How to Create an SOA Express for Excel Workbook
Simply drag–and–drop Web services directly into Excel
spreadsheets – no programming required!
The following steps will show you how to start integrating a new Web service
into SOA Express for Excel:
- Once Excel has launched, open a new workbook and you will
notice a new item has been added to your Excel toolbar: “StrikeIron”.
To begin click-on the Web Services Setup menu item under StrikeIron to
open the Web Service Definitions dialog box.
- (Optional) To check your internet connection, click on
Test Internet Connection under the StrikeIron Marketplace menu. If you
are working behind a proxy server, please see your System Administrator for
the proxy settings.
- In the Web Service Definitions dialog click
New and the Select a new Web service dialog box will open. There
are three ways to select a new Web service to be defined for this workbook.
The first is if you already know the WSDL URL location, the second is to do a
search in the StrikeIron Marketplace, and the third is to do a search in an
internal UDDI.
- If you know the WSDL URL location: Enter the WSDL location in the
<enter location WSDL here> box. In the <enter friendly
name here> box, enter a name that you would like to use to identify
this Web service. Make sure it is unique. This is helpful because a
lot of Web services use similar service names. Please note that “friendly
names” may not contain special characters such as commas, dashes, etc.
Click OK. The Web service will appear in the listing for
“Web services defined in this workbook” section of the StrikeIron SOA
Express for Excel Web Services Definition dialog box.
- If you do not know the WSDL URL location or you are interested in
finding out what Web services may be available to use you can do a search.
You may search either the StrikeIron Marketplace or you may perform a UDDI
(Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) search. Users who take
advantage of the StrikeIron Marketplace get access to the rich set of
functionality and instant data access of the StrikeIron Marketplace Web
Services and can take advantage of more flexible choices of protocols,
simplified sign-on, simplified billing and accounting, flexible pricing
alternatives, and integrated tools and services to accelerate their
utilization.
For StrikeIron Marketplace searches, select the radio
button ”Show StrikeIron Marketplace Web Service”. The Web services
available in the StrikeIron Marketplace will be displayed below. Highlight
the Web service you want. The service name will automatically appear in the
<enter friendly name here> box and the WSDL location in the
<enter location WSDL here> box.
For UDDI searches,
enter a search term in the <enter search term here> box and you
may enter the location of any UDDI registry that you have access to. Once
you have defined the UDDI URL and entered a search term, SOA Express will
search the UDDI and display the Web services that match that search.
By pressing the Options button next to the UDDI search’s input
field, you are provided the opportunity to set parameters for a more
detailed search. Your Search Options may be set to search by Exact
Name, and/or may be Case Sensitive. The Search Type may be set to
search by Business Name, by Service Name, or by Web service
Operation. You may enter the location of any UDDI registry that you have
access to.
How you set these search options, are saved for all
future UDDI searches until otherwise changed.
After setting your
search parameters, press the Search button. The results will be displayed
below. Highlight the Web service you want. The service name will
automatically appear in the <enter friendly name here> box and
the WSDL location in the <enter location WSDL here> box.
Important: You can accept the name shown or change it to a
different friendly name. Modifying or changing the name may be helpful
because a lot of Web services use similar service names. Modifying the name
does not affect the actual service name. Having a unique name will also be
important if you want to use multiple operations from the same Web service.
See the Help section on how to use multiple operations from the same Web
service.
Click Select. The Web service will appear in the
listing for “Web services defined in this workbook” section of the Web
service Definitions dialog box.
- Refresh Order - When you refresh the data in a
workbook or spreadsheet, the selected Web service is called and the up-to-date
data is returned to the workbook. The order in which data from multiple Web
services existing in the same workbook is refreshed, is set on the
StrikeIron SOA Express for Excel Web Services Definition dialog box.
Simply select the desired Web service and use the up and down arrow
keys to the left of the list box in order to move that service up or down
the order sequence. This same order will be reflected in the Excel Menu:
StrikeIron --> Refresh Web Service Data --> Refresh All, Web
service 1, Web service 2, etc.
- In the Web Service Definitions dialog, highlight the
Web service you want to work with. Then select Edit to open a menu that allows
you to set Web Service Operation, Options, Set Input, and Set
Output.
Important: The Input and Output dialog boxes are
where you drag and drop operations to the spreadsheet.
- The Operation tab at the top of the window is
selected by default. If the tab is not selected, please select the
Operation tab, and then select the Service and Operation you wish to
invoke from the drop down menus. This is important because Web services may
have more than one Service and Operations.
Important: In this
version of StrikeIron SOA Express for Excel you work with one operation at
time allowing you to change the behavior for each operation and then drag and
drop the input and output fields into the spreadsheet. See the Help section on
how to work with multiple operations of the same Web service.
- Select the Options tab if you wish to adjust
settings pertaining to whether fields only or fields and labels are
automatically copied to the spreadsheet, selecting cell color for alternating
rows, refresh data on recalculation, refresh on startup, refresh on a
timed interval, save the WSDL for working offline, change the WSDL endpoint
location, and enabling the Invisible Link option which clears all the output
fields when the workbook is saved.
- Select the Set Input tab to display an Input tree
with the Input Operations listed. Drag and release the desired Input fields to
the desired location in your spreadsheet. The individual fields will be copied
based on your settings in the Options tab- fill settings.
- Select Set Output to display an Output tree with the
Output Fields listed. Drag and release the desired Output fields to the
desired location on your spreadsheet. The individual fields will be copied
based on your settings in the Options tab- fill settings.
- Enter the desired values for each of the Input fields.
Either on the StrikeIron menu or by right clicking within the workbook,
select Refresh Web Service Data, and the corresponding Web service
name. The output data will be displayed in the Output fields on the
spreadsheet.
You have the option to Refresh a single Web
service at a time, or you may Refresh All. If you have disabled a Web
service, the Web service will be unable to Refresh and will appear as “grayed
out” in the drop down list. If you wish to enable a previously disabled Web
service, go to the Web Service Definitions dialog, highlight the Web service
and enable the Web service.
A Function key has also been designed to
Refresh All Web services - press the Control (Ctrl) plus the Q
key (Ctrl-Q).
If you have selected the Refresh data time
interval under the Options tab in the Edit dialog box, you will not need to
select anything in the “Refresh Web service Data” in the StrikeIron
menu.
Important: The most often reason a Web services fails is
because it requires authentication (UserID or Password) or the input string
was not put in correctly. Please check to make sure this was done correctly.
- Once the fields are displayed on your spreadsheet you may
move them within your spreadsheet by using Excel formatting standards.
- Close the dialog box and save the workbook as a
normal Excel file.
For more information please see the SOA Express for Excel
User Guide.
|
|
|