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Hooray for Progress!

Great news on the DCXL front! We are moving forward with the Excel add-in and will have something to share with the community this summer.  If you missed it, back in January the DCXL project had an existential crisis: add-in or web-based application? I posted on the subject here and here. We spent a lot of time talking to the community and collating feedback, weighing the pros and cons of each option, and carefully considering how best to proceed with the DCXL project.

And the conclusion we came to… let’s develop both!

Comparing web-based applications and add-ins (aka plug-ins) is really an apples-and-oranges comparison.  How could we discount that a web-based application is yet another piece of software for scientists to learn? Or that an add-in is only useful for Excel spreadsheets running a Windows operating system? Instead, we have chosen to first create an add-in (this was the original intent of the project), then move that functionality to a web-based application that will have more flexibility for the longer term.

The capabilities of the add-in and the web-based application will be similar: we are still aiming to create metadata, check the data file for .csv compatibility, generate a citation, and upload the data set to a data repository.  For a full read of the requirements (updated last week), check out the Requirements page on  this site. The implementation of these requirements might be slightly different, but the goals of the DCXL project will be met in both cases: we will facilitate good data management, data archiving, and data sharing.

It’s true that the DCXL project is running a bit behind schedule, but we believe that it will be possible to create the two prototypes before the end of the summer.  Check back here for updates on our progress.

Fun Uses for Excel

It’s Friday! Better still, it’s Friday afternoon!  To honor all of the hard work we’ve done this week, let’s have some fun with Excel.  Check out these interesting uses for Excel that have nothing to do with your data:

Want to see some silly spreadsheet movies? Here ya go.

Excel Hero: Download .xls files that create nifty optical illusions.  Here’s one of them.

From PCWorld, Fun uses for Excel, including a Web radio player that plays inside your worksheet (click to download the zip file and then select a station), or simulating dice rolls in case of a lack-of-dice emergency during Yatzee.

Mona Lisa never looked so smart.  Want to know more? Check out the YouTube video tutorial or read Creating art with Microsoft Excel from the blog digital inspiration.

Help Wanted: Add-in versus Web Application?

I recently updated this site with a page listing the DCXL Requirements.  These five requirements are the basic feature set and capabilities we would like have for the Excel Add-in that is to be developed in the course of the project.  The engineering team at Microsoft Research checked out our requirements and had a (rather surprising) suggestion: instead of an add-in, they recommended a web-based application.

Add-ins are little pieces of software that you can download to extend the capabilities of a program – in our case, Microsoft Excel.  Synonyms for add-inare plug-in and add-on.  They are downloaded, installed, and then appear within a specific program. An add-in for Excel would appear in the Excel “ribbon”, and would add new features to Excel.

A web-based application is something a bit different. It’s a software system designed to support “machine-to-machine interaction over a network”.  Web applications require the web (shocking, I know) and do not require that you download a program.  Instead, you use an internet connection and the web-based application. Basically, these are web sites that do more than just display information – they do something with the information or files provided by the user, on the user’s behalf. Web sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and SkyDrive are examples of web applications.

So I turn to you, community: what are your thoughts on this?  Make your voice heard!  You can email me directly, comment on the blog below, or come on down to CDL‘s Downtown Oakland office and tell me in person.  But please comment quickly – this decision needs to be made soon.  You can also vote using the quick poll in the sidebar to the right of this post.  We want to know what you think!

To help you formulate intelligent comments, here’s a rough comparison of the two options:

Add-in: The user would download the add-in for use on the current machine. They could perform the above tasks via a new “ribbon” that appears at the top of the Excel window.  They would be able to perform the above tasks on their current spreadsheet.

Web application: The user would go to the website hosting the web application. They would upload (drag-and-drop) a spreadsheet to the site.  They could then perform the above tasks to the spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet could then be downloaded back onto their PC.

And here are the basic capabilities we want, regardless of which of the two options above becomes a reality:

1. Must work for Excel users without the add-in
2. No additional software (other than add-in and Excel) necessary
3. Can be used offline
4. Perform CSV compatibility checks, reporting, and automated fixes
5. Add Metadata to data file
   1. Can use existing metadata as a template
   2. Add-in can automatically generate some of the metadata where the info is available from the file
6. Generate a citation for the data file
7. Deposit data and metadata in a repository

Download the complete requirements as a PDF: DCXL Requirements