2 Using Excel Templates

By the end of this section you will be able to associate an Excel template with a view.

First, specify the location of excel templates.

1. In the repository browser, scroll to the bottom of the list and open System Configuration.
2. Expand the System Directories section.
3. Make a note of directory specified in the Template Location, which is set to something like /opt/phixflow/excelTemplates.

You will now use a template from this directory to format one of the views you created:

1. Open the model Dashboards and Forms 01-08: Views, filters and dashboards in the workspace.

    How?

   Either, in the repository browser right-click on the model name and select  Display.

   Or, in the repository browser double-click on the model name to open its settings. Then, in the settings toolbar, click  Display.
   If you cannot see any icons at the top of the settings tab, click  More Toolbar Options. The toolbar options that do not fit on the toolbar, are listed here.

2. In the model, click on the icon for the Overall Debt Levels stream to open its properties.

3. In the stream properties → Views section, double-click on Overall Debt Levels to open the stream view properties.
4. In the stream view properties → Advanced section → Excel Template box, enter debtOverview.xls, then click  OK.

5. The debtOverview.xls template is stored on the PhixFlow server but you can have a look at copy.

   1. Download train.zip and extract the contents to a folder on your computer (indicated as <path> in the following instructions).
   2. Open <path>\train\excelTemplates\debtOverview.xls. The file opens with one worksheet, called Formatted Data, which shows how the data will be formatted.
   3. If the file is protected, enable editing.
   4. There is a another, hidden worksheet. To view it, right-click on Formatted Data and select Unhide.

   5. The Excel file now has a tab called Basic Data. This worksheet is blank ready for PhixFlow to populate it with data. Once the first sheet is populated, you can use the data in other sheets.

      When PhixFlow exports data to Excel, it always writes the data to the first worksheet

6. Open the stream view Overall Debt Levels and export the data to Excel. How??
7. You will see the exported data from PhixFlow in the first worksheet and the formatted output on the second worksheet.