User guide

Using Excel with Datastream Advance for Office
Page 34 of 38
PROCESSING AND SCHEDULING REQUESTS
You can choose to either process your Request Table straight away or schedule the processing at some date
and time in the future.
To process your Request Table straight away, click the Process Table button. This will launch the DSAPI which
will pass the request details to Datastream in the order that they appear in the list. Requests that fail, for
example the datatype is not suitable for the request, will not prevent the whole batch of requests from being
processed. Only the Status field will be updated for failed requests.
The progress of the update process can be monitored via the DS Access Monitor. You can set
up the DS Access Monitor to be automatically displayed during processing by using the
Configure Communications, accessed by right-clicking the lightning symbol in the system tray. Refer the
Reference chapter of the Datastream User Guide for more details.
To schedule the Request Table for processing out of hours, click the Schedule button. The Request Table
Scheduler dialog is displayed. Enter a date and time in an Excel date format, for example:
You can process the Request Table later TODAY by entering just a time. Click OK to confirm the scheduled date
and time. The Scheduled Update display window in the request table is automatically updated to indicate that
the Request Table has been scheduled.
The message Next Update Scheduled for: DD/MM/YY HH:MM:SS will also appear on the Excel status bar.
Note, you must ensure that Excel is running and the relevant Request Table is open prior to the scheduled date
and time, for the requests to be processed. The destination workbooks do not need to be open as the main table
will open all relevant worksheets provided Display Destination as Excel Formula has been selected for the
relevant requests.
THE AFO INDEX
The AFO Index spreadsheet enables you to schedule several request tables to run at a preset time and date.
These tables are opened, updated, and closed when the AFO Index is run.
Using the AFO index with a 3rd Party scheduler
You can use a 3rd party scheduler to run the requests in the AFO index. For example, Schedule Tasks installed
with Internet Explorer 5.
To use the AFO Index:
Click the Run on startup box and Close down after processing box. This opens the AFO index at the
preset time, runs the requests, and closes the table on completion.
If you want to stop the AFO index from updating the specified request tables after you have opened it, you
have 5 seconds to uncheck the Run on startup box.
Note The AFO Index only works with request tables.