View-based mode

The view-based mode is optimized for users who must specify data and who prefer to use administrator-built views for reporting.

• Information is delivered to Excel via views, offering a common administrative builder for both web browser and Excel environments.
• The structured layout is defined by the view and optimized for showing contiguous blocks of data.
• View-based mode supports a dynamic environment for end-user navigation: member selection, drilling, pivoting, omit missing, etc.
• There is live read/write access to the underlying database and is available for both reporting and data entry.
• Use view-based mode for reporting on a single slice of data at a time, per view. For example, Income Statement for New York.
• Users can store data, work offline with the current slice of data, refresh individual sheets or the entire workbook on demand, and can set the workbook to refresh on open.
• Color-coded exceptions are driven by the view definition.
• Users have a choice of view-based formatting, Excel-based formatting, or both (via the Preserve Range Properties command).
• New dimension members are automatically inserted into the sheet as defined by the view selections such as member and children, member and descendants, member and siblings.
• Dynamic navigation of sheets is available to a wide range of users, including those with minimal Excel expertise.
• Because pre-built views are provided by the administrator, the user requires less knowledge of the data structure. The administrator can lock down the views and sheets in a variety of ways to control end-user navigation of data, supporting a wide range of fixed vs. ad hoc use.
• An API is available to customize the application.
• Views-based mode can run in supported versions of Excel. A client-side install is required to install the Excel Services view-based add-in program.