Comments for PowerPivotGeek http://powerpivotgeek.com An adventure in managed self-service computing Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:48:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 Comment on How to manually update your PowerPivot Management Dashboard by kasper de jonge` http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/01/18/how-to-manually-update-your-powerpivot-management-dashboard/comment-page-1/#comment-589 kasper de jonge` Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:48:51 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/01/18/how-to-manually-update-your-powerpivot-management-dashboard/#comment-589 Hi Dave, I'm trying to get my Management dashboard up and running, but somewhere down the line a job fails. I have processed all the jobs you mention in your post, the all report "Last run time: 3/10/2010 10:45 AM". But my Management dashboard reports "Last successful refresh run: 12/1/2009 1:07:49 PM". Any idea where too look? Thanks, Kasper Hi Dave,

I’m trying to get my Management dashboard up and running, but somewhere down the line a job fails. I have processed all the jobs you mention in your post, the all report “Last run time: 3/10/2010 10:45 AM”. But my Management dashboard reports “Last successful refresh run: 12/1/2009 1:07:49 PM”. Any idea where too look?

Thanks,
Kasper

]]> Comment on When is a refresh not a refresh? by powerpivotgeek http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/15/when-is-a-refresh-not-a-refresh/comment-page-1/#comment-587 powerpivotgeek Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:11:25 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/?p=190#comment-587 Great question Ernest. When in Excel Services, if you "refresh the connection" then you are telling Excel Services to go to the PowerPivot SSAS instance and refresh Excel Services view of the embedded data in the workbook. Since the embedded data is a copy of the information pulled into the workbook when the data is imported, this means that you aren't really reaching out to the original data sources, instead you are refreshing the pivot cache inside Excel Services. Normally the data hasn't changed, so there is no real effect. Clicking on a slicer requeries the data but since Excel Services hasn't likely already read the data for that slice, it does change both the workbook data rendered and the pivot cache. To actually refresh the embedded database that lives inside the workbook, you have to use the PowerPivot Data Refresh facility. In that case, we do actually reach out to all of the original data sources (although you can control which source will be used for a given schedule) and we do re-write the actual workbook in SharePoint (a new file is created with update data). Hope that helps. Great question Ernest.
When in Excel Services, if you “refresh the connection” then you are telling Excel Services to go to the PowerPivot SSAS instance and refresh Excel Services view of the embedded data in the workbook. Since the embedded data is a copy of the information pulled into the workbook when the data is imported, this means that you aren’t really reaching out to the original data sources, instead you are refreshing the pivot cache inside Excel Services. Normally the data hasn’t changed, so there is no real effect. Clicking on a slicer requeries the data but since Excel Services hasn’t likely already read the data for that slice, it does change both the workbook data rendered and the pivot cache.

To actually refresh the embedded database that lives inside the workbook, you have to use the PowerPivot Data Refresh facility. In that case, we do actually reach out to all of the original data sources (although you can control which source will be used for a given schedule) and we do re-write the actual workbook in SharePoint (a new file is created with update data).

Hope that helps.

]]> Comment on When is a refresh not a refresh? by Ernest Ostrander http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/15/when-is-a-refresh-not-a-refresh/comment-page-1/#comment-580 Ernest Ostrander Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:57:01 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/?p=190#comment-580 Excellent article. I'm cross-referencing other sources, and in this article, http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/12/11/excel-services-delegation/, it states that clicking on a slicer refreshes the data. How does that relate to the refresh processing in this article? I feel led to believe that merely clicking on a slicer is sufficient to refresh data from the source. Keep up the posts. I'm reading all I can find on PowerPivot! Excellent article. I’m cross-referencing other sources, and in this article, http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/12/11/excel-services-delegation/, it states that clicking on a slicer refreshes the data. How does that relate to the refresh processing in this article? I feel led to believe that merely clicking on a slicer is sufficient to refresh data from the source.

Keep up the posts. I’m reading all I can find on PowerPivot!

]]> Comment on What’s your favorite PowerPivot for SharePoint feature? by powerpivotgeek http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/07/whats-your-favorite-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-feature/comment-page-1/#comment-564 powerpivotgeek Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:03:42 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/07/whats-your-favorite-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-feature/#comment-564 BTW, Dan: You are right, running unlimited versions can be pretty consuming on content db space. However, when you turn versioning on you can limit the number of versions, e.g. you can say, 'only retain the last 3 versions'. Older versions are first moved to your wastebasket and finally deleted when the wastebasket is emptied. Until then older versions can be retreived. Very flexible! BTW, Dan: You are right, running unlimited versions can be pretty consuming on content db space. However, when you turn versioning on you can limit the number of versions, e.g. you can say, ‘only retain the last 3 versions’. Older versions are first moved to your wastebasket and finally deleted when the wastebasket is emptied. Until then older versions can be retreived. Very flexible!

