Microsoft Excel Update activity

Introduction

A Microsoft Excel Update activity, using its connection, places an object into Microsoft Excel and is intended to be used as a target to consume data in an operation.

Create a Microsoft Excel Update activity

An instance of a Microsoft Excel Update activity is created from a Microsoft Excel connection using its Update activity type.

To create an instance of an activity, drag the activity type to the design canvas or copy the activity type and paste it on the design canvas. For details, see Create an activity instance in Component reuse.

An existing Update activity can be edited from these locations:

• The design canvas (see Component actions menu in Design canvas).
• The project pane's Components tab (see Component actions menu in Project pane Components tab).

Configure a Microsoft Excel Update activity

Follow these steps to configure a Microsoft Excel Update activity:

• Step 1: Enter a name and select an object
  Provide a name for the activity and select an object.

• Step 2: Review the data schemas
  Any request or response schemas are displayed.

Step 1: Enter a name and select an object

In this step, provide a name for the activity and select an object. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Name: Enter a name to identify the activity. The name must be unique for each Microsoft Excel Update activity and must not contain forward slashes / or colons :.

• Select an Object: This section displays objects available in the endpoint.

  • Selected Excel Object: After an object is selected, it is listed here.

  • Search: Enter any column's value into the search box to filter the list of objects. The search is not case-sensitive. If objects are already displayed within the table, the table results are filtered in real time with each keystroke. To reload objects from the endpoint when searching, enter search criteria and then refresh, as described below.

  • Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to reload objects from the endpoint. This may be useful if objects have been added to Microsoft Excel. This action refreshes all metadata used to build the table of objects displayed in the configuration.

  • Selecting an Object: Within the table, click anywhere on a row to select an object. Only one object can be selected. The information available for each object is fetched from the Microsoft Excel endpoint:

    • Name: The object name from the endpoint.

    • Description: The object description from the endpoint.

  Tip

  If the table does not populate with available objects, the connection may not be successful. Ensure you are connected by reopening the connection and retesting the credentials.

• Continue on Error: Select to continue the activity execution if an error is encountered for a dataset in a batch request. If any errors are encountered, they are written to the operation log. The default value is unselected.

• Save & Exit: If enabled, click to save the configuration for this step and close the activity configuration.

• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 2: Review the data schemas

Any request or response schemas are displayed. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Data Schemas: These data schemas are inherited by adjacent transformations and are displayed again during transformation mapping.

  Note

  Data supplied in a transformation takes precedence over the activity configuration.

  Refer to the endpoint documentation for information on the schema nodes and fields.

• Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to regenerate schemas from the endpoint. This action also regenerates a schema in other locations throughout the project where the same schema is referenced, such as in an adjacent transformation.

• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.

• Finished: Click to save the configuration for all steps and close the activity configuration.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Next steps

After configuring a Microsoft Excel Update activity, complete the configuration of the operation by adding and configuring other activities, transformations, or scripts as operation steps. You can also configure the operation settings, which include the ability to chain operations together that are in the same or different workflows.

Menu actions for an activity are accessible from the project pane and the design canvas. For details, see Activity actions menu in Connector basics.

Microsoft Excel Update activities can be used as a target with these operation patterns:

• Transformation pattern
• Two-transformation pattern (as the first or second target)

To use the activity with scripting functions, write the data to a temporary location and then use that temporary location in the scripting function.

When ready, deploy and run the operation and validate behavior by checking the operation logs.