Dashboard Types: Runtime (no copy to excel) vs. Assembly (copy to excel)

Why does our dashboard, when set to “runtime” in menu maintenance, not provide a “copy to excel” option?

If I take that same dashboard and set it to “assembly” I get the copy to excel button, however it times out when I run too large of a date range (large date range works when set to runtime, but I don’t get the copy to excel button).

Normally, I wouldn’t care about this excel button, but in this case the “Copy All” and later paste into excel really messes up our part descriptions (they get copied in with line breaks and all of the rows are all messed up… the only way for them to get copied in properly is to use the “copy to excel” button)

Thanks.

Copy to Excel only works on screen that are from a DLL (Dashboard Assemblies have been compiled).
As for the performance on Runtime vs Assembly, have you compared the two via a trace to see what causes the performance issue and reported it to support?

Think of “Runtime” as being uncompiled. you can switch back and forth between “run mode” and mode and developer mode (where you can make changes). But every time you run it (refresh the data) it interprets your design and executes it.

“Assembly” is like a compiled version. When you deploy a dashboard, it creates executable code from your desgin. But you can’t eneter dashboard developer mode in an “assembled” dashboar

I have not compared a trace… in fact, I’m not even sure what I’d look at in the log file to compare.

What options in the “tracing options form” should I select so that my log file is not too overwhelming to review? What particular parameters should I be reviewing?

Also, do assembly dashboards have a timeout period separate from the underlying BAQ?

Track changes only at this point. Just clear the log before you click refresh on each screen.

We only do Assembly Dashboards, it allows us to make a Menu, Security ID - set proper Securities to follow SOX Rules etc… Plus we can stay consistent between Customizations as well, if we have to do a Layer.

2 Likes

Agreed. Assembly is better in 99.9% of all situations.

I tried deploying the dashboard and setting it as Dashboard Assembly but the Copy to Excel is grayed out. Any thoughts? Also, any issues if I leave it in Assembly vs. Runtime?

Do you have Excel installed?

Jason Woods
http://LinkedIn.com/in/jasoncwoods

If Excel is your ultimate target and you’re only using the dashboard as a vehicle to get to Excel, any thought of using OData and just import the BAQ into the spreadsheet? It eliminates a lot of steps (starting Epicor, opening the dashboard, running it, copy, and paste) and clicking Refresh updates the data in the sheet.

What is OData and how does that work?

You create a REST call for the BAQ and then go into Excel, Data Tab, Import, and choose OData source, paste the URL into the box and press execute. Lots of examples here if you search the site. Also, I believe the REST documentation goes over it.