Question

We have a web-based product that is used for project management and planning. Each ‘project’ in the tool is accessible to ‘all members’ of that project.

Now, prior to the existence of this product a lot of work was done/managed using spreadsheets and it wasn’t visible to all, so to speak – there was a need to have the core functionality/data be visible to all and also have the capability of exporting to excel when the need be (i.e., when presenting for a report or submitting to the higher ups or when not having access to the web-based system etc).

So we are now designing the upcoming version of the product to make it ‘social’ so that everyone can see what’s going on and manage/plan as you go along. The question is what’s the best strategy we can employ to prevent from duplicating what excel already does a fine job at, on the web based system.

So here’s what we came up with:

1. Duplicate the functionality – i.e., have a table-based matrix-like structure for the content and have javascript calculate the results which could be committed to the server when the user says so (or after some time-out. Latter could be added later 🙂
2. Just use the front-end for the data-collection but no numerical calculation – have everything exported into an excel sheet that would do the calculations for you. However, knowing the calculations/numbers is critical for the visible to all part since that’s what drives the management/planning effort!
3. Have some sort of web-based excel plugin that could speed up the development effort – effectively help us do the calculations and pull out the results to be used in the web-app. The problem is I don’t know of any solutions like this out there! Any help/pointers/links would be greatly appreciated.

The pain points are keeping developmental time/costs low – each solution is progressively cheaper so to speak. Basically we have the need for a ‘math-engine’ like design, where the numbers are entered, the results are calculated and we can use that for the project (in the tool). There has to be some way of getting the numbers from the users, calculating the end results/scores and updating the content on the web-app. Exporting to excel (that would have the similar functionality would be required for the above mentioned reasons as well as doing further sensitivity analysis by yourself, so to speak).

What’s the best way to approach this problem? We are open to Javascript/Jquery solutions or CSS3/HTML 5. No Flash or Flex though.

Answer 1

I believe you can use the Microsoft Office Excel Web App for this (#3).

Here is a link an example of embedding an Excel Web App. However, I’m not sure of the environment you are developing nor of the costs of getting this Web App, but it may be an option for you.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/embed-an-excel-spreadsheet-on-a-web-page-FX102602477.aspx