Excel Live Reports

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Excel Live Report Walkthrough video: Excel Live Report Walkthrough

Excel Live Reports are a refreshable XLS workbook backed by a connection to a query that can be updated from in Excel with a single click.

Found under the Share button in Compose, this feature allows you to unite the Alation query writing and cataloging capabilities with Excel’s formulas and charting to explore data more deeply on your own, or to share results with your colleagues so they’re empowered to be truly self-service when they want the most up-to-date numbers (so your boss who neither knows SQL nor even has a username for the DB can see the latest figures without bothering you)!

To use Excel Live Reports, follow these steps.

Step 1: Open the Query

Go to a query that you would like to publish to the Excel Live Report.

Step 2: Execute the Query

View a preview of your results.

Step 3: Save and Share to Download the Excel Live Report

Save the query then click Share > Download Excel Live Report. Your query will re-execute.

Step 4: Create the Excel Live Report

To create the Excel Live Report, you must first establish a connection to the data source.

In 2022.1 and up:

  1. To learn more about Excel Live Reports, hover over the information icon.

    ../../../_images/ExcelLiveReportConnection_2022-1.png
  2. Click the menu button next to Choose a Connection and select the connection you want the Excel Live Report to use. When you hover over the connection name, you’ll see the connection URI in a popup so you can be sure you’re selecting the right connection.

    Note

    If you want to add or edit connection information, see Working with Data Source Connections.

  3. Click the menu button next to Connect as (Select User) and select the user you want the Excel Live Report to connect with.

  4. Click the Download button.

Before 2022.1:

  1. Set the connection.

  2. Set user database credentials.

  3.  Show test connection to test if the credentials work.

  4. Download the Excel Live Report from there.

Step 5: Open the Excel Live Report

  1. In Excel, click Enable Content:

    ../../../_images/ExcelLiveReports_EnableConnection.png
  2. Navigate to the Data tab and click Refresh All to view results:

    ../../../_images/ExcelLiveReports_RefreshAll.png
  3. Enable data connections in settings.

  4. To open the query in Alation, click the link in the top row of the Excel spreadsheet.

    ../../../_images/ExcelLiveReports_LinkToQuery.png

Step 6: Edit the Query

You can now edit the query in Compose and refresh the results from within Excel.

  1. In Compose, edit and save your linked query.

  2. In Excel, navigate to the Data tab and click Refresh All to update your results in the spreadsheet.