PowerPivotGeek » Client

Importing XML data

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:36:18 +0000

So you’ve got a bunch of XML data. How do you get it into PowerPivot? Various ideas:

Import it into Excel using its normal data input capabilities. Once you’ve got the data into a worksheet, you have two options depending on if you are going to modify it later on. If the data is dynamic, i.e. you might change it by-hand later on, then mark the range and convert it into a table. Once you have a table, you can create a linked table with PowerPivot. The advantage is that you can go back and edit the data and PowerPivot will re-import the data on the change. However, a far simplier approach is an option if the data is static and read-only. If this is the case then there is no need to link a table. Once you have the data imported, then just cut-and-paste it directly into PowerPivot – and you’ve got a new table. From here you can create relationships and start integrating the data. The only problem, in both of cases, is that the data cannot be refreshed.
Import the data into SQL Server and from there load it into PowerPivot. In this case the data may be refreshable depending on the format and source. This is a common IT function, typically solved via XML datatypes, and SSIS – so a DBA should be able to help you.
Use SSRS (Reporting Services). Once you have a report on top of the data, then you can export it as a data feed to PowerPivot. So long as the report can render any updated data, this means that the information is fully refreshable by PowerPivot using its automated data refresh facility.

Hope this helps.

_-_-_ Dave

When is the field list not the field list?

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:21:33 +0000

So I am playing around with the PowerPivot add-in constructing a new sample application. I’ve got the data and I am inserting pivot tables in my worksheets. All of a sudden I noticed that the field list isn’t the PowerPivot field list – it is the Excel field list. What happened? (I never did figure it out) – but more importantly how do I get it back?

Trick: In Excel, click on your pivot table data. Most of the time the PowerPivot field list comes back. If that doesn’t then go to the Excel ribbon, select the ‘PowerPivot’ tab, and click on the ‘Field List’ button. Now you should see it.

Enjoy.

_-_-_ Dave

Data from SSAS cubes is imported as a string; not numeric

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:50:37 +0000

So I am playing with importing data from an an SSAS cube. The most distracting issue is that numeric columns are imported as strings, and the default aggregation for strings is Count. Thus when I try to drag & drop measures into Values field, I found that it treated as Count rather than Sum. When I change Count to Sum, following error message is displayed:

“ERROR – CALCULATION ABORTED: MdxScript(Sandbox) (12, 72) The function SUM takes an argument that evaluates to numbers or dates and cannot work with values of type String”.

Bingo – clearly what is happening is that what I think is numeric (i.e. measures), is coming in a strings. What is happening is that during the import process everything comes in as dimension attributes (i.e. as strings). As I quick workaround, in PowerPivot window, I found that I had to do was to convert the column to a numeric data type and it will work.

Cheat sheet: Re-installing the client add-in

powerpivotgeek — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:49:15 +0000

“Help! My PowerPivot for Excel is totally messed up. How do I just reinstall everything?”

I’ve had to do this lots of times as we’ve gone through various beta builds. Here are the steps that I go through to totally clear out the client add-in:

Uninstall the PowerPivot for Excel add-in
Manually delete all the files under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis Services\
If it is an x64 bit box, also C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Analysis services\ folder as well.
Install the PowerPivot for Excel add-in again

Hope this helps.

_-_-_ Dave

Howto: Get more flexibility when importing data from text files

powerpivotgeek — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:06:00 +0000

Updated: 18-Aug-2010

Microsoft does not recommend or support the use of Office applications in a server-side environment (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257757 ). In the case of PowerPivot, the data refresh facility is implemented within an NT Service and, as such, falls under this restriction. In this article we will use the ACE provider to give you more control over importing text files. So long as the importing of data is done using the PowerPivot for Excel add-in, then you in a supported environment. However you should not be refreshing the data on the server as that uses the ACE provider in an unsupported environment.

Question: By default PowerPivot has two limitations when working with text files (using the Office ACE OLE DB provider): (1) will only import data from files with an extension of .txt, .tab, and .csv; and (2) it will only recognize tab, comma, semicolon, space, colon, and vertical bar and column delimiters. Is there a way to change PowerPivot’s configuration so that it will recognize other file extensions or column delimiters?

Answer: Yup — that is a technical term. You can use a schema.ini file in the same directory as the imported text file to specify all kinds of things that aren’t available through the PowerPivot UI, including fixed column rather than delimited text file format. Here’s a web page with the info:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms709353(VS.85).aspx

(Thanks to Ron Pihlgren for this solution. Ron is the PowerPivot client test lead – and his blog is included in my blogroll.)

Enjoy.

What is a “snapshot” when you enable client-side tracing

powerpivotgeek — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:19:34 +0000

In getting ready for a recent internal presentation on PowerPivot, I was asked what this button actually does . . . (see below)

The primary purpose for the settings page is to setup diagnostic tracing. The trace file itself is pretty straightforward, it is the regular SSAS tracing subsystem that we know and love . . . get ready to spin up SQL Profiler to read it. But the most common question that I get is “What is that snapshot thing??”.