]]> Comment on What’s your favorite PowerPivot for SharePoint feature? by Dan English http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/07/whats-your-favorite-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-feature/comment-page-1/#comment-559 Dan English Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:57:22 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/07/whats-your-favorite-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-feature/#comment-559 Thought of another one. Excel Services! Being able to share the file to others through the thin client without them needing to have Excel 2010 on their desktops. And they can interact with the file. They wouldn't even know that it was an Excel file either with embedded data. Being able to share specific portions of the files and making it available to others in a secure environment is very powerful and slick. Thought of another one. Excel Services! Being able to share the file to others through the thin client without them needing to have Excel 2010 on their desktops. And they can interact with the file. They wouldn’t even know that it was an Excel file either with embedded data. Being able to share specific portions of the files and making it available to others in a secure environment is very powerful and slick.

]]> Comment on What’s your favorite PowerPivot for SharePoint feature? by Dan English http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/07/whats-your-favorite-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-feature/comment-page-1/#comment-558 Dan English Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:40:15 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/07/whats-your-favorite-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-feature/#comment-558 Workflow will definitely be nice for approval processes before the data is allowed to be made public. The data refresh will be nice, but I don't believe that is specific to SharePoint. Versioning will be a nice feature, if people have this turned on for the document library. This could turn into a space issue though... Workflow will definitely be nice for approval processes before the data is allowed to be made public. The data refresh will be nice, but I don’t believe that is specific to SharePoint.

Versioning will be a nice feature, if people have this turned on for the document library. This could turn into a space issue though…

]]> Comment on What’s your favorite PowerPivot for SharePoint feature? by kasper de jonge` http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/07/whats-your-favorite-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-feature/comment-page-1/#comment-557 kasper de jonge` Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:02:46 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/07/whats-your-favorite-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-feature/#comment-557 What about the rendering of a PowerPivot workbook to HTML when calling it from SharePoint. I really love it users don't have to have PowerPivot or even Excel installed to use PowerPivot What about the rendering of a PowerPivot workbook to HTML when calling it from SharePoint. I really love it users don’t have to have PowerPivot or even Excel installed to use PowerPivot

]]> Comment on Why PowerPivot for SharePoint? by Juan Garcia http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/12/02/why-powerpivot-for-sharepoint/comment-page-1/#comment-542 Juan Garcia Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:06:17 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/12/02/why-powerpivot-for-sharepoint/#comment-542 My impression about PowerPivot (that might be wrong) is that this product is just a trap to increase Sahrepoint adoption in enterprises. Aparently the product has no means of taking the data produced by the user to other software/tools. It wold be trivial to provide that through any of the varios apis in .Net, so I presume it is an intentional miss. Incredible as it may seem in the age of openness and user empowrment that we enjoy today, Microsoft resorts to practices of hard locking from the past. Knowledge users should know better! My impression about PowerPivot (that might be wrong) is that this product is just a trap to increase Sahrepoint adoption in enterprises.
Aparently the product has no means of taking the data produced by the user to other software/tools.
It wold be trivial to provide that through any of the varios apis in .Net, so I presume it is an intentional miss.
Incredible as it may seem in the age of openness and user empowrment that we enjoy today, Microsoft resorts to practices of hard locking from the past.
Knowledge users should know better!

]]> Comment on Keeping a workbook ‘pinned’ in memory by Keeping a workbook ‘pinned’ in memory « PowerPivot Twins! http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/02/keeping-a-workbook-pinned-in-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-529 Keeping a workbook ‘pinned’ in memory « PowerPivot Twins! Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:16:27 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/03/02/keeping-a-workbook-pinned-in-memory/#comment-529 [...] Read more… [...] [...] Read more… [...]

]]> Comment on Uninstalling PowerPivot for Excel by Uninstalling PowerPivot for Excel « PowerPivot Twins! http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/02/24/uninstalling-powerpivot-for-excel/comment-page-1/#comment-525 Uninstalling PowerPivot for Excel « PowerPivot Twins! Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:17:05 +0000 http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/02/24/uninstalling-powerpivot-for-excel/#comment-525 [...] Read more… [...] [...] Read more… [...]

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