How to: Schedule or Submit a Workbook by using a Custom Web Form

This topic describes how you can calculate Microsoft Office Excel 2007 workbooks immediately, or schedule them for calculation at a later date directly using a custom Web form from a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 document library.

Using the custom Web form, you can schedule Excel 2007 workbooks residing in a SharePoint document library that is a trusted location, for a one-time calculation performed by a Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS) 2003. For example, you can schedule it to perform a long-running calculation after hours so the results can be ready the next day. Also, workbooks can be scheduled for calculation on a recurring basis, for example, for weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports.

In this scenario, the scheduled workbooks are treated as template workbooks. The workbook is opened and the calculations are performed using Excel Services in Office SharePoint Server 2007, but the results of the calculations are not saved to the original workbook. Instead, the results are saved to a new workbook in a SharePoint document library. This allows the workbooks to be used for recurring calculations, saving the latest results to a new file while leaving the original workbook unchanged.

The first step in scheduling an Excel workbook for calculation by a compute cluster is to create an XML job file for this workbook. You create the XML job file by using the Job Submission task pane to submit a scheduled job or an immediate job. After you create the XML job file, you can use it as often as you need.

Submitting a Job by using the SharePoint Web Form

You can schedule a workbook for calculation at a later time by using the custom SharePoint Web form.

To submit a job by using the SharePoint Web form

1. From a SharePoint document library, navigate to the Excel workbook you want to schedule for calculation.

2. Select the drop-down menu for the Excel workbook, and then click Schedule to CCS. This displays the Submit a Job to Compute Cluster Server Web.

   You must complete this Web form to prepare the calculation job for scheduling on the compute cluster.

3. In the Excel Services section (see Figure 1), do the following:

   1. Enter the location of the Xml job file inInput Xml Location. This is the UNC path to the XML job file stored on the compute cluster head node. This value was set in the CCS Working Directory entry in the Configuration tab of the Job Submission task pane.

   2. Select whether the workbook job should be divided evenly amongst the compute nodes, or select and enter an Input Divisor to divide the compute job into smaller tasks. You can find a description of the Input Divisor the "Preparing the Job" section in Job Submission Task Pane Add-in.

   Figure 1. Custom Web form

   

4. In the Schedule section (see Figure 1), enter the Start Date and time, and the End Date and time. For recurring events, enter the Frequency in which to calculate the workbook and the ****.

5. In the Template Configuration section (see Figure 1), do the following:

   1. Enter the Template Location. This is the URL path to the workbook you want to calculate.

   2. Enter the Result Row Start and the Result Column Start. This is the location within the workbook where successive results are stored. These values were set in the Job Submission task pane previously, and should not need to be changed.

   3. To create a header row above the output results in the workbook, select Include Header.

   4. Enter the Output Location. This is the URL path to the new workbook that will contain the results of the calculations.

   5. Select the Location Type.

6. In the Compute Cluster section (see Figure 1), do the following:

   1. Enter the Compute Cluster Name.

   2. Enter the User Name and Password to use to submit the compute job to the compute cluster.

   3. To schedule the workbook for later calculation, click Schedule Job. Or, to submit the workbook for a scheduled calculation that begins immediately, click Submit Job and Display.

      Note

      The Submit Job and Display functionality in the Web form is different from the Job Submission task pane functionality. With the task pane, the calculations are returned to the open workbook in Excel 2007. With Submit Job and Display functionality, the workbook is submitted to the compute cluster immediately, but the results are returned in a new workbook that is stored in the SharePoint document library.

See Also

Concepts

Performing a Parametric Sweep using the Job Submission Sample
Job Submission Task Pane Add-in
Overview of Excel Calculation Services on Compute Cluster Server API
Dependent Technology Overview for the Job Submission Sample
Installing a Compute Cluster for the Job Submission Sample
Manually Installing the Job Submission Sample
Additional Resources