The best ‘geek’ answer is the code snippet that generates it:

GetSchemaInformation(connection, "DISCOVER_OBJECT_MEMORY_USAGE");
GetSchemaInformation(connection, "DISCOVER_OBJECT_ACTIVITY");
GetSchemaInformation(connection, "DISCOVER_COMMAND_OBJECTS");
GetSchemaInformation(connection, "DISCOVER_STORAGE_TABLES");
GetSchemaInformation(connection, "DISCOVER_STORAGE_TABLE_COLUMNS");
GetSchemaInformation(connection, "DISCOVER_STORAGE_TABLE_COLUMN_SEGMENTS")

As you can see, what it does is to send a series of XMLA Discover commands to the embedded SSAS engine, listing what objects are being used, how often, and what their sizes are. All of it great info . . .

Enjoy!

Client: What happens if I install the wrong ‘bitness’?

powerpivotgeek — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:07:35 +0000

Recently ran into this situation: Customer installed the wrong PowerPivot bits on their machine. They were running on a 64-bit OS with Office 2010 x64, but installed PowerPivot for Excel 32-bit. Everything installed OK, but when they clicked on the PowerPivot tab in Excel; then the PowerPivot Window they received the following error:

Embedded Analysis Services Engine: Could not open embedded PowerPivot data
Click OK
Embedded Analysis Services Engine: Could not open embedded PowerPivot data
Unable to load the VertiPaq engine (HRESULT 0×0800A03EC)

Solution: Uninstalled PowerPivot for Excel and installed the x64 bit version of PowerPivot. Everything now works.

Interested in PowerPivot and data mining?

powerpivotgeek — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:32:19 +0000

I just had a chance to view some very cool demos on the topic of using PowerPivot and data mining together to solve some interesting business problems.

Go see Mark Tabladillo’s YouTube home page: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarkTabNet# or his web site at: http://www.marktab.net/ (which also has a download of the workbooks he is using in his demo.

And the three demos are here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MarkTabNet#p/a/u/0/oy7RCLJRuGg (Categorization)
http://www.youtube.com/user/MarkTabNet#p/a/u/1/7oNr71Qrox4 (Promotion analysis)
http://www.youtube.com/user/MarkTabNet#p/a/u/2/MgXzU_WSVUo (Marriage scoring)

(Just one geek’ie comment – you will notice that he is using the 32-bit PowerPivot add-in and Excel 32-bit. This is because the data mining add-in is only available in 32-bit so you will hit various memory limits sooner than you would with 64-bit. Forewarned is forearmed.)

And while we are on the subject, here are two interesting blog postings from Kasper de Jonge:
http://www.powerpivotblog.nl/convert-a-excel-pivot-table-to-a-excel-table-use-ssas-data-to-do-data-mining-in-excel
http://www.powerpivotblog.nl/screencast-using-datamining-with-powerpivot-in-excel

Enjoy!

Howto: Hide a table in the PowerPivot field list

powerpivotgeek — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:33:50 +0000

Here is a cute trick for all of you ‘client’ jockeys out there. Sometimes you have a table that you, as a designer, have for some limited uses. Maybe the table exists for establishing relationships, or for intermediate calculations, but not for querying. How can you hide it? Well, it turns out that it is pretty easy to do although it is not intuitive. (Or it wasn’t to me as a server geek) You hide a table from the PowerPivot field list by hiding all fields from it in the PivotTable. In the PowerPivot window, go to the Design Tab | Hide & Unhide | Uncheck ‘Select All’ from the ‘In PivotTable’ column ). That is it, now the table won’t show in the field list (as there are columns to select).

Before you ask, you cannot hide a table from the PowerPivot window in V1. Sorry.
We had to save something for V2.

PowerPivot for Excel add-in is not coming up in Excel

powerpivotgeek — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:23:24 +0000

After installing the PowerPivot for Excel add-in there are various things that you can to do attempt to debug the situation:

First, and I know this sounds dumb, but I have to point it out – you have to be using Excel 2010. PowerPivot does not run under earlier version of Excel.
Next ensure that you have the additional “Shared Features” option checked in your Office install options. We need this for VSTO support.
Next ensure that you have the COM add-ins to see whether it’s checked, if not check and try it again. You might see something like:
Check to see whether or not the PowerPivot for Excel add-in is disabled. If disabled, enable it and try again. Sometimes Excel won’t enable it by default, or you don’t accept the signing when the add-in first comes up after registration. Check whether the add-in is in disabled items list. You might be wondering “Why does Excel disable PowerPivot?” The answer is that if Excel believes that an add-in is interfering with the usage of Excel, it disables the add-in. This could be something as simple as a delay in some startup code, i.e. you hit a network ‘hiccup’ at just the wrong time, or something like that.
If you still cannot get a valid error message, please try this
- Open My Computer Properties
- Click on Advanced Tab
- Click on the Environmental Variable
- Click on New User Variable
- Add VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS with value 0 press OK
- Repair PowerPivot For Excel from add/remove program
- Open Excel again, it will prompt an error message – that might lead you to a better understanding of the problem.

Enjoy!