is being installed on a machine other than the Visual KPI Server, you need to first install the Visual KPI Server Manager.

During the interface install, use the Back button to move to a previous page in the installation wizard, or use the Cancel button to cancel the installation process.

Note: Install the Access Database Engine for the correct driver (2007, 2010, and 2013, 32 or 64 bit).

Open Visual KPI Server Manager.
Expand the Web Sites folder. If you have multiple websites defined on your system, they are displayed here. Expand the website in which you want to install the interface. Continue expanding the website hierarchy until Interfaces is selected.
Right-click Interfaces and select Install New Visual KPI Interface/Excel Interface. The Interface Setup Wizard opens.
Click Next to continue. The License Agreement page displays.
Select the I accept the terms of the license agreement option and click Next to continue. The Excel Interface Name page displays.
Accept the Excel Interface Name, or change it to meet your requirements. The Excel Interface Name is used to set the defaults for the Installation Path and Virtual Directory Name during this installation.
Click Next to continue. The Installation Path page displays.
Accept the default installation path, or change it to meet your requirements.
Click Next to continue. The Connection String page displays.
Update the Connect String to meet your requirements. You can use the drop-down list to select sample connect strings, which you can then modify. For example connect strings, see Using Connect Strings with the Excel Interfaces
You can opt to verify the connection before proceeding.
Click Next to continue. The Ready to Install page displays.
Click Next to install the interface. The Finish page displays.
Click Finish to close the Setup Wizard. The newly installed interface displays in the Interfaces folder.
Select the newly installed interface in the left pane.

The installation of the Excel interface is now complete.

Configure a Microsoft Excel Interface

If you need to change the configuration settings for your Microsoft Excel Interface after it has already been installed, use Visual KPI Server Manager.

Expand the Web Sites folder. Expand the website that includes the interface to be configured.
Under the Interfaces folder, select the Excel interface to be configured. The detail pane displays the interface’s current configuration.
Mouse over a setting to display a tooltip with the current configuration for that setting, if the value is not already displayed in its entirety.

Modify Settings

You can modify any of the configuration settings that are not grayed out.

To make changes to Log Name and Connect String, double-click the setting name to select the setting’s value, or click in the setting’s cell, and enter the new value. For example connect strings, see Using Connect Strings with the Interfaces
To make changes to Get Current Data Query, Get Trend Data Query or Get Historical Value Query, click in the cell and enter the new query, or click the down arrow to open a larger text entry field. Press the Enter key to start a new line. Press Ctrl + Enter to close the field and accept the text you have entered.
To make changes to the Log Level, select an appropriate level from the list. You can select Errors Only, Moderate or Full. See Configure the Error Logging Level
After making any required changes, click Apply to save changes. Ensure the connection is working correctly.

Verify a Microsoft Excel Interface Connection

Once you have installed and configured the Microsoft Excel interface, you should verify the interface is able to connect to the database. Use Visual KPI Server Manager to verify the connection.

Expand the Web Sites folder. Expand the website that includes the interface to be verified.
Right-click the Microsoft Excel interface and select Verify Connection. A message displays indicating the connection was successful, or if the connection failed, a message displays indicating the failure:
Click OK in the message.
If there were any errors, make the required changes to the Connect String and/or Queries and repeat the verification.

Note: Verifying the connection does not ensure proper security has been implemented. To ensure you can access the data within the database, you should test the connection.

Test a Microsoft Excel Interface Connection

Once you have verified the Microsoft Excel interface connection, you should test the connection to ensure you can access the data within the database. Use Visual KPI Server Manager to test the connection.

Expand the Web Sites folder. Expand the website that includes the interface to be tested.
Right-click the Excel interface and select Browse. Your browser opens and displays the Excel Interface Web Service page.
Click any of the Test links.
In the Lookup field, enter a valid lookup name (Column headings separated by | between each column name) and click the Invoke button. A new instance of your browser opens.
Look for the “<NewDataSet xmlns=””>” entry. Within this entry are the results of the test. If the connection and security settings are valid, a value is returned. Otherwise, an error is displayed as the value.
If there are any errors, make the required changes to the Connect String and/or Queries and repeat the test.